Norton to Open DC Black Pride Festival this Evening

WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will join members of the District of Columbia's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community this evening, Friday, May 24, 2013, at the 23rd annual DC Black Pride Festival. A longtime advocate for LGBT rights, Norton will deliver remarks to LGBT people from around the country and the world who participate in the festival each Memorial Day weekend. Norton also recognized the DC Black Pride celebration in the Congressional Record.

"The DC Black Pride celebration is a multi-day festival featuring a reception, films, a poetry slam, a church service, educational workshops, community town hall meetings, a basketball tournament, and a health and wellness expo, among other events," Norton stated in the Congressional Record. "We in the District of Columbia always take pride in the DC Black Pride celebration, widely considered to be one of the world's preeminent Black Pride celebrations, drawing more than 30,000 people to the nation's capital from across the United States as well as from Canada, the Caribbean, South Africa, Great Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands."

The celebration's organizing body has chosen "Step Up and Be Heard" as the theme for this year's celebration. This theme reflects the connectedness of the Black LGBT community and its commitment to fulfilling the mission of DC Black Pride, which is to increase awareness of and pride in the diversity of the Black LGBT community.

Published: May 24, 2013