| NYC Pride March | |
|---|---|
 TheStonewall Inn inGreenwich Village was the site of the June 1969Stonewall riots. That event inNew York City's queer history has served as a touchstone for variousLGBTQ social movements, as well as the catalyst forPride parades around the world.[1][2][3] | |
| Frequency | Annually, last Sunday in June |
| Locations | New York City, U.S. |
| Inaugurated | June 28, 1970 (1970-06-28), as part of Christopher Street Liberation Day |
| Next event | June 29, 2025 (2025-06-29) |
| Organized by | Heritage of Pride, since 1984 |
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TheNYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating theLGBTQ community in New York City. The largestpride parade and thelargest pride event in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June,[4][5] and carries spiritual and historical significance for the worldwideLGBTQ community and its advocates. EntertainerMadonna stated in 2024, "Aside from my birthday, New York Pride is the most important day of the year."[6] The route throughLower Manhattan traverses south onFifth Avenue, throughGreenwich Village, passing theStonewall National Monument,[7] site of theJune 1969 riots that launched the modernmovement for LGBTQ rights.
A central component of NYC Pride observances, the March occurs on the last Sunday in June.[8] An estimated 4 million attended the parade in 2019,[9] coinciding with the50th anniversary of Stonewall, which drew 5 million visitors toManhattan on Pride weekend.[10] The 2020 (51st) and 2021 (52nd) editions of NYC Pride March were cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic in New York City. NYC Pride March returned in 2022 for the first time despite the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City; the first parade since the one held in 2019 occurred on June 26, 2022.
Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people rioted, following apolice raid on theStonewall Inn, agay bar at 53Christopher Street inGreenwich Village, Lower Manhattan. This event, together with further protests and rioting over the following nights, marked a watershed moment in the modernLGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizingpride parades on a much larger scale. Veterans of the riot formed a group, the 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 inWashington Square Park, followed by a march to Sheridan Square within theWest Village.[11][12]
On November 2, 1969,Craig Rodwell, his partnerFred Sargeant,Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes proposed an annual march to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at theEastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting inPhiladelphia.[13]
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.[14][15][16][17]
All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except forMattachine Society of New York, which abstained.[14] Members of theGay Liberation Front (GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN).[18]
Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350Bleecker Street.[19] At first there was difficulty getting some of the major New York City organizations likeGay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, andFoster 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 nationalhomophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via theOscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization.[20][21] Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie andBrenda Howard of GLF.[22] 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.[23] With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by Michael Kotis in April 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended.[24]
There was little open animosity, and some bystanders applauded when a tall, pretty girl carrying a sign "I am a Lesbian" walked by. –The New York Times coverage of Gay Liberation Day, 1970[25]
Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28, 1970, marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a march fromSheridan Square, covering the 51 blocks to theSheep Meadow inCentral Park. 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.[26]The New York Times reported (on the front page) that the march extended for about 15 city blocks.[25] Reporting byThe Village Voice was positive, describing "the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn one year ago".[27] There was also an assembly on Christopher Street.
The first March in 1970 was organized by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee.[28] Since 1984, the parade and related LGBT pride events in New York City have been produced and organized byHeritage of Pride (HOP), a volunteer spearheaded,non-partisan, tax-exempt, non-profit organization.[29] 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.[30][31]
For many years, the march was only available locally to Time Warner Cable customers, via itsNY1 news channel. In 2017WABC-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.[32][33] 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 fromABC News Live andHulu.
