In 2025, taking place alongside Washington D.C.’s Capital Pride events starting in late May will be WorldPride, an internationally celebrated series of events highlighting LGBTQ+ communities that work in conjunction with locally recognized Pride festival events.This year, WorldPride will be celebrating 25 years of existence, along with Capital Pride hitting its own milestone of 50 years, turning the intertwining happenings into a super series of events spilling outside the confines of Pride month. For an indepth look at everything WorldPride has to offer, visit their site on the internet at https://worldpridedc.org/.
While it is hard to imagine in the United States’ current political and cultural landscape how the city was chosen to host the world-over recognized set of events, the history preceding Capital Pride has much to do with that decision.
Let’s go back to the beginning. In June of 1970, a year after the riots erupted at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in New York City, four cities would hold some of the first pride marches ever recorded in a somewhat official capacity; Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and, of course, NYC. New York City would first dub the marches in recognition of “Christopher Street Liberation Day,” in honor of the area Stonewall and its subsequent protests happened all around that street.
Fred Sargeant, one of the organizers of those events, voiced that the first gatherings were more in line with protests than celebrations, but that the one of the main points was to remind people that LGBTQ+ communities mattered.
Following the Stonewall Riots and the first Pride Marches and rallies, other cities started to also adopt similar big events in their towns and cities, including Washington, D.C. What was “Christopher Street Liberation Day” would slowly transform into other iterations in the nation’s capital. The first event that would become known as Capital Pride was founded as Gay Pride Day, dedicating time and space in the city to also include block parties and street festivals, in addition to the marches.
The years proceeding D.C.’s first events would expand to include a more definitive recognition of women (Gay and Lesbian Pride Day, 1981), the African American gay community (Black Lesbian and Gay Pride Day. May 25, 1991), queer people of younger ages (Youth Pride Day, 1997) and transgender individuals (Trans Pride, 2007). Eventually, given the growth of representation among the LGBTQ+ community, along with the crowds it inspires to make the pilgrimage to D.C. each year, the city’s events spread outside of June, making the destination a go-to spot in celebrating all things Pride.
D.C.’s inclusion into the structures of WorldPride will mark the second time the international Pride event will take place in the United States. Previously it was held in NYC in 2019, connecting it with Stonewall’s 50th anniversary. That year’s event, given the estimated five million people that attended celebrations held throughout Manhattan at the time, was recognized as the largest Pride event ever held. Given D.C.’s own history with Pride events, there could be a similar record-breaking this year.
The only possible obstacle is the shadow cast by Donald Trump and his administration.
Earlier this year, after Trump’s inauguration, the promised crackdown on DEI initiatives threatened during the Republicans came to pass at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In February, Trump abruptly fired several members of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees in February and filled each empty seat with loyalists, but not before making himself chairman. The president had written in a Truth Social post at the time, “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth. THIS WILL STOP.”
In response, performers that had dates at the Kennedy Center would go on to drop them, while the center itself would cancel others that did not fit with Trump’s vision for the venue. The WorldPride events scheduled at the center were among those that got the ax. The affected events include an International Pride Orchestra concert, a performance by the DC Gay Men’s Chorus, a drag story hour and Pride-related art exhibits, including one featuring panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, a group that is one of the main organizers of WorldPride, had described Trump’s ravings about the Pride-centric events as the “writing on the wall” that had prompted his group to move the gatherings it planned to host at the Kennedy Center elsewhere.
“The Kennedy Center, as an arts and cultural institution, this is a type of space that has been a safe haven for our communities from the dawn of time,” Bos said, speaking with NBC News and also adding that Trump’s message “goes counter to what Pride is about.”
While the Kennedy Center events will not be taking place at the original venue, the silver lining is that attendees to this year’s super event won’t have to travel too far to still attend the various happenings.
Much of the WorldPride group’s programming will instead take place in downtown Washington, while one of the major music events of the festival, the International Pride Orchestra’s Pride Celebration concert, will be taking place at Strathmore, a concert venue in Bethesda, Maryland on June 5.
While admitting that the orchestra’s members were “heartbroken” when they realized they would not be able to perform at the Kennedy Center during World Pride, Michael Roest, the founding artistic director of the International Pride Orchestra, was thankful for Strathmore’s outreach to save the concert. Roest wrote in a statement, “Their willingness to host our Pride Celebration Concert ensures that our message of love, pride, and resilience will be heard on the doorstep of the nation’s capital.”
Capital Pride’s Bos echoed Roest, emphasizing the importance of moving forward with plans for World Pride, especially as Washington celebrates 50 years of hosting annual Pride celebrations. “WorldPride is not canceled,” Bos said. “Every year WorldPride is important, but this year there’s a very strong historic moment that we must meet … to ensure our community is not scared back into the closet.”
With the shocking speed of which Trump’s administration is dismantling many government protections and institutional progressions that brought quality of life to LGBTQ+ communities around the United States, WorldPride, along with the similarly-sized Capital Pride, could not happen in this country at a more vital moment. Not only is history being celebrated, along with how far we’ve come as a nation and around the world, the very roots of our community are being recognized.
From May 17 to June 8, WorldPride will be celebrated in multiple ways. From June 4 to the 6, the WorldPride Human Rights Conference will be take place on 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, bringing together change makers, advocates, and allies from all corners of the world. From Friday, May 30 to June 4, the Capital Cup Sports Festival will be in full swing, bringing sports competitions of all types to the city, offering to create a space for connection and belonging in the LGBTQ+ community through each event. And, of course, the parties will still go on, whether at the WorldPride Global Dance Party Music Festival on June 6 and 7, or at many of the daytime events like the WorldPride Parade, kicking off at 2pm on June 7.
As Capital Pride’s Bos had said, 2025’s two interwoven Pride events happening in D.C. could not have come at a more vital or impactful time. As the Trump administration has tried to seize on the advances the LGBTQ+ population have made since the Stonewall protests in 1969, flooding the streets of the nation’s capital with all forms of representation is not only to celebrate who we are, but what we as a nation still stand for, even in this dark time.
If you want to go, it’s coming up fast, so now’s the time to make your plans. You can also find info for reservations and a guide to events and attractions for the District of Columbia at https://washington.org/visit-dc/guide-world-pride-2025.