In New York alone over a million marchers followed the lavender line painted on Fifth Avenue, with Cyndi Lauper and city’s first married gay couple, Connie Kopelov and Phyllis Siegel leading the parade as grand marshals. Held one year to the day of same-sex marriage being legalized in New York state.
Mayor Bloomberg had a message to the rest of America before stepping off onto the parade route.: “The government should get out of your personal life.” (that is of course unless you want to eat sugar)
More than 300 groups marched down Fifth Avenue to the Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots, which is widely considered the start of the national gay rights movement
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In Chicago a record breaking estimate of 850,000 participants attended the parade that winds through the North Side including one of the city’s gay neighborhood of Boystown.
The event drew many public figures, including Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, along with families.
Chicago resident Carrie Roberts brought her two children, ages 5 and 6.
“The parade is a good expression of freedom and acceptance,” she said. “I thought my kids would enjoy it.”
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And at 42nd annual Pride parade in San Francisco on Sunday which culminated a weeks worth of festivities huge crowds lined Market Street for the celebration, which included everything from the Leather Pride contingent to some tail-wagging pups from the San Francisco SPCA as loud sirens, flashing lights and countless rainbow flags and banners accompanied uniformed police officers, cheerleaders and politicians including San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee who spoke at the city’s Civic Center — near the parade’s end-point.