Some Donald Trump supporters who woke up bright and early in D.C. on Friday encountered an unexpected scene on their way to the inauguration: a queer dance party.Before sunrise, a group of about 60 LGBTQ people and activists, clad in rainbow-colored clothes, marched from McPherson Park to a nearby security checkpoint outside of the presidential inauguration venue.
The group walled off the main entrance into the checkpoint, forcing some inauguration-goers to traipse through showers of purple glitter to get inside. Rihanna and Whitney Houston music pumped through loudspeakers on the street, and the activists blew whistles and horns while chanting “out of the closet, into the streets.” Some also participated in “kiss-ins,” kissing each other as inauguration guests walked by.
The Qockblockade Brigade — the same group that organized the queer dance party in Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s D.C. neighborhood the night before— planned the inauguration event. Activists claimed the gathering wasn’t meant to incite trouble or violence but to show solidarity with the queer people who are worried about their rights under a Trump presidency.