Where Were The Gays At Gay Pride?

I had the distinct pleasure of attending Washington, D.C.’s WorldPride Parade this Saturday. 

Picture miles of city blocks – and churches – draped in rainbows. In your left ear: a bass booming remixes to disco hits. In your right ear: vendors hawking flags (available in an array of sexualities) and stuffed penises (available in an array of ethnicities). In your nose – actually, never mind. 

In other words, all the typical gay works were in order. Except one. Where on earth were the gays?

What is behind the high number of straight white women going to Pride festivities? I’ve seen more straight white women I know posting from Pride parades than the actual gay people I know. It feels like cultural colonization

— Dylan Housman (@Dylan_Housman) June 7, 2025

In between manning the camera for the nation’s #1 Fascist Puppet Show, Ask America With Edgar, I took stock of the parade’s attendees. Sure, there were plenty of spectacles marching in the parade itself. Men in leather dog masks, men dressed up as women, men in sequins, men in feather boas. Take your pick. 

But as Team Edgar and I squished through the squealing throng, I began to notice a disturbing trend. A significant portion of onlookers appeared to be white, straight women. 

The parade’s organizers reached just half of their corporate fundraising goal, according to The New York Times, with some companies requesting their logos not be prominently featured. Estimated crowd sizes for the WorldPride Parade dropped about two-thirds in comparison to past years, reports the BBC. (RELATED: Corporate America Retreats From Gay Pride Events Across US Amid Trump DEI Crackdown)

“It is a risk to now come over and especially as a trans woman,” a Montreal man told the outlet. Where Canadian transvestites have left a gaping hole in D.C.’s pride parade, straight women have stepped up in their absence.  

Admittedly, this is based on a fairly crude visual assessment of attendees. Some might even accuse me of stereotyping. To which, I say: Yeah, but just look at them. 

Two attendees at Washington, DC’s WorldPride Parade. June 7, 2025. (Daily Caller)

Gen Z is supposedly the gayest generation on record. Over 20% identify as LGBT, according to a Gallup Poll. But non heterosexual identity doesn’t track neatly with non heterosexual behavior. 

The most popular LGBT identity, by far, is the ‘B,’ Gallup found. This leaves plenty of wiggle room for straights who’d rather not shoulder that privilege. Bisexual women have “significantly higher odds than heterosexual peers of teen pregnancy,” according to a national study of women between the ages of 24 and 32. Another study examining teen pregnancy rates in New York City high-schoolers concluded that “students who identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual or reported both male and female sexual partners had higher odds of pregnancy than heterosexual students or students who only had opposite-gender sexual partners.”

Allow me to float a probable explanation for the presence of normal-looking, college-aged women at pride parades: it’s an opportunity to dress up in skimpy outfits, drink alcohol before noon, and dance to mindless music. All while conveniently signaling you’re down with the cause du jour. Boomers had Woodstock. Zoomers have Gay Pride.

Three women wait for DC’s WorldPride Parade to begin. June 7, 2025. (Daily Caller)

Luckily, there are plenty of how-to guides for straight women who want to party but don’t want to colonize pride. In “How To Be A Straight Woman At Pride Without Being A Dick,” Sarah Graham encourages heterosexuals to “share pitchers of day-glo booze with your gay mates,” but to keep in mind that “it’s not about you.”

But some gays are fed up. “I’ve had it. I’m exhausted. Every weekend, it’s the same damn scene: me, my friends, and a sea of shrieking straight girls storming the dance floor like it’s a clearance sale at Sephora,” seethes HomoCulture.

Hey, I’ll give these gals the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I misjudged them. Maybe HomoCulture has, too. They could very well be bisexual, or even lesbians — the sort that exclusively date men. 

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatalieIrene03