Capital Pride (Washington)

Capital Pride is an annual LGBT pride festival held in early June each year in Washington, D.C. It was founded as Gay Pride Day, a one-day block party and street festival, in 1975. In 1980 the P Street Festival Committee formed to take over planning. It changed its name to Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in 1981. In 1991, the event moved to the week prior to Father's Day. Financial difficulties led a new organization, One In Ten, to take over planning of the festival. Whitman-Walker Clinic (WWC) joined One In Ten as co-sponsor of the event in 1997, at which time the event's name was changed to Capital Pride. Whitman-Walker became the sole sponsor in 2000. But the healthcare organization came under significant financial pressures, and in 2008 turned over producing duties to a new organization, Capital Pride Alliance.

The event drew 2,000 people its first year and grew to 10,000 people covering 3 blocks in 1979. By 1984, it had expanded to a week-long event and by 1987 an estimated 28,000 attendees came to the street festival and parade. Attendance began fluctuating in the late 1980s, but stabilized in the 1990s. The festival was the fourth-largest gay pride event in the United States in 2007. Capital Pride saw record attendance for its 35th anniversary celebration in 2010. An estimated 100,000 people turned out for the parade and another 250,000 for the street festival in 2012.

The festival was first held on Father's Day in 1975. Deacon Maccubbin, owner of the LGBT bookstore Lambda Rising, organized the city's first annual gay pride event. It was a one-day community block party held on 20th Street NW between R and S Streets NW in Washington, D.C. (the same block where Lambda Rising was then located). Two vending trucks, one loaded with beer and another with soft drinks, served the crowd. About 2,000 people attended and visited about a dozen organizational booths and vendors. In a surprising political move indicative of the growing political power of gays and lesbians in the city, several candidates for the D.C. City Council also attended and shook hands for several hours.

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