Repeat off

1

Repeat one

all

Repeat all

Angry pridegoers force administration to cave after it tried closing a queer park during WorldPride
June 04 2025, 08:15

In less than 24 hours, the National Park Service (NPS) has rescinded its decision to close off Dupont Circle Park in Washington D.C. for WorldPride, citing “significant” damage to the park’s fountain during a previous pride event, costing nearly $200 thousand. The rescinding of their decision followed pushback from LGBTQ+ community leaders and advocates, as the area is a vibrant gathering place for queer people with many nearby LGBTQ+-owned shops and gay bars.

On Monday, the NPS announced that, “at the request of the [local] Metropolitan Police Department,” they would be closing off Dupont Circle Park for the final weekend of WorldPride 2025 to prevent “disorderly and destructive behavior” from WorldPride participants. The closure was set to occur from Thursday, June 5 to Monday, June 9, as a public safety measure and to protect park resources, the NPS’ statement added.

Related

DC gets the longest rainbow street mural ever as the city decks itself out for WorldPride
There’s color everywhere this week across the nation’s capital.

“This decision was based on a history and pattern of destructive and disorderly behavior from unpermitted activities happening in the park during past DC Pride weekends, including vaŋdalism in 2023 that resulted in approximately $175,000 in damage to the historic Dupont Circle fountain,” the statement claimed.

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Indeed, $175,000 is a substantial amount of money, but it is unclear how they arrived at this figure. Despite $175,000 in damages to public property being a newsworthy story in itself, there is little to no reporting to suggest the fountain sustained critical damage during a Pride event in 2023. The event they are likely referencing was The Capital Pride Parade and Block Party in 2023. Most news coverage on the event paints it as a mainly peaceful event with no significant rioting having occurred.

It is worth noting that the fountain had been undergoing numerous repairs at the time, including waterproofing at the base, upgrades to the water pump system, and pressure testing for the pipes.

During the initial decision to close the park, reporters from The Washington Blade attempted to reach out to a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department concerning the decision, but the spokesperson declined to comment and referred them to the NPS. Additionally, the office of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also declined to comment.

“We have nothing else to add to the National Park Service statement at this time,” mayoral spokesperson Daniel Gleick told reporters.

In less than 24 hours after the announcement, the NPS rescinded their decision to close off the park this morning, according to D.C. Council member Zachary Parker. 

I spoke with Chief Smith this morning and I'm glad to report that the decision to close DuPont Circle Park is being rescinded. The Park is central to the lgbtq community, and neighbors will be able to enjoy it this year for World Pride.

Good news.https://t.co/RrKUNhOv4W

— Zachary Parker (@ZacharyforWard5) June 3, 2025

In the moments leading up to NPS changing its mind, local LGBTQ+ rights activists condemned the agency for blocking off a major historic community within the LGBTQ+ movement.

Jeffrey Ruegauer, a member of the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC), in a public meeting, proclaimed, “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,” The Washington Post reported.

Fellow ANC commissioner and official with D.C.’s Rainbow History Project told the aforementioned publication, “The community should be as outraged as I am.”

Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, the organization behind D.C.’s annual Pride events and that also helped organize this year’s WorldPride events, said no official WorldPride events were set to occur at Dupont Circle Park during the upcoming weekend, though he was unsure if independent individuals or groups had planned any events there.

Bos also said he felt certain that participants of Capital Pride events did not cause any damage to the park in past years.

In February, NPS removed all mentions of transgender people from its website for Dupont Circle to comply with the president’s executive orders prohibiting any federal recognition of trans people in any aspect of civic life.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.


Comments (0)