Chevy Chase, D.C. got a lot more colorful Wednesday night.
About 200 gay rights activists—some clad in rainbow suspenders and neon necklaces—danced their way through the neighborhood that’s the temporary home of vice president-elect Mike Pence.
“We want to send a clear message to the vice president that bigotry and hate is not OK,” Firas Nasr said. Nasr organized the event dubbed “Queer Dance Party for Mike Pence” with his group Werk 4peace.
The party was peaceful, with activists ranging in age from teens to more than 70 years old gyrating to Beyoncé, Queen and Lady Gaga.
Here's another crowd shot of the "queer dance party for Mike Pence" happening now in DC pic.twitter.com/kLrJFl2oai
— AJ Metcalf (@AJwatchMD) January 18, 2017
The march started at the Friendship Heights Metro station, where the activists gathered and Nasr let them know, “you all look fabulous.”
Led by a truck loaded with speakers, three motorcycles and a scooter, the protesters made their way up Western Avenue, through the Chevy Chase Circle until stopping at Tennyson Street near Pence’s house—dancing, twerking and chanting the whole way.
The dance party for Mike Pence has now occupied the Chevy Chase Circle pic.twitter.com/m3CduHMTCh
— AJ Metcalf (@AJwatchMD) January 19, 2017
Britnee Miller of D.C., was one of the women driving a motorcycle at the head of the protest. She’s a member of the Out Riders Women’s Motorcycle Club and was wearing her black leather vest emblazoned with the club’s logo on Wednesday.
“I friggin’ love it,” Miller said about the dance party. “I wanted to have a presence here for a club and show that we’re about inclusion and community.”
Rhiannon McGinn said she traveled from Baltimore after learning about the dance party on Facebook.
“I donated in Mike Pence’s name to Planned Parenthood, so I thought it would be a good idea to come out to his dance party,” McGinn said.
She was with her friend Elizabeth Fulda, who said after they were going to drink and “pour one out for America.”
As they danced up Western Avenue to songs like “Girls Run The World,” residents of the neighborhood could be seen watching the jovial procession from their doorsteps and front lawns. One resident, who declined to be named because she said she works for the current administration, said, “It’s awesome, I love it. It makes me happy.”
They're dancing now pic.twitter.com/4rH7ieHzQB
— AJ Metcalf (@AJwatchMD) January 18, 2017
Police from both the District and Montgomery County escorted the group during the protest, which lasted from about 6:30 p.m. until breaking up around 8:30 p.m.
Pence moved into a white colonial with green shutters on Tennyson Street in November and made it his temporary home before he moves to the Naval Observatory after the Inauguration Friday.
The former governor of Indiana, who identifies himself as a Christian conservative, has taken controversial positions on issues related to gay rights—such as supporting the former “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy and saying that being gay is a choice.
So perhaps it was intentional irony that when the protesters departed from the Friendship Heights Metro station Wednesday night the speaker truck blasted Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”
And off they go to up Western. Ave to "born this way" pic.twitter.com/IzC6lLsY25
— AJ Metcalf (@AJwatchMD) January 18, 2017
