Capital Pride is an annual LGBT pride festival held in early June each year in Washington, D.C. It was founded as Gay Pride Day, a one-day block party and street festival, in 1975. In 1980 the P Street Festival Committee formed to take over planning. It changed its name to Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in 1981. In 1991, the event moved to the week prior to Father's Day. Financial difficulties led a new organization, One In Ten, to take over planning of the festival. Whitman-Walker Clinic (WWC) joined One In Ten as co-sponsor of the event in 1997, at which time the event's name was changed to Capital Pride. Whitman-Walker became the sole sponsor in 2000. But the healthcare organization came under significant financial pressures, and in 2008 turned over producing duties to a new organization, Capital Pride Alliance.

The event drew 2,000 people its first year and grew to 10,000 people covering 3 blocks in 1979. By 1984, it had expanded to a week-long event and by 1987 an estimated 28,000 attendees came to the street festival and parade. Attendance began fluctuating in the late 1980s, but stabilized in the 1990s. The festival was the fourth-largest gay pride event in the United States in 2007.Chandler, Michael Alison. "Street Fest Lets Gays Revel in Freedom." Washington Post. June 11, 2007. Capital Pride saw record attendance for its 35th anniversary celebration in 2010. An estimated 100,000 people turned out for the parade and another 250,000 for the street festival in 2012.

History

1970s The festival was first held on Father's Day in 1975. Deacon Maccubbin, owner of the LGBT bookstore Lambda Rising, organized the city's first annual gay pride event. It was a one-day community block party held on 20th Street NW between R and S Streets NW in Washington, D.C. (the same block where Lambda Rising was then located). Two vending trucks, one loaded with beer and another with soft drinks, served the crowd. About 2,000 people attended and visited about a dozen organizational booths and vendors. In a surprising political move indicative of the growing political power of gays and lesbians in the city, several candidates for the D.C. City Council also attended and shook hands for several hours.Tucker, Neely. "At 25, Pride Hits Its Stride." Washington Post. June 12, 2000.Chibbaro, Jr., Lou. "Politics Take Backseat at Pride." Washington Blade. June 10, 2005.Perl, Peter. "15,000 Parade, Picnic and Politick On Gay Pride Day." Washington Post. June 21, 1982.Horwitz, Sari. "Thousands Celebrate Gay Pride in Festive March." Washington Post. June 18, 1990.

In 1981, Gay Pride Day first hosted a parade in addition to the street festival.Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia and Ehrenfeucht, Renia. Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation Over Public Space. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2009, p. 75; "DC Pride Events." Rainbow History Project. 2012 , accessed 2013-06-07. The growing festival drew more than 10,000 attendees that year. Washington Mayor Marion Barry, elected the previous November, attended his first Gay Pride Day in 1979—and would for the rest of his time in office as mayor.Russell, Brenda A. "Parade and Festival Highlight Gay and Lesbian Pride Events." Washington Post. June 22, 1981.

1980s

Following the 1979 event, with crowds growing larger than could be accommodated at the original location, Maccubbin turned the planning of the event over to a new non-profit group, The P Street Festival Committee, formed in 1980 to take over the growing event. The committee established a board of directors to oversee planning and administer the festival's finances, and widened planning and participation to include a number of prominent LGBT organizations in the D.C. metro area. Gay Pride Day (as the festival was then known) moved that year to Francis Junior High School at 24th and N Streets NW, next to Rock Creek Park. In 1981, a parade route had also been established. The parade began at 16th Street NW and Meridian Hill Park, traveled along Columbia Road NW and then Connecticut Avenue NW, and ended at Dupont Circle.Mintz, John. "Gay Festival Of Celebration Draws 20,000." Washington Post. June 20, 1983.

1983 was the year the first woman and person of color was named Grand Marshal of the Gay Pride Day parade. In 1984, festival organizers began bestowing the "Heroes of Pride" award to members of racial and ethnic minorities who made a difference in their communities.

Attendance at Gay Pride Day events reached 11,000 people in 1981, 15,000 in 1982, and 20,000 in 1983. By 1984, the one-day festival had become a week-long series of meetings, speeches, dances, art exhibits, and parties.Battiata, Mary. "Gays Celebrate 'I Am What I Am'." Washington Post. June 18, 1984. At its 10th anniversary in 1985, D.C. Gay Pride Day drew an estimated 28,000 attendees to the street festival and parade.Wheeler, Linda. "Thousands Mark Gay Pride Day D.C. Gathering's 10th Year." Washington Post. June 17, 1985. But attendance began varying dramatically from year to year in the late 1980s. In 1986, only about 7,000 people watched the parade, and another 1,000 stayed for events at Francis Junior High.Some estimates of attendance were even lower. The U.S. Park Police estimated the crowd at one-seventh the number announced by event organizers. See: Arocha, Zita. "Gays Proclaim Pride, Confront Fear." Washington Post. June 23, 1986. A year later, attendance was estimated variously between 7,000 and 10,000 people.Thomas, Pierre. "Thousands Rejoice at Gay Pride Day." Washington Post. June 19, 1989.

