Deacon Maccubbin organized DC’s first Pride party in 1975. Now, he’s thinking about the role he played in creating an event that would one day bring hundreds of thousands of people to DC to celebrate who they are.
Each week, WTOP celebrates a Pride hero who has made a difference in the LGBTQ+ community in the DC area as part of our Pride Month coverage. Check back throughout June as we share these stories on air and online.
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Celebrating local pride heroes: Deacon Maccubbin
A year after L. Page “Deacon” Maccubbin opened the gay bookstore Lambda Rising, in 1974, he was talking with friends about going to a Pride celebration in New York City.
“Someone said, ‘Why don’t we do something in Washington,'” Maccubbin said. “I thought, ‘This is a wonderful idea, let’s do it.’”
Maccubbin went to work at once. He decided to hold a Pride party right across from Lambda Rising at 1724 20th Street NW in DC’s Dupont Circle neighborhood.
One of the first things the city required of Maccubbin was to consult with its neighbors.
“We had the support of over 51% of the people in the neighborhood to sign a petition allowing us to close the block,” Maccubbin told WTOP.
Knowing he needed help organizing such a large event, Maccubbin hired his friend Bob Carpenter. They spread the word by putting flyers in all the gay bars in DC.
Deacon with Proclamation of Pride: Deacon Maccubbin holds a Proclamation of Pride from the DC Council. With him (from left) are Frank Kameny, a gay rights activist, and John A. Wilson, a D.C. Council member (and later president) who coordinated the resolution. (Courtesy of Rainbow History Project, Inc.)
Courtesy of Rainbow History Project, Inc.
Revelers at Pride ’78: Revelers at the Gay Pride Day block party on 20th St. NW in 1978. (Courtesy of Rainbow History Project, Inc.)
Courtesy of Rainbow History Project, Inc.
Deacon Maccubbin (right) and her husband, Jim Bennett, on the steps of where their bookstore once stood, overlooking the site of the first annual DC Pride event. (WIPO/Jimmy Alexander)
WTOP/Jimmy Alexander
Deacon Maccubbin (left) and her husband, Jim Bennett, on the steps of where their bookstore once stood, overlooking the site of the first annual DC Pride event. (WIPO/Jimmy Alexander)
WTOP/Jimmy Alexander
For more information about RHP and its archives, visit www.rainbowhistory.org.
Then, at 1 p.m. on June 22, 1975, the DC Gay Pride Party was scheduled to begin. But there was a problem.
“At 10 minutes to one, there was no one on the street,” Maccubbin said.
Carpenter was nervous and, according to Maccubbin, clapped his hands and said, “Nobody’s going to show up.”
“I said, ‘Don’t worry Bob, they’ll be here.’ They’re just on ‘gay time’. … Soon after, we had 2,000 people,” Maccubbin said.
Maccubbin shared these memories with WTOP from the steps of where his bookstore once was located, overlooking the site of the first annual DC Pride event.
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“We had bands playing. The politicians stop by to greet us. “All the neighbors came out,” Maccubbin said. “It was an incredible experience.”
A local television news crew also appeared that day.
Maccubbin made a deal with the journalists: they were only allowed to film on one side of the street. Everyone attending the block party was told that if they did not want to appear on television, they should stand on the other side of the street.
“There were some people who were worried about their jobs or their families seeing them,” Maccubbin said.
Not everyone was happy with the work Maccubbin was doing for the gay community. Not only did Maccubbin have to deal with a lot of harassment over the phone, but the windows of his bookstore were also broken and bomb threats were received.
Whenever there was an incident, Maccubbin and his staff would head to the bookstore and move on.
“We had to stand up and be counted. We weren’t going anywhere,” said Maccubbin’s husband, Jim Bennett. “More and more people stood up and said we’re not going to put up with this garbage anymore.”
The bad memories have now faded and Maccubbin thinks more about the role he played in creating an event that would one day bring hundreds of thousands of people to DC to celebrate who they are.
“Rarely a week goes by without hearing someone talk about coming out at Pride or coming out at our bookstore, Lambda Rising,” Maccubbin said. “Because it was the first place where they felt welcome.”
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