Capitol Pride Reportback

Video: Capitol Pride attendees confront bigoted "Ex-Gay/Ex-Trans" street preachers 2 min 13 sec

Video: Dangerous stampede out of Dupont Circle 21 sec, cut from Twitter video by BeingGaiden

On the 11th of June, the Capitol Pride march returned to DC, this time marching to the streets next to P st Beach rather than starting there. At Dupont Circle, the same "ex-Gay and "Ex-trans" fundamentalist Christians who harassed the parade last year were back, again hiding behind the cops. In a longstanding pattern, there were way too many corporate floats in the parade, though also some explicitly political contingents. At one point, PSL's contingent chanted "you say Stonewall, we say riot!" This is a reminder to the growing theocratic menace in the US that many will not peacefully submit to any recriminalization of GLBTQ lives.

Late in the afternoon's Capitol Pride march, the crowd stampeded out of Dupont Circle, apparently sparked by rumors of someone with a gun. This was the second ugly and dangerous stampede of the day. During the earlier anti-gun "March 4 our lives," someone claimed to have a gun, triggering a crowd stampede speakers barely managed to stop. This happened again in Dupont Circle, sending the crowd running and knocking down barricades meant to keep the parade route open. Barricades or other obstacles in the path of a stampede can kill, and two of the last three Pride marches suffered a stampede out of Dupont Circle sparked by fears of a shooter