That’s why the men of Capitol Heights, Maryland-based Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Zeta Chi Sigma Chapter are urging Black men to get tested.

The brotherhood partnered with to hold its “” in Glenn Dale on Sunday.

Wes Lewis, immediate past president of the Zeta Chi Sigma Chapter and the event’s co-chair, said prostate cancer is a disease that has touched his life 鈥� in a personal way.

Lewis said he had not thought much about prostate cancer, until his father was diagnosed with the disease. He was serving as president of the Prince George’s County-based chapter at the time.

He told 草莓传媒 the organization was already exploring ways to do a health-related event when, “it dawned on me that we weren’t really talking a lot about prostate cancer, from a programmatic perspective.”

Lewis said the chapter partnered with the in Northwest D.C., which will be providing PSA (prostate-specific antigen) screenings through a simple blood test.

“We want to educate men. We want men to understand what their risk for this disease could be,” said Clinton Burnside, a senior outreach coordinator and manager of a men’s health early detection education program called Men Take Ten at Howard University Cancer Center.

According to Burnside, risk factors include:

• Age 鈥� As men get older, their bodies change and those changes may effect their prostate gland
• Genetics 鈥� If you have a first-degree relative, such as a father or brother who has the disease, your risk of being diagnosed is increased.

Burnside said symptoms include issues with urination, such as hesitancy, output and retention.

He said that since prostate cancer is a slow-growing cancer, “many men die with prostate cancer, not because of prostate cancer.” Adding, early detection is the key.

Lewis said his father is now cancer-free and credits early detection with saving his father’s life. Lewis added that he’s also sharing the lessons he learned from his father’s diagnosis to his 8-year-old son.

He said his son knows that “he’s running for his grandfather” and “it’s really important that the young folks understand just how serious this is.”

Editor’s note: Additional resources on prostate cancer can be found at the and the .

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Dr. Asha Subramanian, a family physician, leads the nonprofit program in Wheaton, Maryland. The group meets the third Saturday of each month at 9 a.m. during warmer months, and 10 a.m. during the winter at in Wheaton.

Before each walk, participants engage in a three-to-five-minute health education talk with a healthcare provider. Topics range from gut and heart health to the importance of fiber, as well as demonstrations of yoga poses and stretches. Afterward, the healthcare provider leads the group in a walk around the one-mile paved loop through the gardens.

Some people simply want to walk one mile, while others may walk five, Subramanian told 草莓传媒, adding that the goal of the program is to make the activity accessible to people of all ages and ability levels. Participants talk with the provider during the walk, and although individual medical advice is not permitted, health education is provided.

“It’s a really nice forum to ask things you may not have time to ask during a regular medical appointment,” she said.

Walking in nature offers more than just cardiovascular benefits, Subramanian said.

“When we start walking, our blood pressure goes down, our stress level goes down, and it naturally boosts your mood,” she said.

Subramanian said she started the chapter after meeting the program’s founder, Dr. David Sabgir, at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine in 2018. Sabgir, a cardiologist based in Columbus, Ohio, launched the program in 2005, hoping to encourage people with chronic illnesses to make lifestyle changes.聽

The Montgomery County group has been active for five years, drawing anywhere from 15 to 30 walkers. More than 100 people attended the first walk, and the organization has grown to 500 chapters worldwide.

You can find more local chapters , and on .

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One of those barbershops is “Tight N Up” in Bowie, Maryland, which owner Clinton Truesdale called “a pillar of the community.” The Prince George’s County native said it is a safe space for many African Americans because, “You see yourself and you see a business that is operating, that looks like you and that supports you, and that serves you.”

Truesdale has been in business for 24 years. He has three Tight N Up locations, two in Bowie and one in Crofton 鈥� all run by his family.

Truesdale told 草莓传媒 that he decided to become a barber as a child. He laughed as he recalled that he decided to go into cutting hair “when I was getting the home haircuts from my dad, who was not a barber.”

Truesdale said he noticed that his haircuts didn’t look like the other kid’s haircuts. He also said he wanted to go into business for himself 鈥� just like his father.

He said he has passed on the trade to his two sons and “we have been fortunate enough to really apprentice a lot of barbers.”

Truesdale said that over the last two decades, his business has been hit with many challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You always have to reposition and reinvest in the business and in the people in your community,” he said, adding that he has an extensive family that he’s partnered with over the years.

