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The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Among the largest Pride events in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June. The route of the
Pride parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events ...
through
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
traverses south on
Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Har ...
, through
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, passing the
Stonewall National Monument Stonewall National Monument is a U.S. national monument in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The designated area includes the Stonewall Inn, the Christopher Park, and nearby streets includin ...
, site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights. It is also the largest Pride parade in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
. The March is a central component of NYC Pride, together with the Rally, PrideFest, and Pride Island events. One LGBT travel guide claims the "fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled" and " queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs." To date the largest NYC Pride March coincided with Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the riots at the
Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...
, with 150,000 participants and five million visitors to
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
on Pride weekend;About 5 million people attended WorldPride in NYC, mayor says
Accessed July 3, 2019.
an estimated four million attended the parade. The most recent parade occurred on June 26, 2022.


Origins

Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969,
lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with fema ...
, gay,
bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, ...
, and
transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through t ...
(LGBT) people rioted, following a
police raid A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law-enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise in order to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, resist arrest, be politicall ...
on the
Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...
, a
gay bar A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once served as ...
at 53
Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher ...
in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
,
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
. This event, together with further protests and rioting over the following nights, marked a watershed moment in the modern
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...
movement and the impetus for organizing LGBT pride marches on a much larger scale. Veterans of the riot formed a group, th
Stonewall Veterans Association
which has continued to drive the advancement of LGBT rights from the rioting at the Stonewall Inn, to the present day. In the weeks following the riots, 500 people gathered for a "Gay Power" demonstration in
Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...
, followed by a march to Sheridan Square within the
West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to t ...
. On November 2, 1969,
Craig Rodwell Craig L. Rodwell (October 31, 1940 – June 18, 1993) was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors, and as the prime move ...
, his partner
Fred Sargeant Frédéric André Sargeant (born July 29, 1948) is a French-American gay rights activist and former lieutenant with the Stamford CT Police Department. He participated in each of the nights of the 1969 Stonewall riots and was one of the four c ...
,
Ellen Broidy Ellen Broidy is an American gay rights activist. She was one of the proposers and a co-organizer the first gay pride march. Early life Broidy grew up in Peter Cooper Village, a housing project in New York City. Broidy says she knew she was a l ...
, and Linda Rhodes proposed an annual march to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...
.
We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration. We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose a nationwide show of support.Carter, p. 230
All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for
Mattachine Society The Mattachine Society (), founded in 1950, was an early national LGBT social movements, gay rights organization in the United States, perhaps preceded only by Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the ...
of New York, which abstained. Members of the
Gay Liberation Front Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a v ...
(GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN). Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350
Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which ...
. At first there was difficulty getting some of the major
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
organizations like
Gay Activists Alliance The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) was founded in New York City on December 21, 1969, almost six months after the Stonewall riots, by dissident members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). In contrast to the Liberation Front, the Activists Alliance ...
(GAA) to send representatives. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison Jr. of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national
homophile Terms used to describe homosexuality have gone through many changes since the emergence of the first terms in the mid-19th century. In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite, Achillean, Sapphic, Uranian, homophile, lesbian, ...
organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as
treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...
for that organization. Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard of GLF. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the committee scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by Michael Kotis in April 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended. Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28, 1970 marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a march from Sheridan Square, covering the 51 blocks to the Sheep Meadow in
Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 4 ...
. The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement, but also due to wariness about walking through the city with gay banners and signs. Although the parade permit was delivered only two hours before the start of the march, participants encountered little resistance from onlookers. ''The New York Times'' reported (on the front page) that the march extended for about 15 city blocks.Fosburgh, Lacey (June 29, 1970)
"Thousands of Homosexuals Hold A Protest Rally in Central Park"
''The New York Times'', p. 1.
Reporting by ''The Village Voice'' was positive, describing "the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn one year ago".LaFrank, p. 20. There was also an assembly on Christopher Street.


Organizers

The first March in 1970 was organized by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee. Since 1984 the parade and related LGBT pride events in New York City have been produced and organized by
Heritage of Pride Heritage of Pride (HOP), doing business as NYC Pride, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that plans and produces the official New York City LGBTQIA+ Pride Week events each June. HOP began working on the events in 1984, taking on the work prev ...
(HOP), a
volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...
spearheaded,
non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...
, tax-exempt,
non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
. HOP welcomes participation regardless of age, creed, gender, gender identification, HIV status, national origin, physical, mental or developmental ability, race, or religion. HOP does not use qualifiers for participation. In 2021, NYC Pride organizers announced that uniformed law enforcement would be banned from marching in the parade until 2025, when the ban will be reexamined by committees and the executive board of NYC Pride.


Broadcast

For many years the march was only available locally to Time Warner Cable customers, via its
NY1 NY1 (also officially known as Spectrum News NY1 and spoken as New York One) is an American United States cable news, cable news television channel founded by Time Warner Cable, which itself is owned by Charter Communications through its acquisiti ...
news channel. In 2017
WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighb ...
broadcast the NYC LGBT Pride March live for the first time regionally, and made the stream available to all parts of the globe where such content is accessible. WABC-TV continues to broadcast the first three hours of each years march (which has had an actual run time over nine hours in 2017 and 2018). Both the 2017 and 2018 broadcasts were Emmy nominated programs. In 2022, the WABC-TV broadcast was also available via streaming from
ABC News Live ABC News Live (a.k.a. ABCNL) is an American streaming video news channel for breaking news, live events, newscasts, and longer-form reports and documentaries operated by ABC News since 2018. The channel is available through various streaming de ...
and
Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...
.


