This year’s 51st annual Capital Pride festival in Washington, D.C. was held last weekend from June 20-21st. The festival featured musical performances from Maren Morris, Leikeli47, Lisa Lisa, DJ Harrison, Myki Meeks, and Tracy Young – all LGBTQ+ performers, celebrating with the crowd free of cost across three stages. Last year, the Capital Pride festival reached a record 1.2 million attendees, drawing national attention and bringing thousands of travelers to the city. This year, the crowd size, while in the tens of thousands, was not nearly as robust.
Have the Audacity
Capital Pride Alliance’s official theme of this year’s celebration was “EXIST. RESIST. Have the Audacity!” The slogan incites the LGBTQ+ community to courageously embrace and express themselves. This year’s theme is a callback to the protestive roots of Pride – both a “declaration and a demand” for the resilience required to protect freedom of expression. Concluding the festivities of the month, it is important to continue to look to the Capitol. It is there where politicians, administrations, and lobbyists decide who is allowed to experience the American dream, and who will be pushed to protest.
Currently, the American Civil Liberties Union is tracking 529 anti-LGBTQ bills in the US. These bills span from school curriculum censorship to healthcare barriers to free expression bans, all targeting queer and transgender communities across the country. It is fair to say there is an unprecedented need for activism; for people to have the audacity to fight for their right to exist unburdened by political oppression. Has that necessary audacity been replaced with fear?
Violent Silence
There is a noticeable decline in Pride support at the corporate level, with brands fearful of the rainbow and the right-wing retaliation that comes with it. “Anti-woke” legislation is on the rise, and with it, a social censorship promoted by the inaction of brands seeking to stay unoffending and thus afloat. From Bud Light’s transgender beer scandal to the dismantling of DEI at the federal level, there is a violent silence that is not only taking sponsorships away from activist groups like Capital Pride but is on a bigger scale normalizing the allowance of discrimination under the guise of equality.
When asked about this year’s festivities in an interview with AFRO, transgender advocate Monroe Alise explained that “Because of the current political climate of our country and the world, this year feels different, but that hasn’t stopped us from celebrating pride and protesting even louder for equal rights.” The theme of this year’s festival outlives the duration of the parade. In a climate so tense and polarized, it is up to the people to find the audacity to resist the safety of silence and to unabashedly exist. The only response to oppression is activism. It is time to show up.
Featured image/photo by Eduardo Pastor on Unsplash.
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