The Capital Pride Alliance is inviting the community to join the “Unapologetically Proud” LGBTQ activist Edith Windsor at D.C.’s 2017 Capital Pride Parade. As this year’s Grand Marshal, Windsor will lead 180 floats, marchers, dancers, drag queens, dogs, walkers, and thousands of revelers for the 1.5 mile celebratory journey through Logan and Dupont Circles at 4:30 on June 10. The parade will begin at 22nd and P Street and end at 14th and S Street.
“We are honored to have activist Edie Windsor serve as a Capital Pride Parade Grand Marshal,” said Ryan Bos, Executive Director of the Capital Pride Alliance, in a press release. “Her contributions to the expansion of LGBT equality and marriage rights are virtually unparalleled.”
Windsor has worked hard for the LGBTQ community for over 40 years. Her fight for marriage equality began after her engagement to Thea Spyer, a clinical psychologist, in 1967. They married in Canada in 2007, but Spyer did not live to see the landmark ruling in United States v. Windsor in 2013, when the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented non-heterosexual married couples from receiving marriage benefits and protections under federal law.
The 87-year-old continues her activism today alongside her wife Judith Kasen-Windsor. “Commitment and marriage are great joys that deserve to be shared by everyone! For me, being a Grand Marshal at the Pride Parade in the nation’s capital, where the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality, moves me greatly,” said Windsor in the press release. “But there’s no time to slow down. We must forge ahead.”
