Washington DC—
Saturday Morning Update:
The $200,000 metal fence barricading Dupont Circle, Wash DC, site of the annual #WorldPride gala, is being removed due to “public safety” yet another example of the Trump regime backtracking from its flawed policies. On Saturday morning, National Park Service ordered its contractor to remove it less than one day after it had erected it. The removal followed intense advocacy by local groups such as Free DC Project, local ANC representatives, and many others.
Friday Afternoon:
The National Park Service set up 8-foot metal fences and gates blocking entrances to Dupont Circle Park on Friday beginning at 4 am. Dupont Circle Park is the site of the annual Gay Pride celebrations which are to begin Saturday, June 7. The National Park Service police were nearby supervising the contractor who was reportedly paid $200,000 to put up the metal fencing and gates. The same contractor will be installing the metal fencing and gates for the Trump birthday military parade on June 14, next week.
Pride organizers were caught off-guard by the last minute development. The contractor was nearly finished setting up the last gate as of Friday afternoon, entirely blocking off access to the Park, one day before the World Pride Celebrations were to begin.
As word of the barricade spread, a group of bikers mobilized and rode around the circle. They chanted “Take down the fence!” and shook cowbells while they rode. Others took photos of the fencing which also blocked the sidewalk circling the park.
Dupont Circle Park is in a trendy section of Washington DC, and is overseen by the National Park Service, which falls under the responsibility of the Department of Interior, a branch of the Federal Government. The central part of the park is a white marble Memorial to Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Dupont, surrounded by a white marble fountains.
It was 50 years ago this week that Gay Pride held its first celebration outside a bookstore named “Lambda Rising” which was then the symbolic greek letter of for gay-friendly establishments. In 1975 about 2000 attended the celebration. By 2010 over 250,000 took part in June weekend celebrations which eventually became known as Pride month.
During the last half-century, the park has seen multiple generations of the LGBTQIA community celebrating their orientation at its water fountains, the gathering point after the annual Gay Pride Parade. And in that time it has grown to a national event. But this June it was planned to be an unfettered international event, until the authoritarian forces began oppressing minority groups, such as migrants, trans military service-members, and muslims from 14 countries.
A few rainbow pinwheels managed to remain inside the metal gates, and were spinning in the wind, likely put up earlier in the week before the contractor began installing the fence. The pinwheels remained inside the fence as of Friday night but it was unlikely that there would be any Pride celebration inside Dupont Circle park this year.
In past years the park has been the scene of a massive collective of convergent humanity celebrating its early 1970s birthright of freedom of expression, of oppressed people come out, to be as they are, without fear or shame.
The metal gated fence is an exact replica of the metal fencing put up outside the White House during the 2020-21 National protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Mineapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin.
In June 2020, thousands rejected the fence and turned it into a protest statement and public referendum on police violence across the country. A 24-hours grassroots protest grew out of the movement for Black Lives Matter. Thousands left photos, signs and banners attached to the fence, turning it into a protesting zone and later, a shrine, lasting until Trump was ousted six months later.
One rainbow sign had been attached to the Dupont Circle Park fence by 5 pm, reading “Love Is Love,” but more were expected to be attached to the fence as the weekend wore on.