Schisms

Over the course of five decades, various groups have accused the NYC Pride March of losing its political, activist roots and becoming a venue for corporate pinkwashing, rainbow capitalism, and assimilation of queer identities. Such critiques have given rise to various independent events conducted without permits or police. Since 1993 the NYC Dyke March has been held annually on the Saturday prior. Since 1994 the New York City Drag March has been held annually on the Friday prior; it began as a protest against the ban on leather and drag during the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Stonewall in 2019, the Reclaim Pride Coalition organized the first Queer Liberation March, held on Sunday morning, hours before the NYC Pride parade.


Size

The first march, in 1970, was front-page news in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reporting the march extended for about fifteen city blocks. The march had thousands of participants with organizers "who said variously 3,000 and 5,000 and even 20,000." The variance could be due, in part, that although the march started with over a dozen homosexual and
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
contingents, parade spectators were encouraged to join the procession. Currently
Heritage of Pride Heritage of Pride (HOP), doing business as NYC Pride, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that plans and produces the official New York City LGBTQIA+ Pride Week events each June. HOP began working on the events in 1984, taking on the work prev ...
requires preregistration of marchers, and sets up barricades along the entire route discouraging the practice. Although estimating crowd size is an imprecise science, the NYC March is consistently considered the largest
Pride parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events ...
in the U.S., with 2.1 million people in 2015, and 2.5 million in 2016. In 2018 attendance was estimated around two million. In 2019, as part of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC, up to five million people took part over the final weekend of the celebrations, with an estimated four million in attendance at the parade. The twelve-hour parade included 150,000 pre-registered participants among 695 groups. It was the largest parade of any kind in the city's history and four times as large as the annual
Times Square Ball The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where th ...
on
New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the December 31, last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly ...
.


Grand marshals


2022

Dominique Morgan, Award winning artist and CEO of The Okra Project, TS Madison, artist, activist and TV/Movie Star, Chase Strangio, ACLU National, Punky Johnson, comedian and Saturday Night Live member and Schuyler Byler, Social Media influencer, Trans Activist


2019

* Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, and Dominique Jackson from the cast of ''Pose''; Phyll Opoku-Gyimah; Monica Helms, creator of the
transgender pride flag The first transgender flag is a pride flag having five horizontal stripes of three colors—light blue, pink and white. It was designed by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999 to represent the transgender community, organizations, and ind ...
;
The Trevor Project The Trevor Project is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998. Focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number wher ...
; the
Gay Liberation Front Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a v ...


2018

*
Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...
,
Lambda Legal Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, better known as Lambda Legal, is an American civil rights organization that focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities as well as people living with HIV/AIDS ( PWAs) through im ...
, Tyler Ford, and Kenita Placide


2017

*
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". ...
; Brooke Guinan, the first openly transgender firefighter for FDNY; Krishna Stone, activist with
Gay Men's Health Crisis The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected." His ...
; Geng Le, Chinese LGBT rights leader and founder of Blued


2016

* Jazz Jennings; Subhi Nahas, Syrian refugee who co-founded the first LGBT magazine in Syria; Cecilia Chung


2015

*
Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural ...
*
Derek Jacobi Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Macbeth'', ''Twelfth Night'', '' The Tempest'', ''King ...
* Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera * J. Christopher Neal – the first openly bisexual Grand Marshal


2014

*
Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Pr ...
*
Jonathan Groff Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer . He began his career on Broadway, rising to prominence for his portrayal of Melchior Gabor in the original production of '' Spring Awakening'' (2006-2008), for which h ...
* Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force


2013

* Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in '' United States v. Windsor'', which resulted in Section 3 of the
Defense of Marriage Act The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of mar ...
being struck down * Earl Fowlkes *
Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an internat ...


2012

*
Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album '' She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to ach ...
* Chris Salgardo,
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...
of Kiel's Since 1851. * Connie Kopelov & Phyllis Siegel, New York City's first legally married same-sex couple.


2011

*
Dan Savage Daniel Keenan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBT community activist. He writes '' Savage Love'', an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husb ...
and his husband Terry Miller,
It Gets Better Project It Gets Better is an Internet-based 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth around the globe. It was founded in the United States by gay activist, author, m ...
. * Rev. Pat Bumgardner of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York. * Imperial Court of New York LGBT organization.


2010

* Constance McMillen * Judy Shepard * Lt. Dan Choi


2009: Stonewall 40

2009 marked the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Accordingly, HOP in conjunction with NYC local government promoted the event for people from around the world to attend. Grand Marshals that year were: * Cleve Jones * Anne Kronenberg *
Dustin Lance Black Dustin Lance Black (born June 10, 1974) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and LGBT rights activist. He is known for writing the film ''Milk'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2009. He has also sub ...


2008

* Gilbert Baker * Candice Cayne * New York Governor David A. Paterson * New York Senator
Charles Schumer Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, and ...
* NYC Mayor
Mike Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...
Celebrating Gay Pride and Its Albany Friend
/ref>


See also

* List of LGBT awareness days *
List of LGBT events The following is a calendar of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) events. This mainly comprises pride parades but also includes other kinds of events such as sporting events and film festivals. The world's largest pride parade ...
* Queens Pride Parade * Timeline of LGBT history in New York City


References


External links


NYC Pride/Heritage of Pride, Inc.

''Gay and Proud''
1970 documentary film by
Lilli Vincenz Lilli Vincenz is a lesbian activist and the first lesbian member of the gay political activist effort, the Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW). She served as the editor of the organization's newsletter and in 1969 along with Nancy Tucker create ...
of the first march in New York City
NYC Gay Pride 2011 photos
{{LGBT in New York
Gay Pride Parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...
Fifth Avenue Pride parades in the United States LGBT culture in New York City 1970 establishments in New York City Recurring events established in 1970 1970 in LGBT history