DC kicks off 37th annual high heel race

WASHINGTON — Tuesday night, thousands of stiletto-ed runners will flood D.C.'s DuPont Circle for the city's 37th annual High Heel Race.

They'll run down 17th Street NW from P to S Street NW to celebrate the diversity of D.C.’s LGBTQIA+ communities. And they are large communities.

A study from The Williams Institute reports that D.C. has the highest percentage of LGBTQ+ people at 9.8% — compared to states across the country.

Organizers with the Mayor's Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs encourage attendees to dress up in their favorite costume for the dual LGBTQIA+ History Month and Halloween celebration.

Race check in is at 7:30 p.m., with the race beginning at 9 p.m.

This uniquely D.C. event started as a wager amongst drag queens, bartenders and community members to race in heels to each of the LGBTQ+ bars along the strip.

"We're gonna see so many different representations of so many different individuals and so many different heels tonight," said Monroe Alise, workforce development and outreach specialist with the Mayor's Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs.

The LGBTQ+ founders of JR's Bar continued the event for years to come until in 2018, Mayor Muriel Bowser proclaimed the 17th Street High Heel Race as an Official Mayoral Event.

D.C. is now one of the only jurisdictions in the nation to sponsor and host an event of this type that highlights the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community.

"Hundreds of racers is gonna be a spectacle, but it's really a D.C. values event," Director of LGBTQ+ Affairs Japer Bowles said. "And I say that because it started from community and we still bring it back to community. We cherish them, we tell their stories."

This year will also feature a new mural on the road at 17th and R streets NW designed by well-known muralist Lisa Marie Thalhammer and students with the Latin American Youth Center.

It features six different high heels the students designed on a rainbow background. 

“When you walk by and see a big beautiful high-heeled rainbow artwork on the street, I think you just feel like you belong here,” Thalhammer said. 

The mural will stay long after the race is over, and be there for World Pride, which D.C. is hosting in 2025, from May 23 through June 8.

"This is just a beautiful display of the diversity that you'll see here, not only tonight, but during World Pride next year," Alise said.