1980s ĭeacon Maccubbin (in purple shirt), founder of Capital Pride, riding the Lambda Rising float in the gay pride parade in 2003.įollowing the 1979 event, with crowds growing larger than could be accommodated at the original location, Maccubbin turned the planning of the event over to a new non-profit group, The P Street Festival Committee, formed in 1980 to take over the growing event. Washington Mayor Marion Barry, elected the previous November, attended his first Gay Pride Day in 1979-and would for the rest of his time in office as mayor. The growing festival drew more than 10,000 attendees that year. In 1981, Gay Pride Day first hosted a parade in addition to the street festival. City Council also attended and shook hands for several hours. In a surprising political move indicative of the growing political power of gays and lesbians in the city, several candidates for the D.C. About 2,000 people attended and visited about a dozen organizational booths and vendors. Two vending trucks, one loaded with beer and another with soft drinks, served the crowd. (the same block where Lambda Rising was then located). It was a one-day community block party held on 20th Street NW between R and S Streets NW in Washington, D.C. Deacon Maccubbin, owner of the LGBT bookstore Lambda Rising, organized the city's first annual gay pride event. The festival was first held on Father's Day in 1975. An estimated 100,000 people turned out for the parade and another 250,000 for the street festival in 2012. Capital Pride saw record attendance for its 35th anniversary celebration in 2010. The festival was the fourth-largest gay pride event in the United States in 2007. Attendance began fluctuating in the late 1980s, but stabilized in the 1990s. 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. The event drew 2,000 people its first year and grew to 10,000 people covering 3 blocks in 1979. But the healthcare organization came under significant financial pressures, and in 2008 turned over producing duties to a new organization, Capital Pride Alliance. Whitman-Walker became the sole sponsor in 2000. 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. Financial difficulties led a new organization, One In Ten, to take over planning of the festival. In 1991, the event moved to the week prior to Father's Day. It changed its name to Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in 1981. In 1980 the P Street Festival Committee formed to take over planning. It was founded as Gay Pride Day, a one-day block party and street festival, in 1975. Marchers hold the Capital Pride banner during the 37th Capital Pride parade on June 9, 2012.Ĭapital Pride is an annual LGBT pride festival held in early June each year in Washington, D.C.