The best mixer in Washington this month is a 39-year-old footrace in heels on a Tuesday

By Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON — Every city has its singles scene. Washington’s peaks on a Tuesday, on a three-block stretch of 17th Street NW, for about as long as it takes a drag queen in six-inch platforms to cover the distance.

The 39th annual 17th Street High Heel Race is Tuesday, Oct. 27. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs present it as an official city event. The event listing runs from 6 to 10 p.m. on 17th Street between R and P streets, near Dupont Circle. The city’s emergency management agency lists a 5 p.m. start for the street footprint. The race itself takes a fraction of that time. The rest of the evening is for everything that happens on the sidewalk.

A short history of a long-running dare

The race began as a bar bet with good footwear. According to a 2021 D.C. Council ceremonial resolution, on Oct. 31, 1986, “a group of twenty-five drag performers and enthusiasts” ran from JR’s Bar down 17th Street to Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse, went upstairs “to the bar for a shot of schnapps,” and ran back. The winner, Clinton Winter, received a bottle of champagne and, in the Council’s words, “immortality.”

The Office of LGBTQ Affairs took over organizing the race in 2018, the resolution says. It was suspended in 2020 because of the pandemic and returned in 2021. Vincent Slatt, director of archiving for the Rainbow History Project, told WTOP in 2024 that it has grown into a community celebration and a sign of how integral the LGBTQ community is to the city.

Why it works as a mixer

Sociologists have a term for people who come back to a neighborhood they no longer live in: Bowdoin College’s Theo Greene calls them “vicarious citizens.” His 2024 book on Washington’s gay neighborhoods, Not in My Gayborhood, won a 2026 award from the American Sociological Association’s community and urban sociology section. In the same WTOP piece, Greene said traditions like the race are “very symbolic reminders to the community of the history and the culture” as other gay spaces disappear.

That helps explain the crowd. On race night, people who moved to Takoma or Arlington or Hyattsville years ago come back to Dupont, often with friends of friends. Weeknight Washington is usually sorted into rooms by job, age and agency. For one evening the city stands outside on the same sidewalk, and everyone has a costume to talk about. That is about as good as icebreakers get.

So, some unsolicited advice from this column.

• Compliment the costume, not the person. “Who are you?” is the most natural opening line in the city on race night. It is also the one night of the year when it is not a strange question.
• Pick a landmark. The street gets packed. “I’ll be by the registration tent on R Street” beats “I’ll find you” every time. The tent is where racers sign up, so it will be lively.
• The race is the main event, not the backdrop. The racers are performers, many of them local drag artists who put weeks into a look that will be seen for a few minutes. Cheer, tip where performers ask, and save the flirting for the people on your side of the barricade.
• Plan the exit before you arrive. Bus detours start at 1 p.m. (see below), and the Dupont Circle Red Line station will be crowded. It is a work night. The best second date starts with both of you getting home.

The logistics

Metro’s detour notice says the C91 bus will detour from 1 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The posted street closures include 17th Street from New Hampshire Avenue to O Street, and stretches of Riggs Place and of R, Corcoran, Q, Church and P streets between 16th and 18th streets. Metro advises riders to allow extra time and avoid the area if possible. For spectators that is not really an option, and that is part of the fun.

Would-be racers register in person at the tent on R Street, according to the city’s event page. The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs has listed the race among its LGBTQ+ History Month events this year.

Asked for comment

The mayor’s office said it expects more than 200 racers. Registration is still in person at the tent on R Street, and the race starts at 9 p.m., said Sonya Joseph of the mayor’s office. “What started as a playful midnight dash has grown into one of the District’s most beloved and recognizable cultural events,” Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, said in remarks provided by the office. “It is an honor and our duty as an office to uplift DC drag history and the prominent LGBTQ figures that started the tradition.”

The Washington Inquisitor asked the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, the Rainbow History Project, the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2B), the Capital Pride Alliance and a Washington-based therapy practice about the race, its history and the social life around it. The mayor’s office responded; its answers are included above. This column will be updated with any other responses.

Update, Oct. 22, 2026: This column has been updated with information from the mayor’s office.

Photo: The 2012 17th Street High Heel Race in Dupont Circle. Ted Eytan via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.