Truesdale said being in the barbering business and working with the community inspired him to run for political office. He was appointed to serve on the Bowie City Council in February of 2023 and was reelected to a four-year term later that November.

He said the Bowie location at 15708 Mount Oak Road is gearing up for its annual Customer Appreciation Day in October. Last year’s community-oriented day was chock full of fun for the whole family with everything from opportunities to network to face painting and food trucks.

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When you think about playing in the sand, you may think of being on the beach or on a children’s playground. But, sand tray therapy can be used to help people of all ages deal with mental health issues.

Clinical social worker and therapist Sabra Starnes is the owner of in Largo, Maryland. She said sand tray therapy is a different way of getting in touch with your feelings.

Starnes said she uses a type of sand that’s different from the sand you might find on a beach: “I use a nice smooth sand that, also for clients helps them feel calm, helps them to feel regulated.”

She said the sand is placed in a box that’s the size of a dresser drawer. Props are also used. “The figures and the miniatures are ways that they can use to kind of create the visual story.”

Starnes said clients can create a visual story that they may not be able to tell with words.

She told 草莓传媒 that the therapy helps clients use right-brain and left-brain thinking: “Their create side and also their problem solving side.”

Starnes said her focus is on helping clients between the ages of 3 and 16 deal with issues, such as school, divorce, separation, loss and grief.

She said the goal at Next Place Therapy Services is to make clients feel heard, to feel safe and to trust that they can talk about whatever is going on in their lives.

According to Starnes, Next Place Therapy Services is partnering with D.C.’s Office of Student Support and Education to teach sand tray therapy to charter and public school therapists at 1050 First Street in Northeast on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024.

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Gus had run away with my heart as Gabriel had 21 years earlier. The 17-year-old is neurodivergent with ADHD. My son Gabriel has autism spectrum disorder. These are both conditions that impact the way they learn, the way they think and process information.

In the hours and days that followed, I saw the cruelty of people who mocked and ridiculed Gus’ heartwarming response to his father’s words on social media. It was a form of bullying that I was all too familiar with.

Bullying in school

If you have a child with a learning disability, research shows that they are two to three times more likely to be bullied at school. For my son, the bullying always began after his siblings who are two years older than him moved on to another school. Christian and Kendall, boy/girl twins, were protective of him and made sure no one mistreated him.

But as soon as they moved from elementary to middle school, the bullies came after him, mocking him, calling him names, chasing him home from the bus stop. Sometimes, they would steal his phone out of his book bag when he was on the bus and hide it in another seat. Other times, no one would let him sit next to them on the school bus.

The school administrators at the elementary school were responsive whenever they were made aware of an incident, but we received a completely different treatment in middle school.

When Gabe was in eighth grade and the twins had moved on to high school, the bullying began just as it had in elementary school, but this time the kids were older and more vicious. One boy would regularly hit Gabe in his groin area, sometimes with his fist, sometimes with an open hand. Gabe kept quiet for weeks, then finally told a teacher.

The incident was passed on to a school counselor who thought it would be a smart idea to bring the boys into her office together to tell her what was happening.

She put the victim in the same room as the person who was victimizing him with no consideration for his disability or that he had an IEP (Individualized Education Program).

Gabe froze under the pressure of having to sit face to face with his bully. He was unable to tell his side of the story. He said his mouth couldn’t form the words. He came home traumatized and defeated.

My husband and I demanded a meeting with a school administrator. The administrator invited the boy’s father and the child to the meeting. I would not allow Gabe to attend in fear that he would be traumatized again.

No one bothered to tell the boy’s father why he was there. He was told that there had been some sort of dispute between our sons. When he learned what his son had been accused of, striking another child in his private parts, the man pounded the table, leaped out of his seat, and began scolding and berating the child.

We were meeting in a private area next to a cafeteria full of students. The man was yelling so loud that the vice principal had to quiet him down.

I could see the boy’s body tense up as if he was trying to curl himself in to a ball and disappear. The child silently wept. I knew at that moment where the child had learned to bully. We were never told how the administrators chose to discipline the child or if he was ever disciplined at all, but the groin swatting stopped.

Gabe was accepted into the same science and technology high school that his three older siblings attended. At the sci-tech school, he met kids who were like him. The school’s specialists and counselors were thorough and helpful.

Gabe thrived in high school, athletically and academically, once he finally found his tribe and an administrative staff that was supportive. Gabe and his best friend even attended the same college together, Howard University.

