D.C. Pride Parade
The first annual Pride celebration took place in 1975, but the history of the LGBTA movement in D.C. starts well before then. In the late 1940s the US Park Police launched the Pervert Elimination Campaign to arrest, investigate, and prosecute gay men enjoying the city's parks, many of whom subsequently lost their jobs. The year 1948 saw Congress pass a D.C. sodomy law (a law not repealed until 1995) and in 1950 the Senate report Employment of Homosexuals and Other Perverts in Government launched a lengthy campaign to clean the “perverts” out of government employment, a campaign that would claim more than 10,000 careers – and some lives.
Resistance to the discrimination gained steam in the 1960s. In 1961 the first D.C. gay activist group, the Mattachine Society of Washington, was formed, and 1965 witnessed the first gay picketing of the White House. The tensions reached a breaking point on June 28, 1969 with the Stonewall riots in New York City.
Technically the first Pride celebration took place in 1972, but it wasn't until 1975 the annual event was established.
You can read more about the LGBTA history in D.C. at this link here. For myself, the interns were invited to The Optical Society headquarters for food and music before the parade (since one of the other students is interning there). We simply had to walk out the front gate to reach the street where the 2-mile parade began. I stayed for three hours, but at that point the parade was still going and I was tired so I headed back to the apartment.
On Sunday half of us decided to try out a boat rental place I discovered with my roommate when walking to the Target in Arlington. We signed up three doubles and one single kayak for an hour and a half at the Key Bridge Boathouse. While we did have a ton of fun, I must admit that I did not think through how hot the sun can be. While I dutifully slathered my top half in tons of sunscreen, it did not dawn on me that I should probably do the same for my legs. In my defense, I'm not the only walking around with tomato legs and feet this week. Thank goodness for aloe vera!
Never doubt my conviction when I said I would be able to get all seven of us in a selfie!
To top off my week of exciting events, on Monday I went to the 9:30 Club in D.C. for a night of flamenco guitar. But this wasn't just any flamenco guitar. The concert was Rodrigo y Gabriela, a Mexican acoustic guitar duo whose music is influenced by a number of genres including nuevo flamenco, rock, and heavy metal. The concert that night was part of their 10th anniversary tour, and the last one in the United States.
I had never heard of Rodrigo y Gabriela by name before, but I like guitar so when another intern asked me to join him I accepted. The concert was an absolute blast, and afterward I discovered this duo has done instrumentals for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and the Shrek prequel Puss in Boots. I'll definitely have to look up more of their music in the future!
In other news, some of us decided to go out for a nail night, so I now have a manicure for the dinner cruise on the Potomac taking place for the interns tomorrow.
Additionally, this week I am writing my first full-length Bulletin for FYI! When it is published I will post a link to it on here. :) Also, there are two National Academy of Sciences buildings in D.C., and the Keck Center was not in the one I originally went to...well, guess there's no time like now to learn how to hail a taxi! |