In an uneasy climate, diverse pride groups converge on DC with differing interests but common goals

Independent

25-05-2025

You've heard of twofers. Kenya Hutton is a 'threefer.'
His parents are immigrants, he's a Black man and he's gay — at a moment in history when anti-immigrant fervor, racism and anti-LGBTQ feelings are rampant and amplified by Trump administration policies.
Hutton is hardly alone.
As members of the Black and Latino LGBTQ and transgender and other communities come to the nation's capital for World Pride in the coming days, many are under siege from multiple directions thanks to their multiple identities. They will hold individualized programs and celebrations that blend into World Pride.
Their mutual jeopardy will be a unifying theme. The celebrations, music, food, parades, plays and parties will unfold against a backdrop of human rights and political strategizing and, in some cases, discussions about how to survive in a climate that contains many people who do not want them around.
'I always tell folks that DC was the perfect place to have World Pride," Hutton said. "We have so many different identity prides here in D.C., from Black Pride to Trans Pride to API Pride, Latinx Pride, Military Pride, Women's Pride, Silver Pride, we have so many different groups of people that have their own pride celebration.'
Looking for solutions to an 'intersectional' problem
Frankie Miranda, the first openly gay president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, says immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community have been 'in triage mode for months' as they defend 'a multiapproach attack on many members of our community from different sides.'
Miranda, who is Puerto Rican, said immigrant families are being separated and the LGBTQ community targeted. After years of progress, those efforts are being eroded and 'fundamental rights challenged and taken away,' he said. "It's a reminder of how much work we still have ahead and of how we must work in an intersectional way.'
Miranda urged Pride events to have direct calls to action and take a more political approach this year, including by looking to the 2026 elections.
Susan Appleton, professor of women, gender. and sexuality studies at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said the nation's culture and society, 'including law,' have always regulated gender, race and other identities. But, she said, "I think we're in a very unusual time when the targets have become very explicit and when for many years we haven't seen the lack of empathy that we see now.'
'But I do think it's encouraging to me to see that there is a vigorous resistance," she said. "I don't know whether it will accomplish anything, but I think it is important to make sure that all voices are heard.'
That people are facing multiple grievances, she said, now shows 'it's not sufficient to look at race alone or gender alone or sexuality alone but all those factors.' They intersect and "create unique vectors of oppression.'
People at the intersections between the Latino community and immigrant communities 'face attacks from all sides,' said Dee Tum-Monge, a board member for the Latinx History Project, the steering organization for Latinx Pride. World Pride is aiming 'to create spaces focused around community care and political organizing while still celebrating our joy,' they say.
The focus, Tum-Monge said, is shifting away from just voting and federal action to work that attendees can do at local levels. Amid mounting threats to immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community, Tum-Monge said organizers are particularly concerned about security and will be watching for international participants who may face obstacles traveling.
Statements as diverse as those making them
Although official events are kicking off now, programs that have begun suggest how diverse activities will be. The scene last week was almost solemn as people walked along the National Mall in sight of the Capitol, reading messages on some of the hundreds of quilts made by transgender people from around the country.
The 'Freedom to Be' quilt project was there to raise awareness of the transgender community, which has been under fire from President Donald Trump. The messages ranged from defiance to hopes for acceptance. 'I hope there are days when you fall in love with being alive," said one. And on another: 'THERE'S A LAND THAT I SEE WHERE THE CHILDREN SHOULD BE FREE."
Abdool Corlette, head of brand for the American Civil Liberties Union and a co-creator of the project, said a message needed to be sent.
'We are seeing across the board an attempt to erase trans folks from all public life," Corlette said. "And we knew that we need to take up space. We needed to memorialize people's stories and do it in the literal backyard of the Capitol.'
Gillian Branstetter, his co-creator and communications strategist at the ACLU's Women's Project, said actions like the Republican president's executive order that affects military personnel are abstract to some but have real impacts in the transgender community where health care is threatened, along with the loss of jobs and threats of violence.
The scene was anything but solemn 3 miles north of the Mall, inside the student center at Howard University, one of the nation's renowned historically Black universities. It was festive and bright, filled with joy and shouts of encouragement and music as members of various groups — called houses — competed in events that included fashion modeling and dance at the Cirque du Slay Ball.
One attendee, John Smith III (stage name IconFatty Prodigy), said the balls are modeled on Cirque du Soleil and are about community and safe spaces. Iran Paylor (stage name Bang Garcon) said the houses are places set up by LGBTQ communities to give safe spaces to others estranged from their families and ostracized within the Black community when they came out.
Black Pride is a key center of gravity
D.C. Black Pride began in 1975 at the ClubHouse, founded by members of the city's LGBTQ community. Over the years, an event around Memorial Day became a tradition. The ClubHouse closed in 1990, but three members of the community kept the tradition going. The first Black Gay and Lesbian Pride event was held on May 25, 1991.
Hutton is the president and CEO of the Center for Black Equity, founded in 1999 as a way to bring together all of the Black pride movements that were being created around the country following the model in Washington. There are 54 in the United States and 12 internationally, he said.
As a Black gay man, Hutton already had battles on multiple fronts. Now there is an additional category to worry about.
"I'm also a child of immigrants, just to add that on top of my intersections,' he said. 'I'm always paying attention to immigration conversations. It's very hard navigating the world right now.'
But, he said, his responsibility is to use the access he has developed over the years to create safe spaces. "So even though it is difficult to navigate and listen to the news every day, I also understand that I've been given this task.'
The job has been hard this year. Sponsors have pulled out of the celebrations and he knows some international travelers are not coming due to fear they will have difficulties with law enforcement.
Hutton understands why various groups want individual activities; one version will not accommodate all audiences. But the cornerstone of Black pride is community. 'We have the opportunity to really showcase all of these communities to the world,' he said.
In the end, he said, he wants one message to resound after the gathering of communities: 'We're not going anywhere.'
'We'll continue pushing our rights forward, not just for us in America,' Hutton said. 'As someone told me, when America sneezes, the world catches a cold. So we have to make sure that America doesn't catch a cold.'