At a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under threat across the nation, Gabi Janae, a 25-year-old Franklin Park resident, brought her 5-year-old daughter, Lilah, to her first Chicago Pride Parade on Sunday.
Janae said they weren’t there just to party, but to show her daughter what love and acceptance can look like. “I want her to know that everything that’s going on here is normal and that hate is not an option,” Janae said. The mother-daughter pair were also at the parade in support of LGBTQ+ family members, including an uncle who died of AIDS in the ‘90s.
Thousands of people filled the streets along the 20-block route for the 54th annual Chicago Pride Parade that kicked off at West Sheridan and North Broadway in Lake View. Visitors traveled from neighboring states, including Wisconsin and Indiana, to celebrate alongside longtime activists and first-time attendees.
This year’s parade featured 150 entries and brought a renewed emphasis on grassroots leadership and community organizations, with TaskForce Prevention and Community Services, an organization that works with LGBTQ+ youths, leading the procession. Physicians Maya Green and Catherine Creticos served as grand marshals.
Green, a South Side native, is chief medical and health equity officer at Onyx Medical Wellness and developed a program to streamline HIV treatment, according to PRIDEChicago. Creticos is an infectious disease specialist with more than three decades of experience serving the LGBTQ+ community.
Also marching were Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker.
This year’s event had eight sponsors, versus 13 last year, according to PRIDEChicago. “We have been fortunate that lost sponsorship revenue has been offset by community donations,” said Steve Long, chair of the board of PRIDEChicago, which organizes the parade. “As an all-volunteer organization, solely responsible for the parade, we have not been as impacted as other pride organizations nationwide.”
Tim Frye, who has produced the parade for more than 50 years alongside his late husband, Richard Pfeiffer, was in attendance when the parade passed by the newly designated “Richard Pfeiffer Parade Way” street sign at Belmont and Halsted.
“For decades, the Chicago Pride Parade has been a celebration rooted in community and driven by volunteers — built on the legacy of leaders like Richard Pfeiffer and Tim Frye,” Long said in a statement. “That spirit remains unchanged. With continued support from our city and community, the power and pride of this tradition carry on stronger than ever.”
Another first-time parade attendee was Max Carlson, 18, who identifies as lesbian. Carlson, who is originally from Wisconsin, is preparing to move to Chicago this fall to attend Loyola University.
“Growing up, I struggled a lot with my sexuality, so seeing so many people in one place all for the same thing is inspiring,” Carlson said. “It feels like we’re going back in time, but there are still people that care, and there are still people that want to keep progressing.”
Eris Lock, 32, a Rogers Park resident who identifies as a lesbian, was also a parade first timer.
Lock said she had been to pride events in Kansas City but has never been to the Chicago parade since moving here three years ago.
Lock described pride as “being able to express joy and your own inner whimsical nature.”
She reacted to a recent Supreme Court ruling that sided with parents who want to pull their children from public school classrooms that use LGBTQ+ storybooks in lessons. Lock said she was disappointed that resources for LGBTQ+ youth may become difficult to access amid the current political climate because she didn’t learn about key queer events and figures like Harvey Milk or the Stonewall riots until she was well into her 20s.
“It sounds like the same kind of bigots who held their kids out of school when they had to start integrating. People don’t want their kids having to learn about our history,” Lock said. “They’ll teach a lot about civil rights, but they forget that ours have been around for years.”
Steven Ballard, 36, a South Side resident who identifies as gay, expressed frustration about the current political focus on trans rights and LGBTQ+ issues in schools, calling them a distraction.
“I’m concerned that it’s a scapegoat-distraction strategy,” he said. “It’s very weird to be talking about trans athletes when there’s like five. Like, what? Who is this for? I’m worried that there are a lot of uninformed people out there who are swayed by these tactics. I honestly thought we were smarter than this.”
Alissa Lyons, 43, who identifies as bisexual, described pride as “being you, being free and enjoying it.” It’s important for her to celebrate pride at the parade, not only for herself, but also in support of her daughter, she said.
Lyons said she’s concerned about “the segregating of people, and making people feel not wanted,” but the pride parade is a reminder that “some of the world still knows how to genuinely love and let people be them.”