1990s Financial problems and growing concerns about the organization's lack of inclusiveness led the P Street Festival Committee to disband in 1990 in favor of a successor organization, Pride of Washington.

Several changes to the event occurred in 1991. The District of Columbia's African American gay community sponsored the first "Black Lesbian and Gay Pride Day" on May 25, 1991. The event was created not as a competitor to the June gay pride event but rather as a way of enhancing the visibility of the African American gay and lesbian community.Gaines-Carter, Patrice. "Festival Will Celebrate the Pride of Being Black and Gay." Washington Post. May 24, 1991. 1991 also saw the Gay Pride Day parade and festival move away from its traditional date for the first time. Organizers shifted the event to the week prior to Father's Day to give people a chance to spend the holiday with their families. 1991 was also the year that the street festival expanded to more than 200 booths, and the first year that active-duty and retired American military personnel marched in the parade. The parade made national headlines when U.S. Air Force Captain Greg Greeley, who led the active-duty group, was later questioned by military security officers and told his pending discharge was on hold because of his participation in Gay Pride day. No further action against Greeley was taken, and he eventually received an honorable discharge.Gaines-Carter, Patrice. "Veterans, Workers to March in D.C. Gay Pride Parade for 1st Time." Washington Post. June 23, 1991.Air Force officials said they interrogated Greeley because he had access to classified information and they feared someone might use his homosexuality against him.

The festival suffered from financial difficulties in the early 1990s. Rain during the parade and street festival significantly reduced attendance several years in a row. Unfortunately, festival organizers had decided, as a cost-saving move, to not take out weather cancellation insurance. The festival lost significant amounts of money, and came close to bankruptcy.Ly, Phuong. "Annual Gay March Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary in 2000." Washington Post. May 18, 2000.

In 1995, One In Ten, a D.C.-based arts organization which hosted the Reel Affirmations film festival, assumed responsibility for organizing Gay Pride Day events. One In Ten moved the street festival from Francis Junior High to Freedom Plaza near the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.Loose, Cindy. "Goal of Gay March Is Freedom Plaza." Washington Post. June 15, 1995. The parade route also changed. Instead of traveling westward from Dupont Circle on P Street NW to finish at Francis Junior High School, the parade now began at the school, moved east along P Street to 14th Street NW, and then traveled south on 14th Street NW to Freedom Plaza."Capital Pride Takes to the Streets." Washington Post. June 9, 2007.

The change in sponsorship and significant organizational and promotional changes led to sharply higher attendance. The parade and festival drew only about 25,000 attendees in 1994, but this soared to more than 100,000 by 1996.Bates, Steve and Nguyen, Lan. "Celebrating the Right to Celebrate." Washington Post. June 10, 1996.

However, the financial and organizational strain of producing the event proved too heavy for the small arts group. In 1997, Whitman-Walker Clinic joined One In Ten as a co-sponsor of the festival, and the event was renamed Capital Pride. The street festival was moved off Freedom Plaza and onto Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 14th and 10th Streets NW. Corporate sponsorships also rose dramatically, reflecting the festival's growing commercial nature. Corporate sponsorships reached $247,000 in 1999, up from $80,000 in 1998.Allam, Hannah. "Taking to the Streets With Capital Pride." Washington Post. June 14, 1999. 1997 also saw the city's first Youth Pride Day event. Sponsored by the Youth Pride Alliance, an umbrella group of LGBT organizations supporting the sexual orientation and gender expression needs of young people, the event was held first held in late April (although after 2010 it moved to a date closer to Capital Pride).Norton, Eleanor Holmes. "Recognizing the 9th Annual Youth Pride Day." Congressional Record. April 22, 2005, p. 7561-7562. Accessed 2012-06-16.

2000s Whitman-Walker Clinic became the sole sponsor of Capital Pride in 2000. The festival was moved to Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 4th and 7th Streets NW, and the festival's main stage repositioned so that the United States Capitol building was in the background. As a cost-saving move, in 2002 the parade was moved to early evening on Saturday while the festival continued to occur on Sunday afternoon.The District of Columbia provides law enforcement officers to help with street closure, crowd management, and general security for Capital Pride, as it does for all events in the city. Capital Pride must reimburse the District for these costs. Moving the parade to Saturday reduced the amount of double-overtime incurred on Sunday, significantly lowering the cost to Capital Pride. See: Chibbaro, Jr., Lou. "Financial Crisis Prompts Pride Takeover Offer." Washington Blade. July 1, 2005. The same year, the number of parade contingents reached 200 for the first time.Wilgoren, Debbi. "Paving a Path Toward Main Street." Washington Post. June 9, 2003. In 2004, 100,000 people attended Capital Pride events.Vargas, Jose Antonio. "Gays Recall a Silent Great Communicator." Washington Post. June 13, 2004.