The NYPD has pulled back from a proposed security plan that would have created a single checkpoint to enter Washington Square Park after the upcoming Pride parade — one of the few times in recent weeks that the police department has decided not to rein in a gathering in public space.

Local activists and members of the LGBTQIA+ community got the news towards the end of a press conference on Friday morning that had been called to draw attention to the NYPD proposal, which had circulated among Pride organizers and the Sixth Precinct.

Organizers of various Pride events gathered to say they don’t want more barriers on the annual celebration — especially those put up by the police, whose aggression towards lesbians and gays birthed the event itself.

“Pride was started by a rejection of the NYPD’s attempts to control our community,” said Jay Walker, the co-founder of the Queer Liberation March and the president of Gays Against Guns NYC. “That is why Pride exists, but continually, the NYPD tries to hamper our Pride celebration.”

Word had begun to spread in May, when the Sixth Precinct shared the plan that the NYPD would tightly control access to the park after Pride on June 28. According to emails obtained by Streetsblog, precinct officials had told organizers that the closure plan would be similar to the policing strategy on April 20, when cops set up a single entrance to the park and checked everyone’s bag.

LGBTQIA+ groups, plus David Siffert, a candidate for the state Assembly, objected.

“We need to make clear that this park is a public park,” said Siffert, at Friday’s press conference.

For weeks, the NYPD kept organizers in limbo, but at the end of the press conference, Walker finally received a text from his contact at the NYPD that Washington Square Park will be open, as usual, on June 28.

“There is currently no formal plan” to enact restrictions at the park, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed in an email to Streetsblog.

The confusion over Pride mirrors what has been going on in the city this summer, as the NYPD has heightened its presence in public space. Knicks fans trying to celebrate the team’s post-season run were blocked from entering the area surrounding Madison Square Garden by police barricades for the last two championship games. And the NYPD objected to many World Cup watch parties that the Department of Transportation had planned to set up this summer, though the Mamdani administration later created a spate of events at other venues likely chosen to minimize the alleged need for cops.

And World Cup attendees and city residents alike have been told to expect an increased police presence in the city while the matches are happening in New Jersey. Queer New Yorkers worry that the NYPD could impede on their gathering, too.

“Locking down this park is locking out the queer community, locking us out of a place of celebration, protest, and community,” said Lorelei Crean, a young activists for LGBTQIA+ rights.

New York City’s Pride Parade started after the Stonewall Riots of 1969, when the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a mob-owned bar that was the epicenter of the queer community. The first Pride Parade was held the next year, and has continued annually ever since. Last year, the parade hosted 75,000 people.

The parade itself doesn’t travel through Washington Square Park, but the park is usually a meeting space for celebrants before, during and after — not only a reflection on the community’s struggles, but also its history of resistance to the police.

“To have to come here and advocate to not have this public space shut down on the historic day is completely outrageous,” said Kei Williams, the executive director for the LGBTQIA+ rights group, the New Pride Agenda.

Williams pointed out the irony that cops would be policing the gay and trans community when, in fact, members of those groups are the ones who are so often targeted with violence.

WILLIAMSPORT, MD (June 12, 2026) – The Washington County Highway Department announces an upcoming road closure on Bottom Road between the Tannery and the railroad tracks at the Quarry from Monday, June 15, 2026 through Wednesday, June 17, 2026 between 7:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. daily. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding. Alternative routes will be available for motorists. 

For further information, please contact Washington County’s Public Relations and Marketing Department at [email protected].

###

President Donald Trump threatened D.C. home rule when asked Thursday about the race for D.C. mayor.

In the Oval Office Thursday, Trump warned if Janeese Lewis George wins next week’s Democratic primary and becomes D.C.’s next mayor, the federal government could take over the nation’s capital.

“Well, I wouldn’t like it, and maybe we’d take back Washington and run it on the federal basis,” Trump said. “We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses. By the way, Washington, now, is a safe, beautiful place.”

“People are coming; restaurants are thriving,” the president added. “The restaurants were all closing, closed. Nobody wanted. Now you can’t get restaurant space, you can’t get into. We have a thriving community; we got rid of the crime.”

The president suggested his administration could take over D.C. if Janeese Lewis George wins the mayor’s race.

Trump was responding to a reporter asking about Lewis George running a “Zohran Mamdani campaign,” in reference to New York City’s mayor, that focuses on “socialist” policies.

“We are not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president,” Lewis George said in a statement. “We are not going to protect our rights or Home Rule by obeying in advance.

“Threatening Home Rule because you do not like how residents vote is an attack on democracy itself,” she said.

News4’s Mark Segraves hosted a conversation Thursday between D.C. mayoral candidates Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie. NBC4 selected the participants based on publicly available polling.

The campaign for Kenyan McDuffie, Lewis George’s main competition in Tuesday’s primary, released a statement saying, “The stakes of this election couldn’t be higher, but DC decides who will be the next mayor, not Donald Trump.”

The statement defended home rule and noted overreach by the Trump administration, promising to “revive our economy that Trump’s policies have decimated, including the tens of thousands of residents who have been laid off by his unconscionable actions with Elon Musk.”

The president’s comments insinuated threats to D.C. he’s made dating back two years to his campaign.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has tried to keep the Trump administration at bay, but Trump did federalize the Metropolitan Police Department, deploy the National Guard in the city and establish the Safe and Beautiful Task Force.

Trump needs Congress to overturn home rule in the District, and at least through 2026, Republicans control the House and Senate, which have shown willingness to interfere in D.C.

News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.