Pride festival a mixed bag of corporate and tradtional themes

The June 10, 2018 Capital Pride festival offered a mixed bag of traditional GLBTQ themes and corporate booths. Here more than at the parade the Capital Pride board's refusal to meet demands of No Justice No Pride was on display. An MPD contingent was at the very periphery but present, and recruiters for the CIA and similar agencies were present. Especially disappointing in a world of price-gouging on HIV and similar drugs was the presence of a Gilead Sciences booth: this is the company charging $1,000 a pill for a Hepatitis C drug.

On the other hand, critically-important GLBTQ heath and service organizations made a strong showing at the Pride festival, as they usually do. A distressingly large part of their job is undoing the damage done by companies like Gilead by helping clients negotiate the bureaucracy of getting whatever public assistance or other programs may be available to pay for very expensive pharmaceuticals.A related issue is that under under Trump health insurance companies have started gouging customers using PREP (HIV drugs to prevent infection) with steep co-pays many cannot afford.

Transgender organizations such as Casa Ruby where also present at the festival, and the transgender flag was widely seen.