By ASHRAF KHALIL, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Pride 2025 welcome concert, with pop icon Shakira performing at Nationals Stadium, isn’t until May 31. But for host city Washington D.C., the festivities start with a string of localized Pride events beginning with Trans Pride on Saturday.

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ rallies, seminars, parties, after-parties and after-after-parties are planned for the next three weeks across the nation’s capital, including Black Pride and Latin Pride. It all culminates in a two-day closing festival on June 7 and 8 with a parade, rally and concerts on Pennsylvania Avenue by Cynthia Erivo and Doechii.

The biannual international event typically draws more than a million visitors from around the world and across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. But this year’s events will carry both a special resonance and a particular sense of community-wide anxiety due to the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump’s public antipathy for trans protections and drag shows has already prompted two international LGBTQ+ organizations, Egale Canada and the African Human Rights Coalition, to issue warnings against travelling to the U.S. at all. The primary concern is that trans or non-binary individuals will face trouble entering the country if passport control officers enforce the administration’s strict binary view of gender status.

“I think it’s a fair assumption that the international numbers won’t be as high due to the climate and the uncertainties,” said Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance. “At the same time we know that there’s an urgency and importance to showing up and making sure we remain visible and seen and protect our freedoms.”

There’s major anxiety over Trump’s approach to LGBTQ+ rights

Opposition to transgender rights was a key point for Trump’s presidential campaign last year and he’s been following through since returning to the White House in January, with orders to recognize people as being only male or female, keep transgender girls and women out of sports competitions for females, oust transgender military troops, restrict federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19 and threaten research funding for institutions that provide the care.

All the efforts are being challenged in court; judges have put some policies on hold but are currently letting the push to remove transgender service members move forward. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found support for some of his efforts.

In February, Trump launched a takeover at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, publicly promising to purge drag shows from the institution’s stages. Within days of that takeover, the Kennedy Center abruptly pulled out of plans to host the International Pride Orchestra as part of a week-long series of World Pride crossover events entitled Tapestry of Pride. In the wake of that cancellation, the Capital Pride Alliance cancelled the entire week and moved some of the Tapestry events to alternate venues.

Some potential international participants have already announced plans to skip this year’s events, either out of fear of harassment or as a boycott against Trump’s policies. But others have called for a mobilization to flood the capital, arguing that establishing a presence in potentially hostile spaces is the precise and proud history of the community.

“We’ve been here before. There is nothing new under the sun,” said D.C. Council Member Zachary Parker, who is gay. “While this is uncharted territory … a fight for humanity is not new to those in the LGBTQ+ community.”

Supporters say showing up would carry symbolic weight

A recent editorial in the The Blade by Argentinian activist Mariano Ruiz argued for “the symbolic weight of showing up anyway,” despite the legitimate concerns.

“If we set the precedent that global LGBTQI+ events cannot happen under right-wing or anti-LGBTQI+ governments, we will effectively disqualify a growing list of countries from hosting,” Ruiz wrote. “To those who say attending World Pride in D.C. normalizes Trump’s policies, I say: What greater statement than queer, trans, intersex, and nonbinary people from around the world gathering defiantly in his capital? What more powerful declaration than standing visible where he would rather we vanish?”

The last World Pride, in 2023, drew more than 1 million visitors to Sydney, Australia, according to estimates. It’s too early to tell whether the numbers this year will match those, but organizers admit they are expecting international attendance to be impacted.

Destination D.C., which tracks hotel booking numbers, estimated that bookings for this year during World Pride are about 10% behind the same period in 2024, but the organization notes in a statement that the numbers may be skewed by a “major citywide convention” last year that coincided with what would be the final week of World Pride this year.

Still, as the date approaches, organizers and advocates are predicting a memorable party. If international participation is measurably down this year, as many are predicting, the hope is that domestic participants will make a point of attending.

“The revolution is now,” said Parker, the D.C. council member. “There is no greater demonstration of resistance than being present and being you, and that is what World Pride is going to represent for millions of folks.”

Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

MILWAUKEE – A manager can appreciate two highly competitive athletes trying to make a play, even if the result of their efforts was painful – literally – for the Minnesota Twins.

When infielder Carlos Correa and outfielder Byron Buxton both made a play on a pop fly in Thursday’s game in Baltimore, it showed their competitiveness and some of the grit that has led the team to double digits in consecutive wins. It also landed Correa on the shelf.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli announced prior to Friday’s visit to the closed-roof home of the Brewers that Correa was headed to the seven-day concussion injured list as a result of his collision with Buxton.

“Ultimately, some of the tests that he went through today went fine, and some didn’t. And as soon as something doesn’t, that’s it,” Baldelli said of Correa, whose season batting average dropped to .236 before he left the game on Thursday. “We get him, basically, into the recovery phase as opposed to us testing him and trying to see if he can play. We put the playing aside and we just get him back to full strength.”

The bad news, which came in the midst of one of the longest winning streaks in Twins franchise history, came as a result of two players drifting into a kind of no man’s land between the infield and shallow outfield to make a play on a fly ball, which Buxton ultimately caught. Buxton, who also went into the concussion protocol after later leaving the game, did not go on the injured list, but he was not in Friday’s starting lineup.

“The play looked innocent, because I’m sure both of them would say, ‘Oh yeah, I could’ve made the play, no problem,’” Baldelli said. “It was just in that one small area on the field where both guys not only thought the other one was going to make the play but they were just going a little too far into the other guy’s space.”

The head injury comes after a 2024 season when Correa was limited to 86 games due to a nagging left foot ailment.

Big league debut for Fitzgerald

Utility infielder Ryan Fitzgerald had a tough first game of a doubleheader this week for the St. Paul Saints, then he found out he was headed to the Twins for his major league debut. Then his flight from Des Moines, Iowa to Milwaukee was cancelled, meaning he had to make the five-hour drive to the Brewers’ ballpark.

After a career spent playing minor league ball in the U.S. and Dominican Republic, the Chicagoland native who turns 31 next month would likely have walked the 350-plus miles for this opportunity. Primarily a shortstop who began his pro career with the Gary (Indiana) Railcats, Fitzgerald joked that he’d be willing to don catchers’ gear if it meant getting his first chance in the majors.

“Playing (independent) ball back in 2017, making 800 bucks a month, driving more than an hour to the ballpark, living at home, having this opportunity, I’m just super grateful,” he said. Fitzgerald added, with his debut happening so close to his hometown of Burr Ridge, Illinois, he had his parents, two brothers and assorted others headed to Milwaukee for the game.

Baldelli said the addition of Fitzgerald, who had hit .328 for the Saints with four home runs, gives the Twins some important options with Correa temporarily unavailable.

“We brought a guy that’s versatile and we brought a guy that can play in the middle of the infield, which means Willi Castro can go anywhere at that point,” the manager said.

Asked for a self-scouting report regarding what Twins fans can expect from him, Fitzgerald flashed a grin and flipped his impressive black, curly mullet.

“Good hair. That’s number one,” he said.

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In the summer of 1980, the man now known as Pope Leo XIV saw the new movie “The Blues Brothers” with a Lutheran friend at Roseville 4, a now-demolished theater on Larpenteur Avenue.

They also ate at the Black Forest Inn in Minneapolis and spent time at Luther Seminary, where friend John Snider lived. The Rev. Snider is now the senior pastor at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in West St. Paul, and during that summer of 1980, he, Bob Prevost, as the pope was then known, and three others served together in a clinical pastoral education group at Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis.

John Snider, left, and Robert Prevost outside of the Augustinian House in Chicago in the summer 1980. Snider, now the senior pastor at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in West St. Paul, and Prevost — now better known as Pope Leo XIV — served together in a clinical pastoral education group at Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis that summer and have remained friends. (Courtesy of John Snider)

“I’d say, ‘Bob, let’s get together,’ but it was kind of bouncing around a bit,” Snider said. “He finally said, ‘If we’re going to be friends, we have to make a commitment.’ It was like, oh, yeah. So we did. We did a lot of things all summer, and I just think of that as one of those characteristics that’s true to him — people count, and he makes a commitment to be there with you.”

