New York Pride: Huge LGBT parade marks 50 years since Stonewall
A parade goer holds a giant rainbow flag at the annual Pride Parade on Sunday, June 29, 2019 in New York. (Photo by Erin Lefevre/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The month-long WorldPride celebration in New York is coming to an end with the largest event, the Pride parade.
It is the largest Pride march in the city, with a 2.5 mile route and more than 600 contingents, including community groups, corporations, activists and human rights organisations.
The Pride March started at noon local time and will run down Fifth Avenue, beginning at 26th Street.
It will then turn at Eighth Street and move up Seventh Avenue past the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich village, before ending at 23rd Street.
Participants take part in the NYC Pride March as part of World Pride commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising on June 30, 2019 in New York City. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images)
Participants take part in the NYC Pride March as part of World Pride commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising on June 30, 2019 in New York City. (TIMOTHY CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
This year’s celebration is taking place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, where a homophobic police raid led to a backlash that fuelled the modern-day LGBT+ rights movement.
More than 150,000 people are expected to take part in the march, with hundreds of thousands more taking to the streets to watch.
“The first March was held in 1970 and has since become an annual civil rights demonstration. Over the years, its purpose has broadened to include recognition of the fight against AIDS and to remember those we have lost to illness, violence and neglect,” the organiser’s website states.
Donatella Versace attends the NYC Pride March on June 30, 2019 in New York City. The march marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan on June 28, 1969, widely considered a watershed moment in the modern gay-rights movement. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
Participants take part in the NYC Pride March as part of World Pride commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising on June 30, 2019 in New York City. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images)
“The March is a celebration of our lives and our community. In 2018, we were joined by over 550 unique marching contingents, representing a vast array of non-profits, community organisations, corporate sponsors, small businesses, political candidates and activists!
“With over 100 floats making the trek along the route, last year’s March was one of the largest and most exciting in history.”
Other marches have been taking place across the city and the rest of the US too, including the Queer Liberation March, a protest march in New York with no corporate floats or police in the parade itself.
