![when is the gay pride parade nyc when is the gay pride parade nyc](https://images.firstwefeast.com/complex/image/upload/t_in_content_image/13495465_1149839181705052_6985454507364035995_o_o9jist.jpg)
By 1981, the parade was climbing up Fifth Avenue to 79th Street, and moving into the park to end on the Great Lawn.Īs the AIDS crisis deepened, the more subdued parade was begun on Central Park West and Columbus Circle and wove down Fifth Avenue (passing St. The 85,000 person parade was shifted to Fifth Avenue in 1978, when it ended at Central Park’s Sheep’s Meadow. In 1974, the parade was moved back to Sixth Avenue, once again traveling uptown. That year, in what was called a better-organized event in the NYT, it began in Central Park, 20,000 marchers paraded down Seventh Avenue to Washington Square Park. The parade became an annual event, marching north from Christopher Street through 1972, until changing direction to move south in 1973. The parade began as a 2000-person march in 1970 – on the one-year anniversary of the June 27th, 1969 Stonewall riots on Christopher Street – with chants of “Say it loud, gay is proud” while moving up 6th Avenue from Christopher Street to Central Park for a rally. Today, with the Supreme Court declaring gay marriage is a right, the one-million strong parade is a symbol of freedom, civil rights and joy for LGBT New Yorkers – and visitors from every part of the world. In 1973, the parade was called a “better-organized event” in The New York Times it proceeded from Central Park with 20,000 marchers down Seventh Avenue to Washington Square Park ending in a large rally ( video).įor the next forty years, the parade has grown and shifted routes through politics and tragedy into the event it is today. The parade was launched as a 2,000-person march in 1970 to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, with chants of “Say it loud, gay is proud.” Initially, it flowed north from Christopher Street to Central Park, but has shifted routes over the decades as it grown and responded to new trends and regulations. New York’s annual Heritage of Pride Parade, scheduled for Sunday, June 28, has been a central part of New York’s cultural life for the past 45 years.