Supreme Court ruling makes Pride parades historic, jubilant

SAN FRANCISCO — Rainbows and good cheer will be out in force this weekend as hundreds of thousands of people pack gay pride events from New York City to Seattle, San Francisco to Chicago to celebrate a Supreme Court ruling legalising same-sex marriage.

Organisers of San Francisco’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade, just called Pride expect about 1 million revelers. It will have 240 groups marching in the parade and more than 30 floats, its largest in 45 years.

“Every trailer in Nevada and California has been rented and brought in, including one from a farm in Northern California,” said Gary Virginia, board president of San Francisco Pride. “I just think it’s going to be magical this year.”

That’s because the US Supreme Court issued on Friday (June 26) a long-awaited ruling, giving same-sex couples the right to marry in all 50 states. Virginia’s comments were echoed by leaders of Pride celebrations in other cities.

“It’s going to be an epic weekend,” said David Studinski, march director for New York City Pride. “I actually just wrote on Twitter that this is the most historic Pride march since the first.”

New York City expects 22,000 people marching in a 2-mile (3.22km) route and more than 2 million people to visit throughout the day. The event is considered a march, Studinski said, because the movement still has much to accomplish.

Pride festivities started as a way to honour the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, when gay patrons stood up to a police raid at a bar in New York City. In San Francisco, marchers took to Polk Street in 1970 and in 1972, the event became a parade, with an estimated 2,000 marchers and 15,000 spectators, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

This year’s parade in San Francisco, which has the theme “Equality Without Exception,” offers a bit of everything for spectators, from social justice to professional basketball. The parade’s celebrity grand marshal is Rick Welts, president of NBA champions the Golden State Warriors. Speakers include Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, and Jim Obergefell, the named plaintiff in the landmark same-sex marriage suit decided by the US Supreme Court.

Chicago, the Twin Cities, St Petersburg and St Louis have planned Pride events for today.

Seattle expects to draw nearly 500,000 parade watchers, said Eric Bennett, president of Seattle Pride.

“This is definitely going to be a momentous Pride weekend all over the country,” he said. “It’s just going to raise the celebration level of everybody who supports marriage equality.” AP