Support Rainbow History Project's World Pride Exhibit

On May 19th, the Rainbow History Project (RHP) will open its free outdoor exhibition Pickets, Protests, and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington. Located at Freedom Plaza (14th Street NW & Pennsylvania Avenue NW), the exhibition chronicles the local LGBTQ+ Pride movement and how the pickets and protests of the 1960s led to the vibrant celebrations of the 2020s. The exhibition will run through Pride Month and close on July 6th, 2025.

RHP is an all-volunteer run 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to collect, preserve, and promote the history and culture of the diverse LGBTQ communities in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. 2025 marks 25 years of RHP’s work.

This exhibition has been funded thus far by community organizations and individuals, opposed to traditional funding for Pride initiatives seeking funds from corporations. RHP is looking to raise an additional $20,000 to ensure sustainability for the organization for years to come.

This exhibit has been made possible through thousands of volunteers hours by exhibit & research professionals, students, community activists, photographers, teachers, and more!

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT:

The exhibition disrupts the popularly held belief that the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement began with the Stonewall Riots in 1969 New York. While this pushback to police violence was vital, DC’s LGBTQ+ history of resistance actually predates the Stonewall Riots. RHP recognizes this picket, four years before the Stonewall Riots, where 10 members of the Mattachine Society of Washington marched with signs in front of the White House–as the start of DC’s rich queer history.

From 1965 to the present day, the exhibition divides DC’s LGBTQ+ into ten eras that are explored in a visual timeline wall along Pennsylvania Avenue. Alongside the timeline wall are ten large cubes with archival photos of pickets, protests, and parades, as well as portraits of Community Pioneers who championed each era called the Hero Cubes. The exhibits will premiere on Monday, May 19th, officially opening the exhibition to the over 3 million people expected to travel to DC for WorldPride.

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