District of Pride Host Rayceen Pendarvis — File Photo: Julian Vankim / Metro Weekly
Washington is host to many Pride celebrations, from the countless dance parties to the Capital Pride Parade, Concert and Festival, the city offers multiple chances to celebrate your Pride.
One of the ways to celebrate Pride — and a way put a bookend to the event-packed June Pride month — is to make sure to the annual District of PRIDE Showcase hosted by Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
This year’s event will showcase a range of local LGBTQ talent that includes drag performers, storytellers, and singers in the historic Lincoln Theater on Thursday, June 29.
“It’s a showcase of local LGBTQ A-plus talent,” says Japer Bowles, the Director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. “It’s one of the last big events in the district and in the region that’s pride related and really it’s a celebration. It’s a great time.”
DJ Honey will be pumping the music throughout the night.
Bowles explained that now, in a time when drag is criminalized across the U.S., it is vital to provide a platform for drag performances.
“Throughout the entire program, we’re highlighting drag,” he says. “A party without cake is just a meeting, so we’ll be having Cake Pop! We’re celebrating Pretty Boy Pride with Pretty Boy Drag.”
The focus of the showcase, Bowles says, is to focus on Washington’s LGBTQ art scene. Nearly 90 performers submitted their applications to appear, and ten were chosen.
This talent, Bowles says, is special to Washington due to its high LGBTQ population and progressive LGBTQ policies. Washington ranks highest in the nation for an area with an LGBTQ population, currently at 9.8% according to UCLA’s Williams Institute.
“This does not happen in Oklahoma and this does not happen in Missouri and in Texas,” he says. “DC is the district of pride!”
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s fourth annual “District of Pride” is Thursday, June 29, from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. Admission is free. To reserve a space, register by visiting Eventbrite.
If you need relief from these stressful and angst-ridden times, you're sure to find something to salve your soul in this section. If you crave a good laugh attack, for starters, look to the "Because They're Funny Comedy Festival," or seek out specific comedians and eccentrics known to get the job done, be it John Waters or Paula Poundstone (both coming to the Birchmere), or Jessica Kirson or Margaret Cho (coming to the Warner), or Leslie Jones, who will be at The Clarice later this winter. To name only five.
Of course, if you'd prefer to get serious and really contemplate and converse about our woeful state of affairs, you'll find plenty of ways to do that, as well. Start by consulting the lineup of noted authors coming to local bookstores and even a certain historic synagogue.
The founders of the legendary Miss Adams Morgan Pageant talk about how D.C.'s largest drag event has evolved over 37 years.
By John Riley Photographs from the 1998 to 2024 pageants courtesy of the Dupont Social Club
October 1, 2025
"The whole Miss Adams Morgan Pageant really started by accident," says Steven Brandt, a board member of the Dupont Social Club, which organizes the annual drag pageant, now a fixture on many D.C. residents' calendars.
Brandt recalls that he and his now-husband, Rick Boylan, were celebrating Halloween in drag with friends when, on their way to a piano bar, walking through Dupont Circle, they were accosted by a group of teenagers.
"It was raining," recalls Brandt. "They ripped my wig off and threw it in a puddle, spewing all kinds of hatefulness. After that, we decided we needed a place to be able to go in drag if we wanted. It was maybe only the first or second time we'd been in drag, but I was so enraged by the experience that I kept saying over and over, 'We've got to...This isn't right.'"
Harvard University has drawn criticism from conservatives after announcing that Tufts professor Kareem Khubchandani -- who performs and occasionally lectures in drag as "LaWhore Vagistan" -- will serve as a visiting associate professor in its Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality department.
The visiting professorship was established through an endowment from members of the Harvard Gender & Sexuality Caucus, the university's LGBTQ alumni group. It was created to bring in scholars focused on issues related to sexual minorities and sexuality.
Khubchandani is scheduled to teach two courses during the 2025-2026 academic year: "Queer Ethnography," in the fall semester, and "RuPaulitics: Drag, Race, and Desire" in the spring semester, focusing on the cultural influence of the show RuPaul's Drag Race.
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