Pride Is Still Protest: World Pride In The Era Of Trump 2.0

World Pride is coming to Washington, D.C., this summer — the first time the international event will take place in the United States in eight years. 

For many, this should be a moment of celebration — a global gathering of LGBTQ+ people, taking over the nation’s capital to recognize our joy and collective power. And yet, the lead-up to this historic event has already been stained by political gamesmanship, silencing, and erasure.

Just this past week, the Kennedy Center canceled a week of LGBTQ+ events that were planned as part of the World Pride festivities. According to CNN, the decision comes amid “a shift in priorities” and new Trump-aligned leadership at the storied institution. If we’re being honest, this is not just a programming decision; it’s a warning.

It’s also a reminder; we are living in a moment where joy is political. And in 2025, our very survival still depends on resistance.

Make no mistake; Donald Trump and his allies have never been friends of LGBTQ+ people. From the moment he took office in 2017, the Trump administration worked aggressively to roll back civil rights protections, appoint anti-LGBTQ+ judges, ban transgender people from serving openly in the military, and weaponize religious freedom to legalize discrimination. 

He erased us from federal websites, removed data collection on LGBTQ+ communities, and allowed agencies to deny us services. While his 2024 campaign may have seemed quieter on queer issues, that silence was strategic — not a sign of progress. 

Harm is still happening in real time, particularly through the relentless attacks on gender-affirming care, trans youth, and LGBTQ+ visibility in schools. Extremists no longer need Trump to shout from the rooftops when his agenda is already being carried out in statehouses, school boards, and courtrooms across the country.

And now, he’s been elected Board Chair of the Kennedy Center — a cultural cornerstone that has historically honored the very artists, thinkers, and changemakers his policies undermine. This decision isn’t just a slap in the face; it’s a symptom of something deeper: a national failure to see LGBTQ+ people — especially Black, brown, trans, and disabled folks — as essential to the American cultural and political fabric.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about World Pride. It’s about what World Pride represents. Pride began as resistance, not rainbow capitalism or corporate floats, but rebellion. 

It was Black and brown trans women like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera who pushed back against police violence at Stonewall. It was ACT UP, Queer Nation, and other grassroots organizers who refused to let our community die in silence during the AIDS crisis. It is the ongoing work of queer and trans youth who are fighting today for the right to live, learn, and thrive in safety.

World Pride should be an extension of that legacy — not just a party, but a platform. Not just celebration, but survival.

In my recent article for NewsOne, I wrote that “D.C. is not a backdrop.” And I stand by that. The District is not just a stage for federal pageantry or political theater; it’s home. It’s a city where Black and brown LGBTQ+ people have organized, loved, built families, and transformed systems. From the ballroom community to advocacy groups to Black queer-led protests at Nellie’s Sports Bar, this city has always been more than its monuments.

That’s what makes this moment both painful and critical. For many, the decision to attend World Pride is far from simple. It requires assessing risk in a climate that feels increasingly hostile — a delicate balance of joy and fear. No one should feel forced to attend or pressured to stay away. Instead, that decision should be rooted in personal agency and collective care.

But it is also important to not allow white supremacists, transphobes, or cultural revisionists to push us out of our own communities.

This is our home, too. And Pride is still protest.

The cancellations at the Kennedy Center, the quiet normalization of Trump’s political return, and the rise of state-sanctioned anti-LGBTQ+ violence — all of it is connected. These are not isolated moments; they are coordinated strategies to erase us, divide us, and exhaust us. 

Our response must be just as coordinated. We must organize not just to protect our rights, but to expand them. We must tell the truth about our history — not just the sanitized stories, but the radical, intersectional ones that honor Black trans women, disabled queer folks, undocumented LGBTQ+ migrants, and sex workers. 

We must show up for one another — in protest, in celebration, and in the messy, complicated spaces in between.

World Pride is happening in Trump’s backyard, but it’s also happening in ours. That tension doesn’t have to be reconciled; it has to be recognized. Pride is not about performance. It’s about presence.

So whether you march, rally, teach, rest, or resist in other ways — do it from a place of love. Do it because we are still here. Do it because we still have work to do. And do it because the world is watching, and our message must be clear:

We are not accessories to someone else’s narrative. We are not going anywhere. And this is still our home.

Preston Mitchum is the founder of PDM Consulting, based in Washington, DC. His work focuses on racial justice, gender equity, LGBTQ+ liberation, and the pursuit of policies that move beyond symbolism to create lasting change.

SEE ALSO:

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