Why is Dupont Circle important to DC's LGBTQ community? A look back
WASHINGTON - U.S. Park Police and DC Police confirmed on Friday that Dupont Circle would be closed for what may be the largest pride festival in the District's history, drawing criticism from DC leaders and the LGBTQ community. But why is Dupont Circle important in DC's Pride history?
The backstory
The first Pride festival was a block party organized by LGBT bookstore Lambda Rising in 1975, then located three blocks north of Dupont Circle on 20th and S St NW. The store closed in 2010, after 35 years of business.
By 1981, a parade was added as part of the annual festivities, starting at Meridian Hill Park and ending at Dupont Circle. Parade routes in the 90s traveled along P Street through Dupont Circle before traveling south to Freedom Plaza.
Dig deeper
The larger Dupont Circle neighborhood has long been considered one of D.C. prominent gay neighborhoods.
Every Halloween since 1986, a High Heel Drag Queen Race takes place on 17th Street, two blocks away from Dupont Circle.
The race made headlines in 1991 when police arrested six men at the unpermitted event, using what many called "excessive force" to break up the revelry. An investigation into the officers followed, as well as an apology from D.C.'s then Mayor Sharon Pratt.
Big picture view
D.C. has a deep history of gay rights activism throughout the last six decades.
In 1965, the DC chapter of the Mattachine Society picketed for gay rights in front of the White House – four years before the Stonewall Riots in New York City.
Dr. Frank Kameny, a federal employee who was fired from his job for suspected homosexuality in 1957, served co-founded the Mattachine Society and organized the first of many White House pickets in the summer of 1965.
Kameny told FOX 5 DC in a 1991 interview that D.C. had a "repressive kind of atmosphere" in the early 60s.
"The vice squad had been set up … to, in effect, hunt down gays and create occasions for arresting us so that we could be thrown out of the civil service, out of civil service jobs, because at that point simply being gay was a disqualifier for federal employment," said Kameny.
But Kameny also described the 60s as a "wonderful time to be doing anything and exciting and stimulating."
"Nothing had been done and everything had remained to be done and we went out and did it. And we could, and we accomplished things," said Kameny. "Nowadays the road has a few more rocks.
Watch more archival footage from D.C.'s Pride history on FOX LOCAL.
The Source
This story includes information from the National Park Service and previous FOX 5 DC reporting.
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