Celebrating Pride, Proudly

Historically, the LGBTQ+ community has been the first to push the boundaries that everyone else eventually catches up to. Hello crop tops, brunch, and deep house.

Back in the 80s it was queer activists advocating the hardest for medical marijuana legalization, fighting to get cannabis to AIDS patients when nobody else was showing up. And that’s just one chapter. Travel back in time to basically every major moment in culture and you’ll see who was at the forefront.

This Pride Month, we want to celebrate the ways in which the LGBTQ+ community has continued to shape culture throughout history. And yes, leave it to us to mention how that culture also just so happens to include cannabis.

Historically Speaking…

Queer icons have been rolling out the rainbow carpet more than 2,000 years before RuPaul started Drag Race. And if you need proof, Socrates was holding court in Athens having the exact same conversations about love, identity, and the meaning of a good life. Just with less glitter.

The Greeks: a culture that did its due diligence in documenting and celebrating homosexuality. Socrates himself, the father of Western philosophy and the reason your therapist answers every question with a question, was openly in love with men, and nobody batted an eye. In fact, they wrote it down, painted it, and put it on their household ceramics. As for cannabis? Well, did the Socratic Method perhaps come to Socrates mid cannabis-infused Scythian vapor bath? We’d like to think yes.

Fast forward to Paris, 1907. Gertrude Stein was living openly as a lesbian, hosting a salon that essentially invented modern art as we know it. Picasso, Matisse, and Hemingway? All regulars. Her life partner, Alice B. Toklas, meanwhile, was busy contributing to the canon in her own way: her legendary Hashish Fudge recipe in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book became one of the best-selling cookbooks of all time. Reshaping modern art while enjoying a light snack of “dried fruit, cannabis, nuts, and spices”? Sounds like a winning combination.

Sail across the pond to NYC in 1920 and the Harlem Renaissance is in full swing. Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith, and Ma Rainey, some of the most iconic voices of the era, were paving the way for queer culture when that took real courage. And where were they doing it? In “tea pads” and reefer clubs where jazz, queerness, and cannabis were inseparable.

It’s 2026, we’ve made the 2,400-year loop right back to RuPaul’s Drag Race. International drag icon Laganja Estranja has made the intersection of LGBTQIA+ rights and cannabis advocacy her platform, unapologetically bringing both to mainstream audiences. Drag has always been about radical self-expression and refusing to be put in a box. Cannabis culture isn’t so different. Two communities that built their identities in the margins, now both moving toward the center.

Paying Homage at this Year’s Pride

It’s June in D.C. and Pride Month is full of events worthy of the queer cultural movers and shakers who’ve brought us to where we are today. Celebrate their legacy and today’s living queer culture by dancing, viewing art, hearing live music, and perhaps hitting up some “tea pads” across the city.

Pride Family Day at the Smithsonian: On Saturday, June 6th, get into the spirit of Pride with live performances and a spotlight on LGBTQ+ artists featured in the museum’s permanent collection.

Riot!: Slip into something to make Laganja Estranja proud and get ready for a night of DJs, dancing, and live performances. Riot! is the official opening party for Capital Pride on June 19th from 9 PM- 3:30 AM.

Capital Pride Parade + Festival: Maybe you’re still hungover from Friday, or maybe you took a page from Gertrude Stein with some Hashish Fudge. Either way, there’s no better plan for walking off a weekend out than snacking your way through the Capital Pride Parade + Street Festival. June 21st enjoy an LGBTQ+ fest of art, food, music, and dance.

No Kids Allowed: And best paired with any of the above activities? A little bit of Harlem Renaissance-worthy reefer from an LGBTQ+-owned dispensary right here in D.C.

History has a funny way of proving that silenced voices end up echoing loudest. So when you’re out voguing at the Pride after-party or yelling “slaaaay” to the best-dressed parade goers, remember whose voices you’re amplifying, and celebrate them with Pride.

WEED THE PEOPLE