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WE’VE BEEN OPEN
FOR OVER 40 YEARS.
BUT THIS STILL DESERVES A COMING OUT PARTY. Our new location will allow us to continue to serve Washington’s LGBT community, as well as the broader neighborhood, with services that include primary care, dental, legal and more. Everyone is welcome at 1525 14th St, NW. Note that some services will remain at the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center (including the Tuesday/Thursday evening STD clinic). For more information, visit Whitman-Walker.org/1525
202-745-7000
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Deacon Maccubbin, owner of gay bookstore Lambda Rising, which closed in 2010, started what has become Capital Pride in 1975 with a one-day community block party on 20th Street, N.W. where his store was located at the time. About 2,000 attended the gathering, held on Father’s Day with a dozen booths and for
In
vendors D.C.
its
set
City
heyday,
up.
Several
candidates
Council
attended
Lambda
Rising
as
well.
was
a
de
facto gay community center and frequently hosted and years,
author
other the
readings,
LGBT event
book
events. was
signings
W ithin
attracting
a
few
about
10,000 and had spread out to three blocks.
It was a heady time for the movement. Inspired by the Stonewall Riots of 1969 in New York City, commemoration events were burgeoning around the country and Washington had a thriving gay and lesbian scene of its own (the
The street party ‘70s SPONSORED BY
LGBT moniker didn’t come into wide use until much later). Several local groups were well established by this time — The Academy of
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Washington (founded 1961), Washington Blade (founded 1969), the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (then known as the GAA, founded 1971),
Metropolitan
Washington
Community
(founded
1970)
Church
and
of
others.
Early D.C. Pride events had a family-type appeal and were — as they are today — a place for various arms of the community, from drag outfits to activist groups to leather lovers and beyond, to let their hair down for the day. Then-Mayor Marion Barry, elected the previous November, attended his first Gay Pride Day as mayor in 1979 and continued throughout his years in office and beyond.
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L GB T Q
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The P Street Festival Committee was formed in 1980 to take over Gay Pride Day, as the festival was known, and the annual event was held on the grounds of Francis Junior High School at 24th and N streets, N.W., and the adjacent P Street beach.
By the following
year, the event had been dubbed Gay and Lesbian Pride Day and the first parade was held beginning on 16th Street, N.W., and Meridian Hill Park and ending at Dupont Circle.
Ups and downs of the ‘80s SPONSORED BY
The event grew exponentially in those years from about 11,000 in 1981 to 20,000 by 1983, though it ebbed and flowed with fewer than 10,000 attending in 1986 and 1987.
Washington, like San Francisco and New York, was particularly hard hit by HIV and AIDS
and
the
urgency
and
frustration
of the time was well represented at the gatherings, which had expanded to a weeklong event by 1984 with about 28,000 at the street festival and parade combined. The first Pride Heroes were named in 1984.
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY BRAD GREEN
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY JIM MARKS
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The P Street Festival disbanded in 1990 and
Pride
continued
with
a
new
entity,
Pride of Washington. The event was also moved to the week before Father’s Day so as not to impede on the family holiday.
By
1991,
the
festival
had
expanded
to
about 200 booths and for the first time, active duty and retired American military personnel
marched
in
the
parade.
Rain
affected attendance several years in a row and
the
festival
flirted
with
bankruptcy.
In 1995, One in Ten, a D.C. organization that hosted an annual film festival, took over and moved the festival to Freedom Plaza
The turning tide of the ‘90s SPONSORED BY
while the parade route started at Francis Junior High School and ended at the plaza. Attendance picked up going from about 25,000 in 1994 to more than 100,000 by 1996.
In
1997,
Whitman-Walker
Clinic,
as
it
was then known, joined One in Ten as a co-sponsor Capital rose to
and
Pride.
the
dramatically nearly
event
Corporate
$250,000
going the
was
renamed
sponsorships from
$80,000
following
year.
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KEVIN YUM
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY DOUG HINCKLE
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KRISTI GASSAWAY
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KRISTI GASSAWAY
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY KRISTI GASSAWAY
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY CLINT STEIB
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY CLINT STEIB
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In 2000, Whitman-Walker became the sole sponsor and the festival moved again, this time to Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., between 4th and 7th streets, and the festival’s main stage was repositioned so that the U.S. Capitol building
was
visible
in
the
background.
By 2002, parade contingents reached 200 and in 2004, about 100,000 attended the various Pride events. Financial problems, however, continued to plague the event with the city agreeing in 2005 to waive thousands in street closing and police overtime fees while the Human Rights Campaign agreed to
an
emergency
donation
Attendance,
however,
with
200,000
about
making
it
in
country.
the
the
of
$30,000.
remained attending
fourth-largest Several
strong in
2006
Pride
event
events,
such
as
A new millennium, a new day SPONSORED BY
dance parties, a youth prom, a transgender event, leather pride and more were now under the overall Capital Pride umbrella.
By
2007,
several
other
local
non-profits
joined Whitman-Walker to form the Capital Pride Planning Committee. In March 2008, Whitman-Walker
awarded
the
production
rights to the newly formed Capital Pride Alliance,
a
group
of
volunteers
and
organizations formed by members of the Capital Pride Planning Committee. By 2009, the Alliance was the sole producer of the event.
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY I. HOPE
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY HENRY LINSER
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The in
event 2010
reached
and
its
35th
continued
to
anniversary expand
its
offerings with about 60 events held over a
10-day
250,000
period
and
attending
a
the
record
high
of
street
festival.
About 100,000 watched the 2013 parade.
A
color
by
the
guard U.S.
officially
Armed
Forces
2014
parade,
The
eight-member
guard
each
branch
U.S.
Numbers
an
of
sanctioned joined
unprecedented
the
remained
event.
represented armed
strong
the
for
forces.
the
2014
The tipping point ‘10s? SPONSORED BY
parade with about 100,000 again at the parade total
and
for
(Various
early Capital
the
250,000
various
sources
compiling previous
about
weeklong
were
these
Pride’s
Guide
history
in
including
Blade
Pride own
in
events.
consulted
write-ups,
Washington Capital
estimated
and
articles, books, more.)
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY JOHN JACK PHOTOGRAPHY
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY
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WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY
WASHINGTON BLADE ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY
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washington blade archive photo by doug hinckle
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The Washington Blade Foundation is a nonprofit organization established to preserve and make accessible the paper’s 46 years of archives. To make a tax-deductible donation, visit washingtonbladefoundation.org
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Congratulations Capital Pride on 40 great years!