LGBTQ ‘National Pride March’ on Washington Planned for June 11

Organizers of the D.C. Pride Festival are planning to collaborate with a gay activist from Brooklyn, New York who is organizing a National Pride March to take place on June 11.

Write the organizers:

Additional details about the March will follow, but we are working in conjunction with the Capital Pride Alliance, in Washington, DC to incorporate the March into the 2017 Celebration of Pride in the Nation’s Capital. We want to build off the momentum the strong women in the US and around the world started on January 21st. They set the tone with their leadership and it is our intention as a community to follow their lead and play our part. This will be an ALL inclusive and peaceful event!

We urge all supporters, friends, and family to descend on DC for the Pride 2017 weekend (June 8-11th) to make sure our voices are heard. If you cannot attend the March in Washington, DC, we urge you to reach out to your local Pride organizations to assist in creating solidarity through your existing Pride events. Let’s make this truly a “National Pride March” that spreads from coast to coast and shows solidarity through our Pride movement.

There is no word yet on how inclusive this march will be in terms of gender identity, disability, and race, or collaboration with groups like Black Lives Matter and immigration organizations. These surely need to be top of mind for organizers.

Says David Bruinooge, 42, the Brooklyn, N.Y., resident who created the National Pride March page, to the Washington Blade:

“I was watching the events unfold on TV and I was very proud and inspired by all the women, the strong women in our country who were kind of taking this to the street and getting their voices heard,” he told the Washington Blade. “And in the back of my mind as an openly gay man I thought the gay community should be doing something like this to follow up on the momentum,” he said.

He said he intentionally chose June 11 for the march because it’s the same day that D.C.’s Capital Pride Festival is scheduled to be held on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. near the U.S. Capitol. Bruinooge said his thought was the march would start in the morning and end at the site of the Pride festival.

Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, which organizes the D.C. Pride events, including the Pride Parade set to take place on June 10, said he has spoken with Bruinooge and expects that Capital Pride officials will collaborate with the march organizers so the march and the D.C. Pride events will complement each other.