Then, as now, many seminary students are required to complete clinical pastoral education at medical centers or hospitals, almost like an internship where they gain skills on “the relational, conversational, emotional side of the job,” Snider said.

The men were in their early 20s; this was before they were ordained by their respective religious bodies: Snider at Luther Seminary in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Prevost within the Augustinian order of the Roman Catholic church. While Snider lived at the Seminary in St. Paul, Prevost lived on the hospital campus in Minneapolis.

“I’ll tell you the other thing: To have known someone, we were 22 and 23 or maybe 24, and to see this guy now being under a microscope, and lots of people either fawning on him or dogging him for this and that is like, what?!” Snider said. “But truthfully, I don’t worry about him. He’s not in it to be Pope; he’s in it to serve.”

About a week before the papal conclave was set to begin earlier this month to select a new pope, Snider reached out to his old friend — not knowing he would soon become pope, of course, but wishing him well as a voting member of the College of Cardinals.

“He responded, ‘Love to you and Polly and thanks for your friendship through the years. It’s all in God’s hands. Blessings, Bob,’” Snider said.

Snider is set to retire from St. Stephen’s on Sunday, May 18 — the same day as Leo XIV’s inaugural mass in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City.

The Roseville 4 theater, which had been on the corner of Larpenteur and Fernwood Street since the 1970s, closed in 2008 and was torn down to make room for an adjacent grocery store expansion.

Pastor John Snider of St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in West St. Paul, left, with his friend Robert Prevost, then a bishop and now better known as Pope Leo XIV, in Rome in 2010. The two have been friends since working together as seminary students at Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis in 1980. (Courtesy of John Snider)

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As far as Snider knows, Prevost has not been back to Minnesota since that summer, but Snider visited his friend in Rome in 2010 when the now-pope was serving as the global head of the Order of Saint Augustine.

No sitting popes have visited Minnesota; Prevost’s 1980 summer work makes him only the second pope in history known to have visited Minnesota before his papacy. Before becoming Pope Pius XII, then-Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli briefly stopped in St. Paul on a national tour in 1936.

“All my friends are like, ‘So when’s your next trip to Rome?’” Snider said, laughing. “But I’m not sure what a Pope’s vacation schedule is like! How many days off do you think the Pope gets to request?”

Some people are terrible tenants

Just exempting new buildings from rent control is not going to solve our housing problem.  An even bigger issue is the message that the Tenant Protections ordinance is sending to landlords.

As a longtime, small landlord, I will NEVER invest in another rental building in St Paul as long as the City continues with this one-sided attitude to prevent landlords from properly screening bad actors from rental aplicants, and making it difficult to evict tenants who violate rules or don’t pay their rent on time.

There are some people, because of their irresponsible behavior and/or criminal activities, who are terrible tenants. We need to have a serious discussion on how to house these people. Just forcing landlords to accept them as tenants will never work. It will just cause all landlords to flee the city and make the housing problem much worse.

Mike Schumann, St. Paul

 

Don’t be too bossy about housing. Give cities an incentive to figure it out

I am encouraged that legislative action on removing the majority of local housing zoning is likely dead for a second time. Not out of spite, I submit the language smacks of “big brother” knows best.

As a member of a local city planning commission, I can vouch that cities spend considerable time and talent maximizing their positive impact while following their 2040 Comprehensive Plan. In addition, cities plan for commercial and industrial growth plus open spaces for parks and trails. City discussions are ongoing on how to put new residents into homes and apartments. Planning commissions and city councils are well aware of their unique needs for growth. It is not forgotten that market forces on the cost of construction materials and labor plus interest rates weigh heavily on the prospective buyer.

