Officials with Capital Pride Alliance are considering what to do at next year’s Capital Pride Parade as attendees at this year’s event said they experienced sadness and shock after a gun scare.
Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, said he plans to work with the community and district leaders to make sure next year’s parade–the 45th anniversary one–is safe.
“We will take this opportunity to learn from our experiences this past year,” Bos said in a phone interview. “And, think about those organizations that were not able to participate because of the parade not being able to finish.”
The Capital Pride Parade has a long-standing tradition of celebrating the district’s LGBTQ community every June.
At 7:20 p.m. on June 8, police officers responded to a report of a “man with a gun,” according to a Metropolitan Police Department briefing posted on Twitter.
Although police said there was no evidence of gun shots, they did recover a gun at the scene and one man was arrested. Spotting the gun led a crowd of people to run in panic, and seven people were transported by D.C. Fire and EMS, the officer said.
Bos emphasizes the importance of acknowledging everyone’s voice in the LGBTQ community, noting he hopes to help those who experienced fear and want to march again while also taking this opportunity to recognize the spirit of the Parade.
“Nothing discounts the fact that the situation at the parade was unfortunate,” Bos said. “It is not something that we want anyone to experience again.”
Olyvia Mugweh, 20, a rising junior at American University, attended this year’s parade. Mugweh recalled walking towards the crowd, looking for her friend and then all of a sudden, everyone was running in a panic. She remembers thinking that no one really knew what was going on.
“Somebody said ‘They’re shooting, they’re shooting!’ It was chaos,” Mugweh said. “It was supposed to be a celebration of love. The atmosphere changed from love to hate.”
The gun scare lead attendees like Mugweh and Roman Habibzai to wonder how long it is going to take for society to accept LGBTQ people, even though LGBTQ people were not targeted by the man, according to news sources.
Research from Pew Research shows that Americans are becoming more accepting of LGBTQ Americans. According to a 2013 Pew Research study, 92% of adults identifying as LGBTQ said society had become more accepting of them in the past decade.
Jane Palmer, 40, has been going to Pride since 1997. She did not go to the district’s Pride parade this month, but she did go to the one in New Orleans, which she said felt “more like a party.”
Palmer said her wife attended the Pride Parade in Washington, D.C. with the couple’s 2-year-old son.
“She said it was terrifying,” Palmer said.
Pride means different things to different people.
Habibzai, 19, an American University student, said, “Pride, to me, means the ability to just set everything aside for once and have it be okay to be a normal human being.”
Habibzai went with some friends from American University. He left before the gun scare. He notes how a huge chain of fearful events can affect a whole community.
“It is really scary to think that anyone could become a victim,” Habibzai said. “Attacking one person is like attacking a community.”
Bos has a similar definition of Pride.
“Our goal for Pride is to be seen and to be heard,” Bos said. “It shows the importance of us coming together, making sure that we aren’t just doing this in June, but that we are speaking out and supporting each other every day of the year.”