Pickets, Protests, and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington.

WorldPride is coming to D.C. in 2025, and we’re putting on an exhibit to celebrate!

In June 2025, Washington, DC, will host WorldPride 2025. This momentous occasion aligns with several significant anniversaries in the history of Pride in Washington: the 50th Anniversary of the first Gay Pride Day Block Party, the 60th Anniversary of the first picket at the White House for Homosexual Rights, and the 25th Anniversary of the first Presidential Proclamation of LGBTQ Pride Month. Additionally, it marks Rainbow History Project’s own 25th anniversary.

To commemorate these milestones, the Rainbow History Project is presenting a largescale exhibit on Freedom Plaza: “Pickets, Protests, and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington.“ Presenting our community history in a one-of-a-kind history exhibit located right along the 2025 Pride Parade route is a massive undertaking! Please explore this page to find out more about our project and ways you can get involved—we are excited to share what we’ve been working on with you!

The exhibit will tell the origin story of local Pride activities and how the pickets and protests of the 1960s led to parades and celebrations of the 2020s—and all the politics and drama in between. The research will focus on the voices of the event organizers and include the critics of Pride and the significance of the intersection of Pride and other movements for equal rights and liberation.

RHP needs the community’s help to make the exhibit a success! Do you have iconic DC Pride photos to contribute? Do you know someone who should record their oral history about organizing Pride events? Are you interested in volunteering on the Pride Exhibit Committee? Can you donate funds to make it all happen to the Rainbow History Project?

Exhibition Research Themes

Since 2023, our research team has been working on the main themes of this history of Pride and sharing them with the community for feedback. We have published descriptions in the Washington Blade.

 

• “Picking our Battles and Reminding the Nation” (1965-1970)
• “Gay and Proud” (1970-1975)
• “A Bookstore Blocks the Street: Gay Pride Day” (1975-1979)
• “The Third World Conference Marches on Washington” (1979)
• “Pride’s Day at the Beach” (1980-1987)
• “Dawn of a New Era of Pride Politics” (1987-1994)
• “Evolution of Visibility” (1989-1995) Article coming soon!
• “Freedom on America’s Main Streets” (1995-2003) Article coming soon!
• “A New Alliance for a New Millenium” (2005 – 2020) Article coming soon!
• “A Vice-President Marches by our Side” (2020-2025) Article coming soon!

Upcoming Events

Get Involved with our Pride Exhibit

How will you tell your community’s story? Who should be included in the exhibit? Why? There are a lot of ways to contribute your time and skills.

Exhibits need visuals!
If you have old photos or images we should include, please take a picture with your phone upload it to our Google Photos account. Contact Colette for next steps.

Exhibits need testimonials!

We continue to look for compelling images to show what Pride events looked like. Do you have photographs, graphics, or illustrations from events past? Anything the older the better. We are telling the story in the voices of the organizers and are looking for

• Anyone who organized Pride events to share their memories
• Volunteers to record the interviews and ask good questions
• Researchers to help find press coverage or other historical writings?
• Editors to formulate an exhibit script

 

Email the exhibit’s assistant curator Colette to get involved: colette@rainbowhistory.org

Exhibits need collections!

If you have old documents, magazines, newsletters, paperwork, audio visual recordings, or ephemera that we should include, please contact Frankie, Deputy Director of Archiving and fill out this form.

Or you can donate here! Or, if you would like to volunteer, join our mailing list or follow our instagram!

“Exhibit Designers Needed!”

We have moved into the design stage of exhibit preparations: we need to convert our research and images into a script and layout the story to fit the space. We have a permit to use Freedom Plaza, on Pennsylvania Avenue for 7 weeks! This is a lot of space to tell a lot of Gay Pride History over an extended period of time. If you have skills or interest in exhibit design, fundraising, or communications we need your help:

• Writers and editors to convert our research into text and captions
• Designers that will plan how to layout the story to fit the space
• Fabrication and installation teams who can build the physical materials
• Fundraising experts who can pay for the entire thing
• Communications staff to help us get the word out about this exhibit and its history

 

Upcoming Events

The exhibit team frequently schedules two types of public events to share project updates and invite people to get involved. Check our events page for a list of all upcoming activities and links to RSVP.

Upcoming Events
The exhibit team frequently hosts public events to share project updates and invite community involvement. Check our events page for a list of all upcoming activities and links to RSVP.

Our next exhibit showcase will provide an update on the project, introduce our research themes, and outline ways for people to get involved:
Date: Sunday, October 8th
Location: Zoom (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85125175771?pwd=mvTaC0LDXIkgCVax28CbiCTfRBDf1V.1)
Program Starts: 1pm
RSVP via Eventbrite

We also hold monthly Volunteer Working Groups where prospective volunteers can learn about RHP’s projects and connect with existing volunteers. These sessions are excellent opportunities to meet our teams, learn some history, and ask questions about our work. The full schedule is always posted on our website.

Past Presentations

The Rainbow History Project team will continue providing public updates on the exhibit throughout the year. Community listening sessions are vital for telling this story and recruiting volunteers—get in touch if you’d like to host one!

To date, we have shared updates through various events:

• On October 29, 2024, we showcased our exhibit themes and updated content at the High Heel Race. Volunteers shared research highlights and ways to get involved with the public.
• On October 16th, 2024, we hosted an exhibit showcase for museum professionals, academics, exhibit designers, and other key collaborators to discuss our exhibit updates, progress, and timelines.
  On September 7th and 8th, we presented our themes to broad audiences at the D.C. State Fair and Adams Morgan Day.
• On July 23, 2024, we provided an overview of the project timeline and discussed how individuals can get involved.
• On June 9, 2024, at the Capital Pride Street Festival, we presented our themes and exhibit mock-up tapestries at our large festival pavilion, sharing our progress with the public.
• On May 28, 2024, in conjunction with DC Black Pride weekend, activists Deacon Maccubbin and Jose Gutierrez spoke about their experiences as founders of Pride. Deacon founded Gay Pride Day in 1975 and Jose founded DC Latino Pride in 2007.
• On April 6th, 2024, the DC community got a sneak preview of the exhibit themes at the DC History Conference. Activists Paul Kuntzler, Leigh Mosley, Lynne Brown, Chris Dyer and Kenya Hutton spoke about their experiences and provided feedback on the research agenda.

Join us in preserving and celebrating the rich history of Pride in Washington! Your contributions will help create an engaging and informative exhibit for WorldPride 2025 and beyond.