This year, WorldPride in the nation's capital is a protest
WorldPride 2025 comes as a celebration and a clarion call. Hours after retaking office, Donald Trump signed an executive order stripping federal recognition of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex identities. IDs must now reflect a person's sex assigned at birth. Civil rights protections are being rolled back. Funding for gender-affirming care has been cut. The administration calls it 'biological truth.' Advocates call it erasure.
'This is what Pride is for,' Bos says. 'Whether you're marching in protest or dancing in the street, you're resisting being told you have no value.'
This year's WorldPride coincides with Capital Pride's 50th anniversary and is planned as a direct rebuke. In addition to the Pride parade and festival, organizers are planning a protest rally at the Lincoln Memorial and a march to the Capitol on June 8. While protest is a constitutional right, permits are needed for structures and stages on federal land. Bos says his team is working with the National Park Service and expects approval. But he adds, 'If the federal government were to deny our permits, I think we would expect a national outcry. And if anything, it could galvanize our community in ways we haven't seen in a long time.'
'Even before the election, we were planning for a parade and protest, but now that march has a whole new urgency,' he says. 'It's about defiance.'
Organizers expect more than 3 million attendees, and Bos believes Trump's policies may boost turnout. 'There are people who never thought of coming to WorldPride because they saw it as just a party. Now they see its purpose. Now they feel the need to show up.'
While some international groups like the African Human Rights Coalition have announced a boycott, Bos believes pulling out sends the wrong message.
'It's about being visible and heard,' Bos says. 'Pride has always been protest.'
And protest, he adds, comes in many forms. 'Some people think it means signs and chants,' Bos says. 'But the act of dancing in the street — of showing joy when you're being told to disappear — that is protest.'
Bos, who is white and cisgender, says those with privilege have a duty to show up. He acknowledges that many transgender people, especially those coming from abroad, may not feel safe attending WorldPride. Several countries have already advised their trans citizens about attending the event, and even Bos and his fellow D.C. organizers have cautioned trans and nonbinary visitors about potential trouble. Organizers warned trans and nonbinary travelers to exercise caution, given the Trump administration's requirement that visa applications reflect a person's sex assigned at birth.
'There will be those who choose to come, even though they are afraid and may be putting themselves at risk,' he says. 'We want to do our due diligence to provide as much support as possible. But especially for those of us who are less at risk, we need to show up in droves for those who can't.'
For those unable to attend, a partnership with Outright International's March for All allows allies to march on their behalf, wearing bibs with their names.
Despite the cultural backlash, WorldPride is moving forward. Booz Allen Hamilton pulled its sponsorship, and the Kennedy Center canceled programming. But others, like Wegmans, remain committed.
Bos admits, 'There are moments I worry no one will come. And then I remember what we're fighting for.'
