A longstanding Halloween season celebration is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and one of its chief organizers is calling it quits after this year’s event.
The 17th Street High Heel Drag Race – begun in 1986 and happening annually the Tuesday before Halloween – has participants dress in costumes and high heels at least 2 inches in height, and race down 17th Street NW between R and Church Streets. The event draws thousands of people each year with throngs parading along 17th street for hours prior to the official start, 9 p.m.
David Perruzza, general manager of JR.’s Bar & Grill, who oversees the High Heel Race and organizes hundreds of volunteers to help carry out the event and clean up afterward, said the 25th anniversary is a big milestone.
”I think it’s a testament to the lasting nature of the race,” he says. ”We’ve never had a bad event. It’s probably the only event in the city they can say that about.”
Perruzza says the presence of Mayor Vince Gray, who will serve as grand marshal of the event on Tuesday, Oct. 25, along with Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and local drag personalities Lena Lett and Binaca, should mean the event won’t encounter any setbacks.
Perruzza says a new addition for 2011 is that Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets will be hosting a food truck at 17th and O Streets NW. A change for 2012, he adds, is his race retirement and handing the reins to the Main Streets organization.
”I get a little more gray hair and break out in acne every year from the stress,” he says. ”Actually, I joke and I kid. It is a fun event – it’s just too big for one person to handle.”
Register to volunteer for D.C.’s 25th Annual High Heel Race at JR.’s Bar & Grill, 1519 17th St. NW, by 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 25.
Trans-Latinx DMV is holding a rally on March 31 to commemorate the Trans Day of Visibility.
The rally, to be held in Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle from 5 to 8 p.m., will serve as both a celebration of the Trans Day of Visibility and a show of resistance against the harmful policies currently targeting the transgender community.
The rally's theme, "Por el Reconocimiento de Mi Identidad" ("For the Recognition of My Identity") will honor the resilience of the transgender community and amplify the voices and stories of transgender individuals, especially those within the Latinx community, at a time when transgender existence is under attack.
The Trump administration suspended $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania as punishment for having allowed transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete in 2022.
Thomas originally competed for the men's swim team but competed on the women's team following her transition.
She complied with what NCAA regulations regarding transgender athlete eligibility were at the time, undergoing hormone therapy for a year before competing.
In 2022, Thomas began breaking school and meet records, becoming the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship medal in the Division I women's 500-yard freestyle event.
Lawmakers in the Montana House of Representatives defeated two anti-LGBTQ bills last week after the chamber's transgender and nonbinary representatives gave impassioned speeches protesting the measures.
State Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D-Missoula), the legislature's first out transgender representative, spoke out against House Bill 675, sponsored by Rep. Caleb Hinkle (R-Belgrade), which sought to ban drag performances and Pride parades in Montana.
Hinkle previously sponsored a ban on public performances of a "sexual nature" that was specifically intended to target drag shows and Drag Queen Story Hour-type events (even if they do not contain sexually explicit content).
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!