Helping children protect themselves

Charles Cherry, martial arts specialist and author of the book, “Bully Proofing Your Child,” said he wrote the book after being stunned by statistics he read in graduate school.

Cherry, owner of Bellicose Martial Arts in Crofton, Maryland, said he learned that are bullied. He said he wanted to give children safe and effective options to deal with bullying,

“We use a lot of de-escalation techniques in our program,” he said.

They use an acronym called SWAT.

• S: Stop make hand gestures and let the bully know that what he or she is doing is not acceptable.
• WA: Walk Away, but try to walk away without turning your back on the bully so you don’t get assaulted.
• T: Talk to someone and let them know what’s going on.

He said, “We teach them to use jiu-jitsu techniques to control rather than to assault or hit their opponents. We don’t throw any hits or strikes when they are defending themselves.”

Cherry, a retired federal law enforcement officer, urges parents to pay attention.

“If your kid doesn’t want to catch the bus or doesn’t want to go to school, if you see bruises and you don’t know where they’re coming from, you need to have a conversation with your child.”

For a copy of the book, check out .

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“We want our young people to start the school year in the most healthy way they can,” said therapist Brendalan Jackson, Chief Mental Health Officer at the Greater Washington Urban League (GWUL).

Jackson said when a child is dealing with anxiety or depression, they may not have the language to describe it.

All they may know is, “something is going on in my body, but I don’t know how to talk about it,” Jackson told 草莓传媒.

That’s why the GWUL said it is offering 15-minute “Ask-A-Therapist” counseling services to families this year at its “12th Annual Health & Wellness Back 2 School Festival,” on Saturday, Aug. 24, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Jackson said licensed counseling professionals will be on hand to work with children, helping them develop good coping skills, understand what’s going on and why they’re going through what they’re going through.

The GWUL is also working with parents, in an aim to connect them with the appropriate counseling services after their session.

“We make sure that our families feel comfortable,” she said. “We make sure that they understand whatever you’re going through, we’re here to take that journey with you.”

In addition to the “Ask-A-Therapist” services, the organization will be easing the burden of back-to-school costs for parents by providing backpacks filled with essential supplies, a health and wellness pavilion offering vaccinations courtesy of Giant Food, a book fair in partnership with Sankofa Books and a Black Brilliance Marketplace showcasing D.C.-area Black-owned businesses.

The organization said it is also partnering with Second Baptist Church Southwest in District Heights, Maryland, located at at 5501 Silver Hill Road, where the fair will take place, to service the roughly 1,000 students expected to attend the event.

Participants interested in an “Ask-A-Therapist” session must sign up ahead of time at .

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Mancini, a former Salesforce executive, is the CEO of Black Girls Code, a nonprofit organization founded in 2011 dedicated to preparing girls and gender-expansive youth of color to be the next generation of tech creators, innovators, designers and decision makers. Mancini said the group is helping millions of girls of color become part of the tech industry.

Less than 2% of all STEM jobs are held by Black women, according to Mancini.

“As we sit here talking about AI and technology touching all things and being part of many industries, there’s an entire demographic missing from the rooms where some of these technologies are being developed, where they’re being funded and even to an certain extent 鈥� a large extent 鈥� where they’re being marketed,” Mancini told 草莓传媒.

Black Girls Code has a Code Along program on , a free video-based coding academy that gives step-by-step lessons and equips girls with tech skills and confidence.

The organization partners with local schools and community organizations to offer Code Clubs, weekly after-school programs, and it launched eight summer camps across the U.S. this summer. The summer camp program focused on computer vision through AI. Mancini said it used a curriculum that was developed by Responsible AI for Computational Action from MIT.

Mancini called communities of color “super users” of technology.

“So when you give the girls an opportunity to get behind the technology, to understand how to develop the technology, in ways that make sense to them, in ways they want to see it used, it’s really inspirational to see what they develop on the other side,” she said.

Since the inception of the organization, has engaged with 30,000 girls. She said the current Code Along programming has reached over 4 million people on YouTube. Over the last six months, the group has engaged with over 2,500 girls live and 300 girls in summer camps.

Summer campers were ages 11 to 13. A D.C.-area camp was held at the Mastercard Tech Hub in Arlington, Virginia.

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The Wisdom Walkers, a D.C.-area group that has participated in several events and led tours of D.C.-area landmarks, is a destination fitness organization dedicated to getting African Americans to take care of their physical health.

