In a year when leaders are anxious about President Donald Trump's agenda, both the New York and San Francisco events were headed by groups more focused on protest than celebration.
The march in New York and other cities are spotlighting resistance to what participants see as new pressure on gay rights while contending with the prospect of protests over the events' own diversity and direction. The American Civil Liberties Union, Brooke Guinan (trans woman, FDNY firefighter), Krishna Stone (Director of Community Relations, GMHC), and Geng Le (Founder, Blued) helmed 2017's iconic March. This year's theme, 'We Are Proud,' speaks to the LGBT community's unwavering ability to rise and be proud, even in the face of the existing political environment.
Today, it is one of the world's best-known LGBT events, with 350 marching contingents and more than 2 million spectators in 2016. The NYC Pride March started in 1970 as a civil rights demonstration on the 1-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.