The Advocate's— or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting June 19.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Expert sounds off on problematic feature of city landscaping: 'I found out the hard way'
Expert sounds off on problematic feature of city landscaping: 'I found out the hard way' A tree specialist posted a YouTube short about taking care of trees planted incorrectly in a major U.S. city. The short, posted by YouTuber Andrew the Arborist (@Andrew_the_Arborist), shows the problems that come with trees planted suboptimally in Philadelphia. He explains that the two main issues stem from improper planting and soil compaction. "Some of these trees were planted too deep, below grade," he says. He then points out that there are multiple potential causes of soil compaction. These include the impact of foot traffic and vibrations from the road and the subway. This makes it difficult for the tree to get the water and oxygen the roots need. "Thanks to the seven National Park Service employees who manage the 60 acres here in Philadelphia," the short concludes. Trees in cities are highly beneficial to residents and urban wildlife. The EPA reports that just a 10% increase in tree cover in New York City would save thousands of lives. Trees provide shade, help filter the air, and have a natural cooling effect. However, these benefits can only come if they're properly managed. As an article by Eos noted, trees won't do well in an urban environment without help. The expertise shown in the video is an excellent example of the importance of proper care for trees. Of course, even less populated, more spacious locales are still prone to tree-killing errors. The dreaded mulch volcano has claimed more than a few suburban trees. Similarly, a tree planted too deeply has the odds stacked against it. However, landscaping doesn't have to be complicated. Rewilding a yard means working with native plants and eliminating the need for excess water and harmful pesticides — creating a yard that is both good for the environment and low-maintenance. The comments were appreciative, and a few expressed some envy about the expert's occupation. One said, "You have a dream job, congrats!" What's the hardest thing about taking care of your yard? Mowing the lawn Controlling weeds Keeping pests at bay I don't have a yard Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. One commenter was motivated to take action in their community, saying, "Thanks for that. The trees next to our farmer's market look like that. I'll bring it up with the city." Another commenter was all too familiar with the problems shown in the video. "I found out the hard way about what happens when tree roots get buried too deeply… I lost a 3 year old American chestnut sapling because of it." Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Solve the daily Crossword
Boston Globe
14 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Boston tour highlights fight to preserve African American history amid ‘whitewash' fears
Advertisement 'This was a controversial monument,' Paris Jeffries said. 'Sixteen clear-faced Black people with guns in their hands.' Historians worry that pressure on the Park Service could lead to the erasure of history involving slavery, the civil rights movement, gay and transgender figures, and other subjects deemed improper by the Trump administration. 'President Trump and his minions are not just rewriting policy,' Markey told reporters. 'They are trying to rewrite the history of the United States of America. [The administration] wants a climate of denial of the role of Black people, of brown people.' On Boston Common, the group stopped briefly at the Embrace monument, which remembers the Rev. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King, who met and fell in love in Boston. The group ended up at the Advertisement Standing beside Paris Jeffries and other Black leaders, Markey spoke about the importance of preserving history from the same pulpit where Frederick Douglass and Maria Stewart advocated for abolition. He criticized the Trump administration for instructing the National Park Service to 'We must stand with museums and curators, teachers, and historians, and refuse to be complicit in the lie being told by the Trump administration,' Markey said at a press conference. Dr. Noelle Trent, president and CEO of the Museum of African American History, said, 'efforts to remove the uncomfortable and complex part of our collective history is an erasure. My colleagues and I deal with this threat every day.' Trent urged listeners to become members of the museum and support it financially given the uncertainty of federal funding to institutions honoring Black history in the Trump era. The museum received a letter in April that a $500,000 grant it had received from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services was terminated. But it was reinstated after attorney general Andrea Campbell and 19 other state attorneys general The museum, which partners with the National Park office in Boston, is also eligible for grants from the Department of the Interior, but Trent said that the money comes with strings under the Trump administration. Advertisement 'The dynamics of that relationship have shifted greatly,' she said. 'If we were to receive funds, we are now being asked to align ourselves with not only the executive orders and secretarial orders that exist at this moment but any more that will come after the duration of that particular agreement.' Kyera Singleton, executive director of the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, a plantation that was home to the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts, also worries about federal funding to Black history museums. The Royall House does not directly rely on federal funding but has received support from Mass Humanities, a nonprofit that was affected by the cuts to the National Endowment for Humanities. 