Eighteen of the Wisdom Walkers trekked more than 26 miles of the Inca Trail in Peru over four days and three nights to reach Machu Picchu. On July 14, the group reached the peak at Dead Woman’s Pass, an altitude of 13,828 feet.

Sam Gaillard of Bowie, Maryland, said it was his first climb after spending almost 20 years running 3 to 6 miles a day, 3 to 5 times per week. He said he was running to maintain his health, but as he got older he started looking for alternatives to running because of the impact it has on the body.

Gaillard said he saw an advertisement for the Wisdom Walkers trip, when he decided to take on the challenge. He said he trained with a combination of running and walking.

His advice to people interested in climbing: Push yourself to an uncomfortable place when you are training to prepare for the hike 鈥� and know your limits.

“We set a goal and we train people a whole year to get ready for the goal,” Sharon Robinson Goods, executive director of the Wisdom Walkers, told 草莓传媒. “The destination is really the motivation. The goal was really to get people in shape.”

Gaillard said he felt winded at the beginning of the climb, but kept telling himself to “go slow.” After he started paying attention to how the guide was navigating the trail, he noticed that they were walking in a zigzag pattern.

When Galliard began doing the same, he found that he didn’t feel as winded. He ended up being leader on the second day, with the motto: “Slow, slow, slow.”

The runner-turned-hiker got into the rhythm of a very slow run, but he had to push himself to get to the peak as the altitude increased and the team required more breaks.

But after all that work, Gaillard finally reached the peak.

“I remember being happy that I was at the top and being worried about everybody else getting to the top.” He told 草莓传媒 that 15 of the 18 people who began the trip reached the summit alongside the leaders in Alpaca Expedition 鈥� the senior-most group of African Americans to have reached the summit with their company.

However, it wasn’t the first historic feat for the group: In May 2022, the Wisdom Walkers became one of the oldest groups of Black Americans to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

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If you’re serving foods, such as potato salad, coleslaw and macaroni salad, Britanny Saunier, executive director of the in Alexandria, Virginia, said make sure you have a cooler packed with ice all the way up to the rim to maintain the cold. If the ice begins to melt, replenish it immediately.

The organization recommends putting your drinks in a separate cooler so that you’re not frequently opening the cooler, Saunier said.

If you’re cooking proteins on a grill, Saunier said cooking times vary, so make sure you’re using a food thermometer.

“If you cook to that safe internal temperature of the proteins, it reduces the presence of any bacteria, which increases your chances of staying healthy,” she said.

Hamburgers should to160 degrees, chicken 165 degrees and pork 145 degrees.

How do you keep your perishables safe in the trunk of your car on a hot day after you’ve gone grocery shopping and have other errands to run?

“If it’s over 90 degrees Fahrenheit that day, we recommend you get your food home asap within an hour,” Saunier said.

Make home your next stop if you’ve purchased perishables on hot summer days. She said leaving perishables in your trunk for an extended period of time allows any lingering bacteria to enter your food or be on your packaging from other points of cross contact and multiply at a high rate.

Partnership for Food Safety Education is a nonprofit organization that gives information on how to handle your food safely at home, so you reduce your risk of food poisoning. Food poisoning can have very serious health impacts which can lead to kidney failure, rheumatoid arthritis and gastrointestinal issues.

To find out more about food safety, .

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As a part of the program, the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation will be collecting new backpacks and essential classroom supplies to support students in the county.

The opening event is Monday, July 15 at 10 a.m. at the Department of Public Works and Transportation’s headquarters in Largo. The drive will run through Friday, August 16.

“The Stuff TheBus Back to School Supply Drive is one of our premiere events of the year. We are Prince George’s Proud to provide families with opportunities to receive backpacks and school supplies during these financially challenging times,” Michael D. Johnson, director of the Department of Public Works and Transportation, said in .

Since the Stuff TheBus program began, they have collected and distributed tens of thousands of backpacks and other school supplies.

“We encourage residents to visit [the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation] office in Largo and donate school supplies to help our students get ready for the upcoming school year,” Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said on .

The school year for students in Prince George’s County begins on August 26.

For students outside of Prince George’s County, , run by the Volunteers of America’s Chesapeake & Carolinas chapter, continues to collect school supplies for D.C.-area students in need.

For more information on how to participate in Prince George’s Stuff TheBus program, or contact Angela Rouson, spokesperson for the Department of Public Works and Transportation, at AJRouson@co.pg.md.us.

