Photo by anokarina.

Capital Pride accepted the resignation of an executive producer after a group critical of the event publicized an article he wrote last May arguing that transgender bathroom laws are unnecessary because “truly trans” people would pass undetected.

The dust-up underscores the tensions in hosting an event where “we value everyone’s voice, we value everyone’s perspective,” as Ryan Bos, the executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, puts it.

Bryan Pruitt is a contributor for rightwing commentary site RedState.com and has volunteered with Capital Pride Alliance since 2015, serving last year as the executive producer for safety and security. The organization—which plans an annual celebration of LGBTQ identity every June—calls all of its three hundred-some volunteers “producers,” with a smaller group of less than 20 serving in leadership roles as “executive producers.”

The group No Justice No Pride, comprised of left-leaning activists organizing through ResistThis, posted Pruitt’s May 2016 article “Grabbing Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory,” which says that “if a Clinton defeat comes to pass, the powers that be need look no further than the LGBT community for where to lay the blame.”

In the article, Pruitt calls laws that affirm a person’s right to use whichever public restroom fits with their gender identity (D.C. has one on the books) “a solution in search of a problem.”

There is not an epidemic of trans people being denied access to public facilities. Trans people safely use bathrooms every day, mostly because if they are truly trans, other folks don’t even notice.

Siobhan McGuirk, an organizer with No Justice No Pride, says Pruitt writes “jaw-droppingly offensive articles that promote extraordinarily transphobic ideas. To suggest that people who are ‘truly trans’ have nothing to worry about is inconceivable.”

Pruitt says he’s not transphobic. “I have trans friends, I have trans colleagues. My particular political opinions about the strategy of which we gain trans equality is different than being supportive of transgender full-stop.”

He doesn’t regret what he wrote. He says that bathroom laws are a “a red herring—it’s causing more problems than are necessary.” So what does he have to say to Gavin Grimm, a transgender Virginia teen who is now the plaintiff in a seminal lawsuit after his high school wouldn’t let him use the men’s bathroom, and who is a featured speaker at D.C. pride this year?

“He’s one of our heroes,” says Pruitt. “We need to be 100 percent supportive of our trans community, and I believe that’s what I’ve been doing.” Pruitt says he tendered his resignation because “I don’t want to be a distraction. Because of my politics, I would be a distraction from Capital Pride this year.”

The organization hasn’t cut ties with Pruitt, though. “We’re still very much in communication with Bryan,” says Bos, the executive director. “He is someone who has been very passionate about Pride. Unfortunately the article written a year ago by him had statements some could conceive as concerning.”

Bos disagrees with No Justice No Pride’s characterization of the event as insufficiently political. “The original [D.C.] Pride was a block party, and that block party was a protest—a way for people told not to accept who they are to come together as a community and celebrate ourselves as individuals. That is a form of protest. That is how many choose to protest.”

No Justice No Pride, which McGurik says is comprised of a few dozen active members, with hundreds more “liking” it on Facebook, has a different vision. “It’s important to note that Bryan Pruitt is not one bad apple, as the saying goes,” says McGuirk. “We are going to keep demanding accountability. We’re not going to allow this critical movement to be pinkwashed and made into a celebration.”

Pinkwashing refers to the idea of marketing something as pro-gay to distract from its more objectionable elements.

No Justice No Pride is also concerned about sponsorship from Wells Fargo, which was the target of a divestment campaign from grassroots activists at GetEQUAL last year. “This space is supposed to be safe, but you have people fighting their bank and then seeing them at Pride,” said Heather Cronk, the co-director at GetEQUAL. (At-large Councilmember David Grosso has introduced a resolution that would reconsider the city’s contract with the bank, because of the bank’s investments in the Dakota Access Pipeline and other business practices.)

Bos says his team is largely focused on the upcoming event. However, the board is “in the process of developing some standards” for sponsorship.” He thinks that Pride’s relationships with businesses could help the gay community. “We have the opportunity to speak to people and encourage some change, because we have access.” He adds that many of the businesses are involved because of their LGBTQ employees.

And what does Pruitt think about No Justice No Pride’s idea of what Pride should be? “I am not even remotely aware of Wells Fargo or pinkwashing,” he says. “I volunteer for Capital Pride because I want to make people’s weekend great.”

No Justice No Pride is also concerned about the involvement of the D.C. Police, given that Pride is scheduled in late June every year to commemorate the Stonewall Inn police raid, an event that helped catalyze the modern-day movement for LGBTQ rights. To McGuirk, including the police will alienate people who still fear law enforcement.

But what about queer police officers who want to march? “Individual police officers who are not in uniform, who are not there as police officers, we’re not trying to say they can’t march,” says McGurik. “Uniformed police officers do not make pride a safer place. They make it a more intimidating place.”

But to Bos, “I do not want to deny the police officer who is out publicly and working side by side with allies, the chance to show his pride, or her pride, or their pride. That is ultimately how minds can change.”

In a statement, MPD said it was “proud to have been a supporter of and participant in the Capital Pride parade since the 1990s, a tradition we expect to continue this year.”