Capital Pride Board Member Mary Paradise (Photo by Kristin Horgen)
In honor of National Coming Out Day, Capital Pride in partnership with the Story District is celebrating by carving out a space for LGBTQ voices. Sponsored by Malmaison and Heinekin, the Out & About event on Sunday, October 11, will be an evening of hilarious and touching true stories about coming out and coming clean.
After working with Story District on their Out/Spoken pride event, Capital Pride organizers wanted to continue their relationship and continue their mission of Pride 365. According to Mike Alexander, the Development Director for Capital Pride, Pride 365 “is an effort to keep Pride alive in the hearts and minds of people.” The board is dedicated to adding programming year-round for the community.
“This event came about with our desire to have something to honor National Coming Out Day, which itself has roots here in D.C. as October 11 is the anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights,” says Alexander. “And Story District is amazing in creating events where storytellers bring people together to hear great stories on different subjects.”
Organizers have created a casual event with the area’s most entertaining and inspiring storytellers. Featured storytellers include Mike Boyd, Alex Brewer, Cristina Calvillo-Rivera, Gina Chirillo, Morgan Givens, Robin Katcher, Alan Mishler, and Amanda Sapir. At the end of the show, the stage will be available for open mic storytellers as well. The evening also includes a chance for the first 100 attendees to receive a complimentary drink.
“Research has shown that people are infinitely more likely to support the LGBTQ community when an individual personally knows someone who is LGBTQ. Therefore, it is crucial that members of our community are able to tell their personal stories in compelling ways if we are to achieve a broader public acceptance of our community,” says Alexander.
Out and About takes place Sunday, October 11 at Malmaison, 3401 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. at 7:30 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
Mark Your Calendar
Capital Pride is continuing to work on their Pride 365 upcoming events as well as their annual Pride Reveal in January 2016. Their next event is the Holiday Heatwave cocktail reception on December 1. This end of the year event celebrates Pride’s supporters, sponsors, and non-profit partners. For more information on Pride events, visit www.capitalpride.org.