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Imagine your family is all ready to head to the pool, the beach or the lake for vacation or a day trip, but you have a child who is afraid of water. He or she cries, screams or runs every time they get near water.

How do you help that child overcome their fears?

Before canceling your plans, consider giving your child swimming lessons.

“Having a safe and a fun environment is usually one of the better ways to help kids get over the fear and enjoy the water instead of being terrified of it,” said Peter Lord, the aquatic director at the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington in Alexandria, Virginia.

Lord said part of the way you can improve a kid’s relationship with water is by making learning at the pool or beach a more exciting process.

“We really work on making swimming lessons fun and engaging so that the kids feel comfortable and that they know they are safe,” he told 草莓传媒.

Lord said he’s been swimming since he was 5 years old and teaches kids to respect the water.

“If you treat water with the respect it’s due, you can be safe in it,” Lord said. “You can have a great time, you can play sports, you can exercise in it.”

But you should do so safely, Lord said, by making sure your kids are not getting in the water without an adult.

“The main thing is always swimming around a lifeguard. Always having a buddy with you, especially if you’re talking about swimming in a lake or ocean that’s not as regulated as a pool,” he said.

The instructor also discouraged buying blue swimsuits for your child, since blue blends into the water, making it very difficult to see where you are. Instead, purchase a red, yellow or orange swimsuit for kids.

Also, on Lord’s list of tips for young swimmers:

• Do not run on a pool deck
• Do not dive in water that’s too shallow
• If you need to help someone, throw in a lifesaving buoy to prevent drowning. Don’t go in after the person, if you can help it
• Know your confidence and ability level in the water

Lord said now is the best time to start swimming lessons. The YMCA starts swim lessons for children 6 months old or older, but swim lessons are not just for kids.

“We have students in their 80s,” Lord told 草莓传媒.

More information on the YMCA’s swim lessons and other opportunities is available on the .

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At , powered by D.C. Greens, program manager Charles Rominiyi, said they work to promote health equity by building a just and resilient food system. The farm does that in a number of ways through community engagement, advocacy and programs such as its produce prescription program that helps people who are chronically ill gain access to fresh produce.

The Well at Oxon Run is a one-acre community farm and wellness space in Ward 8 where they grow crops and distribute produce. The space is located in the middle of Oxon Run Park.

“Walking into the Well is like walking into an oasis,” Rominiyi said, adding that there are flowers blooming, wildlife, fruit trees and berry bushes.

He said there are many ways to experience the space, “getting reconnected to nature, just being in green space.” That includes planting and harvesting.

“We encourage our volunteers to come and get their hands dirty,” Rominiyi said.

He said you can work with their farm team and learn how to plant crops and learn how to manage a small garden. Their volunteer days are on Tuesdays and Thursdays and volunteers learn good agricultural practices.

“You’ll learn how to keep plants alive and how to keep the ecosystem safe,” Rominiyi said.

Wednesdays and Fridays are their community harvest days, which he said, are an opportunity to share in the harvest with the community. Community members can come and harvest up to two pounds of produce.

“That process of harvesting and being connected with your food really does help with healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle,” Rominiyi said.

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Poston is the workforce development and outreach specialist for the . She’s also been the victim of a hate crime.

“It’s something that you don鈥檛 foresee coming, something you don鈥檛 expect,” Poston said. “It’s something that you don鈥檛 easily recover from.”

Poston said programs like the District’s make the path easier for people in their community who have been through the trauma of a hate crime.

While growing up in the D.C. area, Poston recalled a lot of crimes taking place against the LGBTQ community. But she added that times are changing with the help of programs like VPART, which provides resources, including trauma-informed therapy, legal assistance, mental health services, shelter assistance and other essential support services.

Programs like VPART did not exist for Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor鈥檚 Office of LGBTQ Affairs, when he was growing up in southwest Missouri. Bowles said there were not a lot of openly gay people in his area, nor access to resources for LGBTQ people.

Bowles said his interest in advocacy and community work brought him to D.C. after he completed his education and had a few campaigns under his belt.

Bowles told 草莓传媒 that the program brings together community organizations and government agencies, such as D.C. police’s LGBTQ Liaison Unit and the Office of Human Rights to address, reduce and prevent crime 鈥� particularly hate-bias incidents within the LGBTQ+ community.

They meet regularly to review hate bias report data and also to make sure that their community members are directly connected to the services they need, Bowles said.

