The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. The largest pride parade and the largest pride event in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts hundreds of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June, and carries spiritual and historical significance for the worldwide LGBTQ community and its advocates. Entertainer Madonna stated in 2024, "Aside from my birthday, New York Pride is the most important day of the year." The route through Lower Manhattan traverses south on Fifth Avenue, through Greenwich Village, passing Stonewall National Monument, site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ rights.
A central component of NYC Pride observances, the March occurs on the last Sunday in June. An estimated 4 million attended the parade in 2019, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, which drew 5 million visitors to Manhattan on Pride weekend and was the largest international LGBTQ event in history.About 5 million people attended WorldPride in NYC, mayor says Accessed July 3, 2019. The 2020 (51st) and 2021 (52nd) editions of NYC Pride March were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. The NYC Pride March returned on June 26, 2022, two days after the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling. During the ruling, Roe v. Wade was overturned; in a concurring opinion, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas proposed that the Court "should reconsider" past rulings establishing marriage equality and gay rights.
Origins
Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 53 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan. This event, alongside further protests and rioting over the following nights, marked a watershed moment in the modern LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizing pride parades on a much larger scale. The Stonewall Veterans Association, formed by veterans of the riot, has continued to drive the advancement of LGBT rights from the riot to the present day.
In the weeks following the riots, 500 people gathered for a "Gay Power" demonstration in Washington Square Park, followed by a march to Sheridan Square within the West Village.
On November 2, 1969, Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, 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. 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. 230Marotta, pp. 164–165Teal, pp. 322–323Duberman, pp. 255, 262, 270–280
All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society of New York, which abstained. Members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN).Duberman, p. 227
Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350 Bleecker Street.Nagourney, Adam. "For Gays, a Party In Search of a Purpose; At 30, Parade Has Gone Mainstream As Movement's Goals Have Drifte." New York Times. June 25, 2000. retrieved January 3, 2011. At first there was difficulty getting some major New York City organizations, such as Gay 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 national homophile organizations and sponsors, 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.Carter, p. 247Teal, p. 323 Other mainstays of the organizing committee include Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard of GLF.Duberman, p. 271 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.Duberman, p. 272 After Michael Kotis replaced Dick Leitsch as president of Mattachine NY in April 1970, the organization ceased its opposition to the march.Duberman, p. 314 n93
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. The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement and 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.Clendinen, pp. 62–64. The New York Times reported 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 (HOP), a volunteer-spearheaded, non-partisan, tax-exempt, non-profit organization. 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 was planned to 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 news channel. In 2017, WABC-TV 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 year's 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 and Hulu.
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. The NYC Dyke March has been held annually on the Saturday prior since 1993, and the New York City Drag March has been held annually on the Friday prior since 1994. The latter 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, which reported that 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." Parade spectators were encouraged to join the procession despite the march starting with over a dozen homosexual and feminist contingents, which may partially explain the variance in population count. Heritage of Pride has since enacted stricter regulations to manage crowd size, requiring that marchers preregister and sets up barricades along the route.
Although estimating crowd size is an imprecise science, the NYC March is consistently considered the largest Pride parade in North America, with 2.1 million people in 2015, and 2.5 million in 2016. In 2018, attendance was estimated around two million. In 2024, the estimated crowd size was 2.5 million. In 2019, as part of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC, an estimated 5 million people took part over the final weekend of the celebrations, with an estimated 4 million in attendance at the parade. The 12-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 crowd of the annual Times Square Ball drop.
NYC Pride March edition dates
1981 and earlier EditionDateAlso known asTheme1stJune 28, 1970NYC Pride March 19702ndJune 27, 1971NYC Pride March 19713rdJune 25, 1972NYC Pride March 19724thJune 24, 1973NYC Pride March 19735thJune 30, 1974NYC Pride March 19746thJune 29, 1975NYC Pride March 19757thJune 27, 1976NYC Pride March 19768thJune 26, 1977NYC Pride March 19779thJune 25, 1978NYC Pride March 197810thJune 24, 1979NYC Pride March 197911thJune 29, 1980NYC Pride March 198012thJune 28, 1981NYC Pride March 1981 1982–2019 EditionDateAlso known asTheme13thJune 27, 1982NYC Pride March 198214thJune 26, 1983NYC Pride March 198315thJune 24, 1984NYC Pride March 198416thJune 30, 1985NYC Pride March 198517thJune 29, 1986NYC Pride March 198618thJune 28, 1987NYC Pride March 198719thJune 26, 1988NYC Pride March 198820thJune 25, 1989NYC Pride March 198921stJune 24, 1990NYC Pride March 199022ndJune 30, 1991NYC Pride March 199123rdJune 28, 1992NYC Pride March 199224thJune 27, 1993NYC Pride March 199325thJune 26, 1994NYC Pride March 199426thJune 25, 1995NYC Pride March 199527thJune 30, 1996NYC Pride March 199628thJune 29, 1997NYC Pride March 199729thJune 28, 1998NYC Pride March 199830thJune 27, 1999NYC Pride March 199931stJune 25, 2000NYC Pride March 2000Take Pride, Take Joy, Take Action32ndJune 24, 2001NYC Pride March 200133rdJune 30, 2002NYC Pride March 200234thJune 29, 2003NYC Pride March 200335thJune 27, 2004NYC Pride March 200436thJune 26, 2005NYC Pride March 200537thJune 25, 2006NYC Pride March 200638thJune 24, 2007NYC Pride March 200739thJune 29, 2008NYC Pride March 200840thJune 28, 2009NYC Pride March 200941stJune 27, 2010NYC Pride March 201042ndJune 26, 2011NYC Pride March 201143rdJune 24, 2012NYC Pride March 201244thJune 30, 2013NYC Pride March 201345thJune 29, 2014NYC Pride March 201446thJune 28, 2015NYC Pride March 201547thJune 26, 2016NYC Pride March 201648thJune 25, 2017NYC Pride March 201749thJune 24, 2018NYC Pride March 201850thJune 30, 2019NYC Pride March 2019
2022 and later EditionDateAlso known asTheme53rdJune 26, 2022NYC Pride March 202254thJune 25, 2023NYC Pride March 202355thJune 30, 2024NYC Pride March 202456thJune 29, 2025NYC Pride March 2025"Rise Up: Pride in Protest"57thJune 28, 2026NYC Pride March 2026"For All of Us"
Grand marshals 2026
Dominique Jackson, Peppermint, Bernie Wagenblast, Bowen Yang, and Gays Against Guns
2025 Karine Jean-Pierre; Marti Gould Cummings; Trans Formative Schools; DJ Lina Bradford; and Elisa Crespo
2024 Miss Major; Michelle Visage; Raquel Willis; and DaShawn Usher of GLAAD