New York City Mayor Eric Adams joins thousands of LGBTQ+ supporters in a Pride March on Sunday as many expressed concern regarding potential conservative backlash.
The event had bubbles and confetti rain as revelers marched from Toronto to San Francisco while cheering through Pride Month's grand crescendo. The parade strolled and danced down Fifth Avenue to Greenwich Village while cheering and waving rainbow flags to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising.
LGBTQ Pride March in New York
More than five decades ago, the incident involved a police raid on a gay bay that triggered days of protests while also launching the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights. As most attendees celebrated the event, many remained mindful of the rising conservative countermovement.
This includes lawmakers implementing new laws that ban gender-affirming care for transgender children. In a statement, 22-year-old transgender woman Ve Cinder said she was not trying to be very heavily political. However, as per Politico, she noted that she would be very annoyed and hurt when the situation targets her community.
Traveling from Pennsylvania to participate in the largest Pride event in the United States, Cinder shared that she is scared for her future and her trans siblings. She added that she worried about how the country looks at human and basic rights.
Various parades held in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, were among the events roughly 400 Pride organizations across the United States have this year. Many of which are focused specifically on the rights of transgender people.
Non-binary activist AC Dumlao, the chief of staff for Athlete Ally, which is a group that advocates on behalf of LGBTQ+ athletes, is one of the grand marshals of New York City's parade. A spokesperson for NYC Pride, Dan Dimant, said that uplifting the trans community has always been at the core of the events and programming.
On Friday, an annual drag queen parade in Manhattan involved LGBTQ activists who chanted, "We're here, we're queer, we're coming for you children." Various video footage shared on social media showed that marchers also chanted, "We're here, we're queer, we're not going shopping," according to Fox News.
Defiance Against Conservative Backlash
Several members of the controversial LGBT group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence could be seen at the event held on Friday. The anti-Christian group made headlines when the Los Angeles Dodgers decided to honor them at the team's annual LGBTQ pride celebration that was held in June.
In the last few years, each Pride Month celebration has become a defiant show of new and ever-greater challenges to the LGBTQ community. In the previous year, various US states have passed laws banning drag performances and transgender health care.
On the other hand, protests and physical attacks on LGBTQ events and their supporters have cast a pall over gay bars and community centers. Juli Culling, whose daughter is a part of the community, said she was marching for her child.
She had crossed the United States with her 18-year-old trans daughter from Southern California to look for a more welcoming home. Culling let her child pick a city, who subsequently decided on New York, said the New York Times.