Their dedicated service providers include the , and .

鈥淚鈥檓 just glad that we have a mayor and a D.C. Council that hears us and wants to address these causes and concerns for our community,鈥� Bowles said.

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It wasn’t until she lived in Galveston, Texas, for two years as a young adult that she learned of the holiday commemorating June 19, 1865 鈥� the date when 250,000 slaves in Texas learned that slavery had been abolished.

Conrad, who’s also the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, told 草莓传媒 of her time advocating for racial justice, including sneaking to the March on Washington in 1968 as a teenager.

The interim rector in Baltimore said that experience, as well as her time in Texas, caused her to dig deep into U.S. history.

“We are all complicit as a country when white institutions have become enriched on the backs of kidnapped and enslaved people,” Conrad said.

Conrad also says that celebrating Juneteenth is more important now than ever before.

“I think it’s important to celebrate Juneteenth as an example of what can happen when we ‘a’ speak truth, and then ‘b’ band in solidarity to make sure that truth is more than just words,” she said.

Conrad also says she is aware of her place in history.

“I enjoy a lot of privilege as a person wearing white skin,” she said, adding that she’s committed to doing what she can to leverage that privilege to transform the past into “a future where we can all enjoy the promise of freedom.”

, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission focuses on efforts to eradicate racism. It begins with establishing relationships, Conrad said, not just in terms of racial reconciliation but also with people of different faiths and political beliefs.

One such opportunity will be the Juneteenth Prayer and Celebration Service on June 19 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Baltimore.

The event invites participants to a process procession from the Cathedral of the Incarnation to Harriet Tubman Grove at Wyman Park Dell at 5:30 p.m. before a 6 p.m. prayer and celebration service at the park.

Information on the Diocese of Maryland Truth and Reconciliation Commission Juneteenth Prayer and Celebration Service for anyone who wants to participate.

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Vincent Slatt, Director of Archiving at the Rainbow History Project, told 草莓传媒 that LGBTQ history is a critical part of the history of local Washington.

“However,” Slatt said, “it’s not documented as well as other histories and presented as publicly as other histories.”

That’s why a group of elders and activists interested in documenting their own history, and conducting research on the history of LGBTQ-identifying people in D.C. founded the Rainbow History Project in 2000, according to Slatt.

He said the founders looked around at the area libraries, universities, the National Archives and the Library of Congress, but realized there was really no one collecting and preserving D.C. LGBTQ history.

So, Slatt said, the Rainbow History Project began recording oral histories.

Out of that grew the social geography project called “Places and Spaces.” The database on its website tracks almost 500 different locations where moments and pieces of LGBTQ history took place.

It’s not just bars and clubs, Slatt told 草莓传媒. “It’s arts and performing places, coffee shops, bookstores.”

He said elders and activists also came forward with paperwork, old newsletters, files from the different organizations, and started to craft an archival collection.

“We’ve now grown to approximately a quarter of a million pages of documentation,” Slatt said.

The group also started an archival partnership with the DC History Center, a nonprofit group that focuses on D.C. history, which houses the group’s archives.

Planning for a global celebration

The Rainbow History Project is also putting together a massive history exhibit for World Pride, which will be hosted in D.C. in June 2025. The exhibit is being called “Pickets, Protests and Parades.”

“For us, the story is really going to start 鈥� with those pickets at the White House in April of 1965 and go all the way until 2025 鈥� 60 years later,” Slatt said.

He added that the community is a lot safer and a lot better off in the District than similar communities across the U.S.

“In general, when I look at LGBTQ Washington versus the state of LGBTQ affairs across the country, I can really say that here in the District of Columbia, we have advanced by leaps and bounds,” Slatt told 草莓传媒.

More Pride Month stories

• Capital Pride鈥檚 test run for World Pride
• PHOTOS: 2024 Capital Pride and Block Party in DC
• Celebrating local Pride heroes: Deacon Maccubbin 鈥� the man behind DC’s Pride Party
• LGBTQ+ Pride Month is starting to show its colors around the world. What to know
• Mayor Bowser kicks off DC pride celebrations with the raising of the rainbow flag

He credited Mayor Muriel Bowser, whom he called one of most pro-gay mayors in the country, and a supportive D.C. Council for the progress made.

Slatt said the exhibit is going to show just how far the region has come.

“We’re going to show them what we did here and how we leveraged pride in order to get equal rights,” Slatt said.

More information on the collection is available online at .

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