Also, for the metro area, the Met Council recently posted their 2050 Comp Plan, which provides both guidance and limitations for what cities in the seven-county metro area can do. Add to this another layer of “governmental guidance” concerning lot sizes, parking spaces, multi-unit structures, and you likely induce unintended consequences. Not to be forgotten are the pre-existing infrastructure plans for the cities’ capacity to handle current and future sewage and water availability.

As it is likely the Legislature will come back for a third rendition of their ideas, I submit there is a better idea.

Allow the cities to use their staff for planning and couple it to a state subsidy. Don’t mandate, but incentivize the cities to create new housing opportunities to address the issue of affordable housing. Encourage solutions with an increase in “local government aid” or some similar method. A legislative fix of “one size fits all” suppresses innovation. Rather, encourage it with a revenue stimulus which rewards creative city planning.

Joe Polunc, Waconia

 

Instead of ‘this tree might die,’ let’s say, ‘this tree might live’

I live in the East Como neighborhood of St. Paul. My neighborhood is the subject of a City of St. Paul “improvement” project that includes placement of curb and gutter, sewer and water main pipelines, and sidewalks. Early on, the city assured concerned residents they would save as many trees “as possible.”

Clearly the meaning of “as possible” was not understood the same way by both parties. In two weeks in March the city marked, then quickly removed, dozens of beautiful, mature trees, shocking me and many neighbors. Many were in areas that already had sidewalks and curbs. Whole blocks lost their canopies. There was no opportunity to question the reasoning behind the decisions. The general explanation was that even where there are existing curbs and sidewalks the street work will necessitate a trench that would destroy a percentage of the trees’ root systems.

The city has an extremely conservative system for assessing trees and determining their “risk.” Mature urban trees must be viewed as the assets, the treasures, that they are, not as liabilities and barriers to “improvement.” Every possible action should be taken to first avoid, then mitigate damage to trees when completing “improvement” projects (let me tell you that my new, barren landscape seems anything but improved).

Mature tree canopies are the heartbeat and lungs of a livable neighborhood, taking many decades to establish. They provide shade, reduce energy costs, provide groundwater filtration and wildlife habitat, increase property values. Bottom line: they increase quality of life, and this is not being adequately included in the city’s rigid, conservative formula for tree removal. After all measures are taken to avoid and mitigate damage, we should monitor. Let’s change our view from “this tree might die” to “this tree might live”. Monitor the effects of the project over time; even a tree that is damaged and “might” die, can be a canopy and a home for many years to come. Give trees a chance.

Jessie Ebertz, St. Paul

 

Who knows better how to spend your money?

Who knows better how to spend your money: you, or Gov. Walz? Gov. Walz believes he does.

If we overpay our Federal taxes, we receive a refund.  But in 2023, the State of Minnesota collected an $18 billion surplus. That equals more than $3,100 per resident!  Was this money put aside so that taxes could be lower in future years? No. Instead Gov. Walz and the then-DFL-controlled Legislature spent: ALL of it.  Walz raised state spending and now is looking for ways to raise taxes still further.

We are not tax cows with an endless supply of milk for you to dispose of as you wish. Please recognize your hubris: decrease spending and taxes. We know how we would like to spend, or save, the money we’ve earned.

Michael Bird, St. Anthony

 

Remember our fallen firefighters

Another St. Paul building with a sad history relating to the Saint Paul Fire Department is closing. Like the Saint Paul Athletic Club, which closed last year, where three St. Paul firefighters (District Chief Frank Minogue, Captain Thomas Kell, and firefighter Russell Hunt) were killed.

Now the WestRock paper recycling plant, 2250 Wabash Avenue, is closing. In 1907, it opened as Waldorf Paper Products. On June 9, 1949, there was a massive fire engulfing the building. Once the fire was knocked down, three St. Paul firefighters entered the building to examine the damage. Fire Chief Edward Novak, Assistant Chief Frank McMahon and District Chief Harold Barck entered and were killed when an avalanche of concrete blocks and water-soaked bales of paper buried all three.

May we always remember those firefighters who protect us and our city daily. They should always be remembered for their sacrifices.

William J. Langevin, St. Paul. The writer is retired from the St. Paul Fire Department.

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