PRIDEChicago, the committee behind the Chicago Annual Pride Parade—scheduled for Sunday, June 28, at 12 p.m., and starting at the corner of Halsted and Belmont—has announced that trans actress/teacher/activist Alexandra Billings will be the grand marshal of the event.
Billings has dozens of stage, television and film roles to her credit. In the last few years she has had guest-starring roles on hit TV shows such as E.R. and Grey’s Anatomy (which won a GLAAD Award for Outstanding episode). The California resident frequently returns to Chicago, where she is a (summer) teacher at Steppenwolf Theater; she is also an artistic associate at the Bailiwick Theatre and is an About Face company member.
Billings and her wife, Chrisanne Blankenship, married in Chicago in the mid-1990s and were recently remarried in California, their present home.
In addition, there will be changes related to crowd control. Effective this year, the plan is to line the entire parade route with barricades on both sides of the street from the starting point all the way to Diversey, to keep the crowds at bay. Spectators, including those who arrive late on parade day, will be required to stand behind the barricades, not in the street.
PRIDEChicago has updated and upgraded the June Pride Month and Parade Web site; see www.ChicagoPrideCalendar.org.