Washington is about to host a global festival for the LGBTQ community and its allies—all while President Donald Trump is in the White House overseeing a government that is wholly hostile to the visitors’ goals.
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00:00A massive pride event is about to take place in Washington, D.C., down the street from a White
00:04House that is the most hostile to the LGBTQ plus community we've ever seen. Here are just a few
00:10ways the Trump administration has stripped back LGBTQ rights. In his first hours of office,
00:16Trump ended federal recognition of transgender or non-binary identities. In Congress, lawmakers
00:22are policing their own bathrooms against transgender individuals and routinely misgender
00:28colleagues. The Supreme Court recently held that the Pentagon could bar some service members based
00:33on their trans identity. The White House says it will not issue a proclamation that June is Pride
00:37Month or host any events. Federal agencies are scrubbing any mention of affinity events from their
00:43organizations as well, all the while the Kennedy Center, which Trump took over and appointed his
00:48loyalist to handle programming, canceled all of its contracts for pride events. The political
00:53realities have had financial implications for the event. Corporate sponsors, including Booz Allen
00:58Hamilton, Deloitte, and Comcast, have pulled out for fear of triggering retaliation from the White
01:03House. But this year, several countries, including Denmark, Germany, and Ireland, have also issued travel
01:09advisors, warning trans and non-binary individuals that a trip to the U.S. might be risky. Those who do
01:16come can expect performances from Jennifer Lopez and Teresa Vaughn, but it's going to have a much
01:21different feel than when this was first announced. But Washington, D.C., which has the largest
01:26concentration of LGBTQ people in the country, is bound to find ways to celebrate regardless of who is in
01:32the White House.