WASHINGTON — World Pride kicks off this weekend in the nation’s capital.

Washington was selected as the host city before Donald Trump was elected president. Now some organizers and advocates say some of his policies, especially his opposition to transgender rights, are casting a shadow over the celebration. Some attendees are skipping World Pride entirely.

Casey Broughton, a transgender woman living in Montreal, said she’s decided not to attend the festivities this year.

“If things were different right now, I probably would be looking at planning a trip to come to D.C. during that time because it's a fun event,” said Broughton “I don't think it's safe to go down there anymore.”

Trump has taken particular aim at transgender rights in his second term, signing executive orders to ban trans women from women’s sports and prohibit transgender military service.

“For four long years, we had an administration that tried to abolish the very concept of womanhood and replace it with radical gender ideology,” Trump said at a White House event in March.

Another order designated two unchangeable sexes — male and female — prompting the State Department to update its passport policy to eliminate the “X” sex marker and only issue passports with an “M” or “F” moving forward. 

In response, several countries, including France, Germany and Ireland, issued U.S. travel advisories to their transgender and nonbinary citizens.

Deputy Director for the Capital Pride Alliance June Crenshaw said her organization originally estimated 2 million to 3 million people to attend, but following these actions, she said the team anticipates a drop in attendance.

“We know that there's some concerns and obstacles for international people to travel here, particularly our trans, trans siblings and gender nonconforming folks,” said Crenshaw. “I think that folks are worried that it will not occur and are concerned about making the investment, and we want to assure folks that D.C. is safe.” 

Local advocates, including SaVanna Wanzer, founder of Trans Pride Washington, DC, are also feeling the impact of Trump's policies. Wanzer said the president is working to “erase” the transgender community.

“We are so out of breath, our throats are sore from chanting,” said Wanzer. “We are afraid.”

And that same tiredness is felt by the World Pride team.

“The rhetoric that's going around, the kind of the challenges that we're facing are harmful and are impactful to everyone's spirits, including mine,” said Crenshaw. “I'm exhausted, and I think the entire team is. We are kind of navigating circumstances that we've never encountered before.”

A big change to programming this year came last month when it was announced the Kennedy Center will no longer be used for events tied to World Pride. It was a decision tied to Trump installing himself as the center’s chairman and deciding that certain performances, including drag shows, would no longer take place there.

But Crenshaw said the show must go on, pointing out that pride originated as a protest, and that this will be an opportunity for the community to get together to fight back against what she calls harmful policies to the LGBTQ+ community.

“This is important work, it is passionate work, and we will navigate through it,” said Crenshaw. “I know a lot of folks use resiliency all the time, and we’ll be resilient in this and step up to the moment and to the occasion.”

Crenshaw said the Capital Pride Alliance team has taken specific safety precautions, such as waiting to disclose the location of certain events and putting up gates at their music festival this year. But it may not be enough to convince those who are hesitant to attend, or at least it wasn’t for Broughton.

“With the way that things are in the States ... I'm not sure if I would even say surprised but certainly disappointed and dismayed that they haven't canceled it or otherwise moved it,” said Broughton.

Spectrum News reached out to the White House to ask for a response to people saying they are avoiding World Pride due to Trump’s policies and rhetoric. It did not provide a response by the time this story was published.