'It really highlights the ways in which the inequities have always existed, specifically for smaller house museums and Black history sites,' Singleton said. Attendees at Monday's event also highlighted the impact of the Trump administration's cuts to the National Park Service. Kristen Sykes, Northeast regional director for the said her organization estimates that the Park Service has lost about 24 percent of its employees since Trump took office. She's worried about the proposed $1 billion cuts to the National Park Service in Trump's Sykes said her organization estimated the cuts could result in the closure of hundreds of park units across the country. 'We're already seeing huge impacts, with over 4,000 staff who've either been fired, retired, or been bought out,' Sykes said in an interview. Advertisement Paris Jeffries reflected on how parks and monuments keep history alive. 'This is why the Park Service matters, because memory needs a body, grass, and granite, a place where stories breathe and people can gather,' he said. 'Monuments are a city's vocabulary.' Angela Mathew can be reached at
NBC News
18 hours ago
- NBC News
Park ranger fired after helping drape a transgender pride flag on Yosemite's El Capitan
Yosemite National Park fired a park ranger last week for hanging a transgender pride flag on the park's iconic El Capitan rock formation in May. Shannon 'SJ' Joslin, who has been a ranger and a wildlife biologist in the park since 2021, said they were fired Aug. 12 from what they described as their dream job. They said park leadership told them they 'failed to demonstrate acceptable conduct' in their role by participating in the trans flag display. 'I'm devastated,' said Joslin, who is trans and uses they/them pronouns. 'We don't take our positions in the park service to make money or to have any kind of huge career gains. We take it because we love the places that we work. I have a Ph.D. in bioinformatics, and I could be making a lot more money in Silicon Valley, which is only a few hours away, but I made career choices to position myself in Yosemite National Park, because this is the place that I love the most.' When asked for comment on Joslin's termination, a spokesperson for Yosemite National Park said the National Park Service, which oversees Yosemite, 'is pursuing administrative action against multiple National Park Service employees for failing to follow National Park Service regulations.' The spokesperson did not immediately respond to an additional question about which regulations the employees allegedly violated. The NPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Joslin, who is 35 and had been going to the park for years prior to working there, has written Yosemite climbing guidebooks and volunteered to work overtime to help issue hiking permits and manage traffic in the park. As a wildlife biologist, they managed the park's 'big wall bats' program, to study how bats use cliffs and protect them from a deadly disease called white-nose syndrome. Joslin said they came up with the idea to hang the trans pride flag on El Capitan in the spring after President Donald Trump issued a variety of executive orders targeting trans people, including orders to change the federal definition of sex to exclude trans identities, restrict access to trans health care and prohibit trans women from competing in female sports. Joslin said the flag display, which they organized with other LGBTQ climbers and advocates and participated in outside of work hours, was intended to celebrate trans people and show that everyone is welcome in the nation's parks. The flag was up on El Capitan for about two hours when park officials told the climbers to remove it, though the climbers said at the time that they were not told that they had broken any park rules. About a week after the display, Joslin said, park leadership told them they were the subject of a criminal investigation into the hanging of the flag. After that investigation, Acting Deputy Superintendent Danika Globokar fired Joslin due to their participation in what leadership described as the 'flag demonstration,' Joslin said. Joslin said they asked for evidence proving that the flag display was a demonstration but said leadership did not provide any. They also cited the long history of a variety of flags being flown on the rock's face, including by park employees. For example, park employees flew an upside-down U.S. flag during Yosemite's firefall event in February to protest the Trump administration's cuts of National Park Service employees. A group of activists also raised a 'Stop the genocide' flag on El Capitan in support of Palestinians in Gaza in June 2024. There was no policy prohibiting the display of flags on El Capitan until the day after Joslin and their team hung the trans flag, when the National Park Service issued a new rule banning the hanging of large flags in wilderness areas. Yosemite leadership updated the 2024 Superintendent's Compendium to include the update. 'Hanging flags has been a tradition that climbers have done on El Cap for decades, and that's both individuals who are visiting the park, but also employees that are on their off time,' Joslin said. 'There's never been any kind of ramifications to any of those flag hanging activities. I'm the only one who's been fired for it.' Joslin said two other NPS employees, including one who works in Yosemite and another who works in a different park, are under investigation for helping to display the trans flag. Joslin said being fired from a federal position will hurt their ability to work for the government, or any other park, in the future. They plan to seek legal counsel to try to contest the decision, citing an executive order Trump issued on the first day of his presidency to protect free speech and end federal censorship. 'I'm going to fight this tooth and nail,' Joslin said. 'I think that everyone as Americans should be upset about this, and it doesn't matter who I am or what my identity is, this is a matter of free speech.'
