While the aim of pride day started with a political nature, many cities around the world have such wide acceptance and legal protections that many events have become a celebration of pride for the local LGBTQ+ community. Gay Pride or rather LGBTQ+ pride events (used to be more inclusive), including pride parades and festivals were started in major urban centers to improve the visibility, acceptance and legal protections for LGBTQ+ people living in those communities. The global landscape for LGBTQ+ rights, protections and acceptance varies tremendously by location, with some destinations attracting millions of visitors to their events like Madrid Gay Pride, Sao Paulo Gay Pride or San Francisco Gay Pride, while more than 70 other countries have laws that allow discrimination or persecution of LGBTQ+ people. "How many more of us - that's gays, straight, people in general, are going to be shot down this way?" said fellow member Mari Gustafson.The LGBTQ+ rights movement has made tremendous strides over the past few decades and much of the progress in visibility is thanks in part to gay pride parades and marches that have taken place in cities around the world. It outlawed the sale of assault weapons after the 2012 killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in neighboring Connecticut. New York already has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. Because it hits us very close to home this time." has a long history of organizing and activism for HIV Aids, for marriage equality and we want to bring some of that leverage and some of that pressure to bear on the pre-existing gun rights movement. "We are in mourning and we are outraged over the massacre that happened in Orlando," member Tim Murphy told AFP on the eve of the march. It was also the site of an emotional candle-lit vigil in the wake of the Orlando shooting.Īmong the groups taking part in Sunday's march is Gays Against Guns, set up in New York to campaign for gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando massacre. The Stonewall Inn is considered the birthplace of America's gay rights movement as the site of protests in 1969 following a police crackdown of laws banning the sale of alcohol to gays. Two days before the march, President Barack Obama designated the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village, and its immediate vicinity the first LGBT national monument in the United States.
"Rest assured, we think this is going to be an extraordinary weekend for New York City and people should know they're being protected."
"I think it's very important that people come out to the parade to show their pride in what we've done in this city," de Blasio said in an interview with local CBS radio station 1010 WINS. This year's march falls on the first anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage across the country and organizers are hoping to draw a larger crowd than last year.
New York considers itself the beacon of gay rights around the world and Mayor Bill de Blasio had urged Americans across the country to take part in the march on June 26 alongside city officials after the Orlando massacre. The parade was to begin at noon (1600 GMT) following a moment's silence to honor 49 people who were killed and the dozens more who were injured in the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12. Safeguarded by hundreds of police, participants from hundreds of groups are expected to take part in the march down Fifth Avenue from 36th Street and culminating in Greenwich Village. Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to pour onto the streets of New York June 26 to celebrate one of the city's largest Gay Pride marches and honor the 49 people killed in the Orlando nightclub massacre. New York dedicates Gay Pride to Orlando massacre NEW YORK - Agence France-Presse