The First Gay Pride Parade

The first gay pride march filled the streets of New York City on June 28, 1970—the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a clash between members of the gay community and police who had raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan. People marched the fifty-one blocks from the location of the riots to Central Park and reportedly completely filled the street for fifteen of those blocks. These riots and the march which followed marked a turning point in leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT+ rights in the U.S. Many other major cities in the United States also held marches that year, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and most pride events around the country still take place in June to commemorate the 1969 riots.

Millions of people all around the world now participate in annual pride parades, festivals, marches, sporting events and film festivals: São Paulo, Brazil, holds the world’s largest pride parade with 3.5 million participants, while a small coastal town in Ireland called Sligo hosts the smallest, with one hundred attendees. Over 200 cities in the United States host their own range of events.