June 2025

Happy Pride Month from the Office of Planning (OP)! As the District hosts WorldPride 2025 and celebrates 50 years of Pride celebrations in DC, we’re inviting people to explore and be inspired by our local queer history. Read the article below to learn more about the DC Queer History Map we released this month.

OP also launched the Designing Queer Futures Survey this month to collect your ideas on inclusive, safe, and joyful spaces for queer people. As part of our work in developing the District’s next comprehensive plan, DC 2050, we are exploring how DC can support LGBTQ+ communities through inclusive public spaces, public art, housing, and more. 

Sincerely,
Anita Cozart
Director, DC Office of Planning

• New Interactive Website Featuring Historic LGBTQ+ Spaces Across DC
• DC Office of Planning-Led Zoning Updates
• Strategies for Housing the District’s Public Service Workers
• 📢 Engage in Planning Efforts
• OP in the Community

New Interactive Website Featuring Historic LGBTQ+ Spaces Across DC

In celebration of Pride Month, OP launched a new website featuring an interactive map of important LGBTQ+ sites in the District. Residents can visit The Queer Capital: Historic LGBTQ Spaces in Washington, DC to explore and learn about the people, places, and events that have shaped the history and culture of the nation's capital.

The Queer Capital website features historic images and location information that serves as a tour guide for visiting sites across the city. The featured spaces include businesses, recreational centers, health and wellness facilities and homes where queer Washingtonians gathered, worked, played, and fought for their rights.

The digital tour tells the story of well-known places like Lafayette Square where protestors gathered from the 1960s onwards to advocate for queer rights and representation, to lesser-known locations, like the site of The ClubHouse, a dancehall in Petworth that created a safe place for Black, queer people to gather and led to the formation of the first Black Pride in 1991. These stories are a testament to the resilience, tenacity, diversity, and joy of the queer community in the face of oppression and discrimination.

The research for this project was supported by an Underrepresented Communities Grant from the National Park Service. If you have information about historic locations relevant to the queer history of the Asian American and Pacific Islander, Indigenous, trans, and disabled communities in particular, please contact us at historic.preservation@dc.gov.

National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, 1987. Credit: Doug Hinckle

ClubHouse manager Rainey Cheeks in white suit and members of the ClubHouse Dancers. Courtesy of Rainbow History Project.

DC Office of Planning-Led Zoning Updates

OP is working with the Zoning Commission, the Department of Buildings, other agencies, and stakeholders to identify and address hurdles and inconsistencies in the District’s zoning regulations. These zoning changes will support innovative approaches for housing and efficient land utilization and provide flexibility for adaptive re-use of properties.

RA = Residential Apartment
R = Residential
RF = Residential Flat

For more information about OP-led zoning initiatives, visit planning.dc.gov/page/zoningreviews.

Strategies for Housing the District’s Public Service Workers

ULI Washington has published a new report on strategies for housing the District’s public service workers. In November 2024, ULI Washington, with the support of OP and Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund, convened a panel of industry experts to develop a framework for DC to provide more housing for public service workers, early career professionals, and higher education students. This report builds on other ongoing efforts by the District to bolster economic growth and help to reimagine and reinvigorate Downtown DC. Recommendations included strategies for leveraging DC’s competitive advantage, forming strategic and productive partnerships, legislative and regulatory reform, and housing types to help meet the District’s goals. Read the full report.

📢 Engage in Planning Efforts

Learn more and get involved in our community planning projects:

• DC 2050
• Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant Public Life Study
• Commemorate DC
• Poplar Point Plan
• Rhode Island Avenue Planning Study

OP in the Community

Join us at the following events where OP staff will be available to answer questions and share information about OP’s work:

• July 24 | Commemorate DC Ward 5 Design Workshop | 5:30 – 7:30pm | Bryant Street Market, 670 Rhode Island Avenue NE

DC 2050 Interactive Community Dialogues at Ron Brown High School, May 31

World Pride LGBTQ+ Walking Tours in Dupont Circle, May 31 & June 6

DC 2050 Interactive Community Dialogues at Stuart-Hobson Middle School, June 4

DC 2050 team tabling at WorldPride Festival, June 7 & 8

DC 2050 team tabling at Mary’s Center, June 12

DC 2050 team tabling at DowntownDC BID Annual Meeting, June 18

DC 2050 focus group w/ East of the River Family Strengthening Collaborative, June 25

OP at Open Streets DC in Capitol Hill, June 28