The two-mile march route begins in the caverns of Midtown Manhattan at 36th Street and Fifth Avenue. The march proceeds downtown via Fifth Avenue, turning west along 8th Street into the West Village until a sharp turn onto Christopher Street at Sixth Avenue. Marchers continue down Christopher Street, past The Stonewall Inn, until the route disperses at Greenwich Street.
The first NYC Pride March took place in 1970, on the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ liberation movement.
This year’s theme is “Equality Needs You.” Parade grand marshals are Jazz Jennings, the 15-year-old honorary co-founder of the Transkids Purple Rainbow Foundation and the youngest Grand Marshal in NYC Pride history; Subhi Nahas, a Syrian refugee who co-founded the first LGBT magazine in Syria, Mawaleh; and veteran HIV/AIDS awareness advocate Cecilia Chung, a founding producer of the San Francisco Trans March.
Victims of the mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub earlier this month, an attack on the LGBTQ community in which 49 people lost their lives, will be memorialized.
Also marching are Barbara Poma, owner of Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, and Neema Bahrami, Pulse Nightclub Entertainment Manager, who will be riding on the lead float, which will be surrounded by a color guard from Scouts for Equality, carrying 49 orange flags with a rainbow stripe to remember the victims. Immediately behind the float will be a special marching contingent, walking behind a banner emblazoned with #WeAreOrlando and #SomosOrlando
After the March, Poma and Bahrami will be speaking at the PrideFest Street Festival on Hudson Street.
NYC Pride will also celebrate the historic Stonewall Inn, which President Obama designated a National Monument June 25—the first national monument dedicated to telling the story of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community’s struggle for equal rights.
Click here for a full list of participants in the march. Among them will be the cast of Fun Home, who will be marching with PFLAG.
Visit NYCPride.org.
Explore more of Playbill.com's 30 Days of Pride here.
