The Chicago Pride Parade, also colloquially (and formerly) called the Chicago Gay Pride Parade or PRIDE Chicago, is the annual pride parade held on the last Sunday of June in Chicago, Illinois in the United States. It is considered the culmination of the larger Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in Chicago, as promulgated by the

Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually mont ...

and Mayor of Chicago. Chicago's Pride Parade is one of the largest by attendance in the world. The event takes place outside and celebrates Equal Rights for

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with fema ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

, transgender and

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

people, which is also known as the celebration of

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

rights.

Background

The first parade was organized on Saturday, June 27, 1970, as a march from Washington Square Park ("Bughouse Square") to the Water Tower, but then many of the participants spontaneously marched on to the Civic Center (now Richard J. Daley) Plaza. For many years, the parade was held only in

Lake View East Lakeview, also spelled Lake View, is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois. Lakeview is located in the city's North Side. It is bordered by West Diversey Parkway on the south, West Irving Park Road on the north, North Ravenswood A ...

, a neighborhood enclave of the Lakeview community area. Recent parades have expanded their outreach (and ability to handle crowds) by extending the route into the Uptown neighborhood, beginning at the corner of Broadway and Montrose. The parade then proceeds south on Broadway to Halsted, continues south on Halsted to Belmont, then east on Belmont to Broadway and finally south again on Broadway to Cannon Drive and Lincoln Park. With the increasing political participation of

and transgender Americans and the community's relatively high financial resources through political action groups and as individual donors, Illinois politicians have increased their presence at the Chicago Pride Parade. Both the Illinois Democratic and Republican parties have been heavily represented, most noticeably by former Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, and former

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

Judy Baar Topinka Judy Baar Topinka (January 16, 1944 – December 10, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Republican Party from the U.S. State of Illinois. Originally a journalist, Topinka served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1981 ...

, a Republican. Both had strong support from many gay and lesbian voters. On June 28, 2009, more than 500,000 spectators watched the ''40th Annual Chicago Pride Parade''. Among the entries were several

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ofte ...

s, dance troupes, twirlers, and many political figures. The 2010 parade featured an appearance from the Chicago Blackhawks'

Brent Sopel Brent Bernard Sopel (born January 7, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played the majority of his career in the National Hockey League (NHL). Sopel was originally selected 144th overall at the 1995 NHL Entry Draft b ...

and the Stanley Cup as part of the Chicago Gay Hockey Association's float. Sopel appeared in the parade to honor

Brendan Burke Brendan Gilmore Burke (December 8, 1988 – February 5, 2010) was an athlete and student manager at Miami University for the RedHawks men's ice hockey team. The youngest son of Brian Burke, former general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, lo ...

, the gay son of the Maple Leafs' GM Brian Burke. Due to Chicago being one of the largest cities with a massive ''sports community'', some other special guests have attended the Gay Pride Parade in Chicago, those include

David Kopay David Marquette Kopay (born June 28, 1942) is a former American football running back in the National Football League who in 1975 became one of the first professional athletes to come out as gay. Life Kopay attended Notre Dame High School in ...

(NFL running back),

Billy Bean William Daro Bean (born May 11, 1964) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers (1987–1989), Los Angeles Dodgers (1989), and San Diego Padres (1993–1 ...

(major league outfielder) and

Greg Louganis Gregory Efthimios Louganis (; born January 29, 1960) is an American Olympic diver, LGBT activist, and author who won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics on the springboard and platform. He is the only man and the second diver in Ol ...

(Olympic diver). The 2011 parade included 250 entries and was attended by over 800,000 spectators, almost double the previous year, causing massive overcrowding and resulted in a reorganization of the parade route for the 2012 parade. Starting in 2013 the Chicago Pride Parade has reached over one million people each year, and the number continues to grow. In October 2019, Richard Pfeiffer, director of the Parade since 1974, died. The parade was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 parade was postponed to October 3, 2021, in the hopes that an in-person parade could be held. Due to

Delta variant The Delta variant (B.1.617.2) was a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It was first detected in India in late 2020. The Delta variant was named on 31 May 2021 and had spread to over 179 countries by 22 November 2021. The ...

, on September 3, 2021, the parade was cancelled once again due to COVID-19. Organizers aim for the event to return in 2022 with its original scheduling.

Pre Parade Celebration

The year 2019 marked the 19th Annual Pre Parade Celebration, also known as Chicago's two day long ''Pride Festival''. 2019's Chicago Pride Festival saw over 100,000 people, the festival is held on the Saturday and Sunday before the Pride Parade. Each year there is a suggested ten dollar donation while entering the festival for LGBTQ fundraisers, events, etc. The festival is open rain or shine and each year it is held in Boystown, this year it was located on Halsted Street from Addison to Grace Street. The streets are blocked off from traffic so the celebration can take place throughout the streets all weekend long. Each year there are multiple different performers performing on the three main stages at the festival, some of this years performers included

Betty Who Jessica Anne Newham (born 5 October 1991), known by her stage name Betty Who, is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter. After independently releasing her debut single, " Somebody Loves You" (2012), and her debut extended play, '' The ...

, LeAnn Rimes,

Pabllo Vittar Phabullo Rodrigues da Silva (born 1 November 1993), known professionally as Pabllo Vittar (), is a Brazilian drag queen and singer. Life and career 1993–2016: Early life Born in São Luís, Phabullo is a dizygotic twin and has an older sis ...

Alex Newell Alex Eugene Newell (born August 20, 1992) is an American actor and singer. They are known for their role as Unique Adams on the Fox musical series ''Glee'' and Mo on ''Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist''. Newell also starred as Asaka in the Broadway ...

and

Inaya Day Inaya Day (born Inaya Davis, January 17, 1977) is an American singer, best known for her vocal work on house music tracks such as " Horny '98" by Mousse T, and her cover version of "Nasty Girl" by Prince protégées Vanity 6. Biography Early car ...

. The Pre Parade Celebration is just one of the many events held in Boystown in the month of June.

Dates and Attendance

Weather

The Chicago Pride Parade is held on the last Sunday in June, so the weather is usually hot. The average high temperature at

O'Hare Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Loop busines ...

for the parade day since 1970 is 83 degrees; the average low is 61 degrees; and 22% of parade days have seen measurable precipitation. The warmest pride parade was 99 degrees in 1983, and the wettest pride parade was in 1978 when 0.92 inches of rain fell.June Daily Weather Records for Chicago Illinois
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References

External links