Pride organizations across America are facing a coordinated and escalating backlash, squeezed by political hostility toward LGBTQ+ people, corporate retreat from DEI commitments, and shrinking public funding. Facing this reality, many Pride organizers have dramatically scaled back what festivals and celebrations look like. Others have shut down their events and organizing bodies altogether as our federal government dismantles DEI.
Washington, D.C.'s Capital Pride Alliance (CPA) is no exception, and here, the pressure is about to get more acute. The fees charged by D.C. government agencies that support major events like Capital Pride have increased dramatically. If these costs are fully passed on to nonprofit organizations like CPA, events like ours, which are a major economic engine for both D.C. and the region, will no longer be able to function.
Yeah, I live in a progressive city and when the corporations pulled out of pride events, honestly it was kind of a positive to the whole vibe, but it definitely cut down on funding, but a ton of local organizations more than made up for it.
Now the city decided that the parade interrupted the bus system too much and started putting a ton of police at every few intersections to stop the parade and let busses through. So more cops and slower parade. Just more tactics to try to reduce participation, but the streets are still usually pretty full of people.
Fellow LGBTQ+, allies, whatever, as long as you’re not going to assault or murder us, you’re all welcome to most events. Check out how awesome we all are and how really we are just ordinary people with some different feelings when it comes to some things that have no effect on others whatsoever and just want to survive without being beaten and hunted.