June is Pride Month, and the Capital Pride Alliance held a virtual discussion Monday with members of the D.C. region’s LGBTQ+ community marking the beginning of the celebration.
In an hourlong virtual conversation, members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community to share stories and experiences from throughout their Pride journey.
The Zoom talk, titled “We Are Colorful,” featured Capital Pride Alliance organizers and special guests including Reggie Greer, the White House’s senior adviser on LGBTQ+ issues.
“It’s my job now to give support to women like myself to make sure that no obstacle is too big, that they’ll be able to do anything that they actually put their mind to,” said Alexis Blackmon, government and public affairs director for Casa Ruby, a round-the-clock community center aiding LGBTQ+ youth in the District.
“I want to say a decade from now, we’re gonna see some politicians, some trans people who are actually running and enacting change in the city,” she added.
After the pandemic forced the cancellation of last year’s in-person event, the Capital Pride Alliance’s colorful annual parade will return to the streets of D.C. later this month.
Lending her experiences to the talk was Tiffany Royster, who chairs the parade’s organizing committee.
“I came out when I was 15 to my friends, and 16 to my family, and I realized that in my family, there was another queer person — one of my closest cousins,” Royster said. “We actually came out on the same weekend that we were seeing each other, not realizing that we had told our mothers both that we were gay.”
Looking back, Royster recalled that unintentional shared experience as a “fun and incredible” one.
The 2021 Capital Pride parade will take place on Saturday, June 12, with a caravan of cars and floats set to pass through the Dupont Circle and Logan Circle neighborhoods.
