New Name - New Location

As Pride in DC flourished, interest grew in moving the celebration from Dupont Circle – the heard of DC’s GLBT community - to a more visible venue on Pennsylvania Avenue – long known as the “Nation’s Main Street” – to symbolize the importance of the GLBT community to the city and to the country. 

In 1995, One in Ten, a DC GLBT cultural organization, took over Pride sponsorship. Renamed “Freedom Festival,” the celebration moved to Pennsylvania Avenue. 

More than 100,000 people attended Freedom Festival in 1995. Two years later, the Whitman-Walker Clinic, DC’s most prominent health care provider to the GLBT community and the district’s major HIV/AIDS service provider, joined One in Ten in organizing the festival, now renamed “Capital Pride.” In 2000, Whitman-Walker Clinic assumed sole responsibility for Capital Pride. More than 200,000 people came to DC annually to celebrate Gay and Lesbian Pride.

In 1995, an organized protest arose to boycott Pride and create a separate event for Bisexuals and Transgendered persons. An alternative Pride was held in Rock Creek Park. In 1997, the words “Bisexual” and “Transgendered” were added to Pride’s title.