Over the course of five decades, various groups have accused the NYC Pride March of losing its political, activist roots and becoming a venue forcorporate pinkwashing,rainbow capitalism, andassimilation of queer identities.[34] Such critiques have given rise to various independent events conducted without permits or police. Since 1993 the NYCDyke March has been held annually on the Saturday prior.[35] Since 1994 theNew 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.[36][37] Coinciding with the50th anniversary of Stonewall in 2019, theReclaim Pride Coalition organized the firstQueer Liberation March, held on Sunday morning, hours before the NYC Pride parade.[38][39]
The first march, in 1970, was front-page news inThe New York Times reporting the march extended for about fifteen city blocks.[25] The march had thousands of participants with organizers "who said variously 3,000 and 5,000 and even 20,000."[25] The variance could be due, in part, that although the march started with over a dozen homosexual andfeminist contingents, parade spectators were encouraged to join the procession.[25] Currently,Heritage of Pride requires preregistration of marchers, and sets up barricades along the entire route discouraging the practice.[40]
Althoughestimating crowd size is an imprecise science, the NYC March is consistently considered the largestPride parade in North America, with 2.1 million people in 2015, and 2.5 million in 2016.[41] In 2018, attendance was estimated around two million.[42] In 2024, the estimated crowd size was 2.5 million.[43] In 2019, as part ofStonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC, an estimated 5 million people took part over the final weekend of the celebrations,[44][45] with an estimated 4 million in attendance at the parade.[9][46] The 12-hour parade included 150,000 pre-registered participants among 695 groups.[47] It was the largest parade of any kind inthe city's history and four times as large as the annualTimes Square Ball on New Year's Eve.[48]
| Edition number | Date | Also known as |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | June 28, 1970 | NYC Pride March 1970 |
| 2nd | June 27, 1971 | NYC Pride March 1971 |
| 3rd | June 25, 1972 | NYC Pride March 1972 |
| 4th | June 24, 1973 | NYC Pride March 1973 |
| 5th | June 30, 1974 | NYC Pride March 1974 |
| 6th | June 29, 1975 | NYC Pride March 1975 |
| 7th | June 27, 1976 | NYC Pride March 1976 |
| 8th | June 26, 1977 | NYC Pride March 1977 |
| 9th | June 25, 1978 | NYC Pride March 1978 |
| 10th | June 24, 1979 | NYC Pride March 1979 |
| 11th | June 29, 1980 | NYC Pride March 1980 |
| 12th | June 28, 1981 | NYC Pride March 1981 |
| Edition number | Date | Also known as |
|---|---|---|
| 13th | June 27, 1982 | NYC Pride March 1982 |
| 14th | June 26, 1983 | NYC Pride March 1983 |
| 15th | June 24, 1984 | NYC Pride March 1984 |
| 16th | June 30, 1985 | NYC Pride March 1985 |
| 17th | June 29, 1986 | NYC Pride March 1986 |
| 18th | June 28, 1987 | NYC Pride March 1987 |
| 19th | June 26, 1988 | NYC Pride March 1988 |
| 20th | June 25, 1989 | NYC Pride March 1989 |
| 21st | June 24, 1990 | NYC Pride March 1990 |
| 22nd | June 30, 1991 | NYC Pride March 1991 |
| 23rd | June 28, 1992 | NYC Pride March 1992 |
| 24th | June 27, 1993 | NYC Pride March 1993 |
| 25th | June 26, 1994 | NYC Pride March 1994 |
| 26th | June 25, 1995 | NYC Pride March 1995 |
| 27th | June 30, 1996 | NYC Pride March 1996 |
| 28th | June 29, 1997 | NYC Pride March 1997 |
| 29th | June 28, 1998 | NYC Pride March 1998 |
| 30th | June 27, 1999 | NYC Pride March 1999 |
| 31st | June 25, 2000 | NYC Pride March 2000 |
| 32nd | June 24, 2001 | NYC Pride March 2001 |
| 33rd | June 30, 2002 | NYC Pride March 2002 |
| 34th | June 29, 2003 | NYC Pride March 2003 |
| 35th | June 27, 2004 | NYC Pride March 2004 |
| 36th | June 26, 2005 | NYC Pride March 2005 |
| 37th | June 25, 2006 | NYC Pride March 2006 |
| 38th | June 24, 2007 | NYC Pride March 2007 |
| 39th | June 29, 2008 | NYC Pride March 2008 |
| 40th | June 28, 2009 | NYC Pride March 2009 |
| 41st | June 27, 2010 | NYC Pride March 2010 |
| 42nd | June 26, 2011 | NYC Pride March 2011 |
| 43rd | June 24, 2012 | NYC Pride March 2012 |
| 44th | June 30, 2013 | NYC Pride March 2013 |
| 45th | June 29, 2014 | NYC Pride March 2014 |
| 46th | June 28, 2015 | NYC Pride March 2015 |
| 47th | June 26, 2016 | NYC Pride March 2016 |
| 48th | June 25, 2017 | NYC Pride March 2017 |
| 49th | June 24, 2018 | NYC Pride March 2018 |
| 50th | June 30, 2019 | NYC Pride March 2019 |
| Edition number | Date | Also known as |
|---|---|---|
| 53rd | June 26, 2022 | NYC Pride March 2022 |
| 54th | June 25, 2023 | NYC Pride March 2023 |
| 55th | June 30, 2024 | NYC Pride March 2024 |
| 56th | June 29, 2025 | NYC Pride March 2025 |
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TheCOVID-19 pandemic in New York City resulted in cancelation of the 2020 and 2021 events.
A sea of rainbows took over the Big Apple for the biggest pride parade in the world Sunday.
Never before has any TV station in the entertainment and news media capital of the world carried what organizer boast is the world's largest Pride parade live on TV.
Thank you all for coming out," Madonna told the crowd, according to a video shared on social media. "Aside from my birthday, New York Pride is the most important day of the year." She concluded, "Thank you all, New York City. Without you, I am nothing.
