Trump Admin To Close Dupont Circle During WorldPride

The New York Times reports: The National Park Service will close the park at Dupont Circle, a gathering place for the city’s L.G.B.T.Q. community, during a major Pride Month event this weekend that is already grappling with cancellations and pulled corporate sponsorships. The Park Service will fence off the Dupont Circle park during WorldPride celebrations … The post Trump Admin To Close Dupont Circle During WorldPride appeared first on Joe.My.God..

Mark Mark
Jun 5, 2025 - 20:00
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Trump Admin To Close Dupont Circle During WorldPride

The New York Times reports:

The National Park Service will close the park at Dupont Circle, a gathering place for the city’s L.G.B.T.Q. community, during a major Pride Month event this weekend that is already grappling with cancellations and pulled corporate sponsorships.

The Park Service will fence off the Dupont Circle park during WorldPride celebrations from Thursday to Monday as a “public safety measure,” said Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the agency, in a statement first shared on Monday. The statement cited “a history and pattern of destructive and disorderly behavior” in the park during previous Pride celebrations, including vandalism of the park fountain in 2023.

The last WorldPride event in the United States, in New York City six years ago, was largely peaceful. “Five million people, and there was almost not a single incident,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the time.

The Washington Post reports: 

“The circle belongs to everyone; it is the city’s town square. It is intimately linked with the gay community and the gay rights movement and so many other rights movements over the years,” Jeff Rueckgauer, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Dupont, said at a public meeting Monday evening. “To just arbitrarily shut it down from Thursday to Monday is such an affront to not only the gay community but everyone in the District.”

The official Pride parade on Saturday will take place a few blocks east of the circle, as does the block party happening Saturday and Sunday. But there are dozens of official and unofficial Pride-related events that take place in and around Dupont, and in past years a dance party has formed in the circle after the parade ends. The annual Dyke March began in 1993 with a procession from the circle to the White House.

For those unaware, Dupont Circle was once the heart of DC’s gayborhood, which has since somewhat centered on nearby streets. But during Pride events, the largest crowds continue to converge on Dupont Circle.

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