By Daniel Trotta
WASHINGTON — LGBTQ+ people and supporters from around the world marched through the streets of Washington on Saturday with a mixture of joyful celebration and a show of defiance in the face of President Donald Trump’s rollback of queer rights.
The parade route passed within one block of the White House grounds in one of the final main events of the weeks-long WorldPride celebration, as revelers waved rainbow flags, including one stretching several blocks long, and danced to pulsating beats.
On Sunday a more political event, dubbed a rally and march, convened at the Lincoln Memorial, a revered space in the U.S. civil rights movement as the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has issued executive orders limiting transgender rights, banning transgender people from serving in the armed forces, and rescinding anti-discrimination policies for LGBTQ+ people as part of a campaign to repeal diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Thousands lined the parade route, marched or gathered for a festival on Pennsylvania Avenue with the U.S. Capitol in the background. Neither parade organizers nor police in the District of Columbia estimated the size of the crowd.
Parade-goers pledged to preserve remaining rights and fight the Republican president’s agenda.
“We’re going backwards,” said Patricia Johnson, 70, who works for a nonprofit group supporting seniors in Washington. “But never give up hope.”
As the Pride Month of June began, the U.S. Navy took steps to rename an oil tanker that had been named after slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, in the Pentagon’s latest measure against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“That pissed me off more than anything. Harvey Milk is one of our heroes,” said Mike Brubaker, a retired business analyst from Long Beach, California.
While proponents of DEI consider it necessary to correct historic inequities, the White House has described it as a form of discrimination based on race or gender, and said its transgender policy protects women by keeping transgender women out of shared spaces.
Moreover, the White House said it has appointed a number of openly gay people to cabinet posts or judgeships, and noted that the Trump administration took steps to decriminalize homosexuality globally, and that its 2019 initiative “Ending the HIV Epidemic” aimed to cut HIV infections by 90% by 2030.
“The President is honored to serve all Americans,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement. — Reuters
