When is the gay pride parade 2016 in chicago how to#
I feel grateful to the brave souls that showed me how to celebrate and reveal what lies beneath. I felt ready to unveil my baldness because those around me were so boldly embracing their own uniqueness. I no longer felt vulnerable or ashamed of what lies beneath, but rather felt ready to celebrate my difference, my journey, my alter ego, and my true self. Sunday, while wearing somewhat different attire, we continued to dance, to celebrate, to live loudly- because this is how we survive.Īs we danced together and separately, I knew we both were thinking about how blessed, how lucky, how "blucked" we were to be there-together- in this sea of moments.Īs the parade ended, and the overstimulation began to subside, I decided to take off my wig and publicly reveal my baldness for the first time. We were at the Lurie Cancer Center Survivors' Walk, wearing purple shirts, and celebrating our dance with cancer. Three weeks earlier, we were at a very different type of celebration.
some as odd to move the gay pride parade out of Boystown, the event didn't. the neighborhood and could move downtown starting in 2016. We danced, jumped, and moved because we can, because we should, because we must. The 46th annual Chicago Pride Parade will be held this. Yesterday, as our float slowly made its way through the thousands of people gathered at the parade, Mel Malka, a fellow survivor, and I twisted out Cancer. The more eccentric my appearance becomes, the more embraced and accepted I feel by the community around me. Living in Boystown, a neighborhood that is predominantly gay, has allowed me to feel a sense of "normalcy" during a period that is far from normal. I have started to become more creative and perhaps bold with what I wear on my head, what I wrap this body in, and what I choose to present to the outside world. It's a day where we embrace our alter egos, which enables us to connect with our true selves.Īs I have struggled to reemerge into the world, and become reacquainted with normalcy, I have also learned how to let my freak fly. Likewise, what time does the gay pride parade start Although it officially starts at 11:00 am in 2020, don't expect much to be happening at the Pride Festival at Sunset Beach until after 1:00 pm as everyone is at the parade which starts at noon and goes on for well over an hour. People from all over the world gather to celebrate diversity, difference, vulnerability, strength, and love. Chicago 2020, 2019, 2018, Halsted Street 2016. This day, this parade, this experience, is the ultimate celebration of life. Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report.This past weekend, at the Gay Pride Parade, Chicago got a taste of what it is like to see, breathe, and live in hyper-color. Turkish police have repeatedly in recent days prevented activists from participating in LGBT rallies.Īssociated Press writer Tom Hays in New York, Michael Tarm in Chicago and Olga R. Organizers nearly doubled their corps of private security agents, to 160.Īt a gay street parade in Turkey, a prominent German lawmaker and outspoken gay rights advocate was temporarily detained Sunday when he wanted to speak publicly at the end of Pride Week. Some participants didn't welcoming the stepped-up security: Two honorary grand marshals and a health clinic that serves sex workers withdrew Friday from the parade to protest the heavy police presence.Ĭhicago police put 200 more officers than usual on duty for the city's pride parade Sunday. San Francisco spectators faced metal detectors for the first time, and more police than usual were keeping watch. Thousands of uniformed officers lined the route, supplemented by plainclothes officers in the crowd. New York police deployed roving counterterrorism units and used bomb-sniffing dogs, rooftop observation posts, police helicopters and thousands of officers to provide extra layers of security at Sunday's parade. Many participants said the tributes to the dead in Orlando didn't dampen the energy and fun associated with the pride parade. Above each photo were the words, "Never forget."ĭespite the somber start, parade-goers seemed as enthusiastic as ever once marchers and floats began moving, cheering and dancing along the route. In Chicago, 49 marchers at the head of the parade each held aloft a poster-sized photograph of a different Orlando victim as the procession wound through the city. They came two weeks after the nation's deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. New York's parade was one of several being held Sunday across the country, along with San Francisco, Chicago, Minneapolis and St. But then Orlando happened, and seeing so many of my friends shrink in fear made me realize that coming here was more important," said Hillman, wearing an anti-assault guns T-shirt. "For me, I wasn't going to ride because I have 17-month-old twins at home. The transgender New Yorker said he hadn't planned to come to the march.