"Pride is Power" set to be theme for 2024 Chicago Pride Parade
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The 53rd annual Chicago Pride Parade is coming up on June 30, and this year's theme will be "Pride is Power," organizers announced Tuesday.
The parade this year will highlight the role the parade has played over the years in creating visibility and advocating for change in Chicago and the surrounding area's LGBTQ+ community, organizer PRIDEChicago said in a news release.
"We have so much to celebrate in the 55 years since the Stonewall uprisings in New York City, leading to the fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States," parade coordinator Tim Frye said in the release. "It's still very important to remember that there is much more remaining in our fight for equality."
Parade organizers noted that in 2023, for the first time ever, the Human Rights Campaign declared a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans – in response to more than 550 bills introduced in state houses across the country that would in some way restrict LGBTQ+ rights.
More than 80 such bills were passed into law, parade organizers noted. Most specifically targeted the rights of transgender people, organizers noted.
"Now is the time to embrace the power of Pride," parade co-coordinator Ron Thomas said in the release. "Our unified voice empowers us to keep our movement moving forward."
The Pride Parade steps off at noon Sunday, June 30 at Broadway and Montrose, and proceeds south and southeast on Broadway, south on Halsted Street, east on Belmont Avenue, south on Broadway again, and east on Diversey Parkway before ending in the park of Lincoln Park.
The Chicago Pride Parade started on June 27, 1970 as a march from Bughouse Square at Dearborn and Walton streets to what is now the Daley Center downtown. It was intended to commemorate the uprising at the Stonewall Inn tavern in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood a year earlier.
The route has changed many times over the years, but has at least started in the East Lakeview area since the second parade in 1971. The parade was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has been back strong as ever since 2022.