The glitter-caked gatherings at World Pride have taken a more somber tone amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights.
World Pride comes to a close this weekend in Washington, D.C., after a month-long celebration. D.C. had anticipated some 3 million people to mark the 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations in the Capitol. But attendance has plummeted, hotel bookings were down, and the estimated $800 million expected to be generated in the local economy failed to materialize. The BBC reports that a massive two-thirds of expected attendees stayed away.
“It is a risk to now come over [the border] and especially as a trans woman,” one Canadian who decided not to attend told the BBC.
The drop is sharp, though not unexpected. Nations around the world have issued travel warnings to their non-binary, trans, and LGBTQ+ citizens, cautioning them that America under Trump is not a safe place. World Pride organizers themselves even considered advising trans attendees not to come.
The African Human Rights Coalition explicitly called out the event, warning “LGBTQI+ people worldwide to refrain from attending” because “the event is being held in a venue ... governed now by an antagonistic fascist regime which presents distinct dangers to foreign LGBTQI+ attendees.”
The last World Pride, held in Sydney in 2023, served as a touchpoint for the Australian government to announce record funding for LGBTQ+ organizations.
“It couldn’t be a starker contrast,” an Australian human rights law professor who attended both events told ABC. “Sydney was a celebration ... This is a call to action. This is a realization of how quickly our rights can be wound back.”
Government policy has been notably hostile since the new administration took office. On his very first day, President Donald Trump directed government agencies to recognize only two sexes on official documents. Bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies; curtailing anti-discrimination efforts; and suspending trans people from military service quickly followed.
The Trump administration has refused to recognize World Pride, in contrast to the administration of former President Joe Biden.
The crackdown has spread to corporate America, previously a stalwart supporter of LGBTQ+ rights. A recent survey found that more than a third of Fortune 1000 companies surveyed planned to decrease their support for Pride events in 2025.
Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading federal contractor, pulled its support for World Pride this year, while others did not renew previous funding commitments. Ryan Bos, executive director of the group that organizes D.C. Pride events, told The New York Times that corporate fundraising reached about half its target. Some companies sponsoring the event asked for their logos not to be displayed, he said.
Still, some attendees saw their attendance as a necessary act of defiance—a return to Pride’s more traditional protest, rather than celebratory, history.
“For the first time in many, many years, I’m not parading; I’m marching,” one attendee told NPR. “It’s a very different approach for the first time in a long time. Everything’s under threat right now.”
