The 2026 Chicago Pride Parade on June 28 drove home that it is a protest before a celebration, spotlighting numerous organizations and individuals who each day take on challenges affecting the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
The theme, Free to be Proud, was on display as the parade wound its way through Lake View.
Cheers filled the air as community grand marshals Tracy Baim, Evette Cardona, Mona Noriega, and the Alliance of Illinois Judges, alongside individuals from Puerto Rican Cultural Center, rode and marched down Halsted Street.
Local organizations Gay Liberation Network and Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) highlighted ongoing attacks against immigrants with their parade entries. The co-founder and strategic coordinator of OCAD, Antonio Gutierrez, emphasized the origins of Pride as a riot and representing two marginalized communities.
“We need to be in community and to be able to intersect my two identities,” Gutierrez said. “I’m queer, I’m undocumented, we are a part of your community.”
For attendee Miranda Lucas, the OCAD’s message rang true.
“I’m first-generation Guatemalan, my sister is Mexican-American, my friend is Mexican-American—a lot of our friends and family have been affected by the ICE raids.”
The parade had various floats that emphasized the current attack on the transgender community. Groups like The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, Life is Work, and, new to the parade, Trans Up Front Illinois, all shared the message that protecting trans people is important.
Holding a “Protect the Dolls” sign, Lizzie M., a trans elder with LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, which connects queer elders with queer youths, spoke about what it meant for her to be at Pride.
“It’s fantastic. It’s acceptance,” she said. “I spent too many years of my life hiding; now I’m here.”
For Zahara Bassett, CEO of the social services organization Life is Work, being at the parade meant that it was now for the community rather than for corporations.
“For many years, we set back and resisted Pride because we knew it wasn’t a celebration,” Bassett said. “We have seen Chicago Pride since transition into a community fair, not a corporate drive tool.”
In the midst of the crowd, Derek Shields, a trans man, was joined with his girlfriend and his mom for the parade. He expressed gratitude for having a support system as a trans person.
“I am so incredibly happy to have a supportive family,” Shields said. “I know that’s not something everyone gets.”
The parade also featured many of the state’s elected officials, including Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson and members of Chicago City Council’s LGBTQ+ Caucus.
Many of those officials began the day at an Equality Illinois reception at El Mariachi Tequila Bar & Grill, 3906 N. Broadway, where Pritzker signed three LGBTQ+-rights bills into law before marching.
The new laws preserve gender markers on vital records, expand access to hormone therapy and strengthen patient privacy protections for transgender Illinoisans.
“One of the things that we should have pride about—and that all around the country I think people look on with envy about—is the fact that Illinois truly does step up and protect our LGBTQ+ community, and we’re not going to stop,” Pritzker said.
Equality Illinois CEO Channyn Lynne Parker, who marked her first Pride Parade as the organization’s leader, urged attendees to remember that many LGBTQ+ people across the country still lack the protections Illinois provides.
“Not every one of us has access to Pride,” Parker said. “Access to Pride depends on what state you live in, what county, what block.”
Photos below by Joe Stevens
