National Park Service to Close Dupont Circle in Washington During Pride Event
The event, WorldPride, is an international celebration of the L.G.B.T.Q. community that is held each June in a different city. Washington won the bid for this year's edition, which began in mid-May and runs through Sunday, in 2022.
The Park Service will fence off the Dupont Circle park during WorldPride celebrations from Thursday to Monday as a 'public safety measure,' said Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the agency, in a statement first shared on Monday. The statement cited 'a history and pattern of destructive and disorderly behavior' in the park during previous Pride celebrations, including vandalism of the park fountain in 2023.
The last WorldPride event in the United States, in New York City six years ago, was largely peaceful. 'Five million people, and there was almost not a single incident,' Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the time.
The Park Service said it was closing the park in response to a request from Washington's police force, and that the closure was in line with President Trump's executive order in March to protect historic national monuments.
Some L.G.B.T.Q. residents and at least one elected official responded on social media by calling on Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is set to march in the city's Pride Parade this weekend, to open the park.
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