The 54th annual Chicago Pride Parade drew several hundred thousand people to Lakeview in a community-powered celebration of LGBTQ+ joy and resiliency.
The parade kicked off June 29 with a procession of motorcyclists from Bikes and Mics and Dykes on Bikes leading the way. The motorcyclists revved their engines in the seconds leading up to the parade stepping off, at which point the crowd of onlookers cheered and shouts of “Happy Pride” filled the air.
With fewer sponsors than in previous years, the celebration took on a focus of centering Chicago’s local LGBTQ+ community. This year’s parade had eight sponsors, compared to 13 in 2024, but the loss in revenue was offset by community donations and powered by an all-volunteer organization, PRIDEChicago, according to a statement from the group.
This focus on community was emphasized by the groups leading the parade, which included TaskForce Prevention and Community Services as the celebration’s first-ever Out Front Leader.
Youth participants in TaskForce’s Vogue School, which uses ballroom culture to build community and connect LGBTQ+ youth with vital resources, vogued on and around the organization’s float as it traveled south along the parade’s route.
“It’s so exciting and unreal to be among the groups leading the parade,” said Christopher Balthazar, executive director of TaskForce. “To have our youth centered at this year’s Pride Parade … gives the opportunity to show that the youth we serve are not just resilient, they are also creative. Many of them are dancers, but they are also advocates, peer educators and our future leaders.”
The West Side-based LGBTQ+ youth organization was followed by the parade’s community grand marshals: Dr. Maya Green and Dr. Catherine Creticos, two LGBTQ+ health care heroes who were selected through a community nomination process.
Green recently opened Onyx Medical Wellness, a South Side clinic focused on serving LGBTQ+ Chicagoans, while Creticos is an LGBTQ+ ally who serves as Howard Brown Health‘s medical director of clinical research and infectious diseases. Creticos’ involvement is the first time an ally has been featured as a Chicago Pride Parade grand marshal.
Resiliency in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks
This year’s celebration took on a theme of “United in Pride,” a message participants said reflects the solidarity among LGBTQ+ people and their allies in defending the community against the current backlash and attempts by the federal government to strip queer people of their rights.
“This theme means that we are united across all of our identities, across all of our expressions,” said Ald. Anthony Quezada (35th Ward), who marked his first Chicago Pride Parade since joining City Council in April. “Pride is so important to unite our people, express our identities and most importantly, to model solidarity.”
Participants in the parade reflected on recent attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, including last week’s Supreme Court decision allowing parents in Maryland to opt out of having their kids participate in LGBTQ+-themed lessons in elementary school.
Michael Rashid, development manager for Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, the largest circulating library of LGBTQ+ materials in the Midwest, said the organization’s presence in the parade underscored the importance of preserving LGBTQ+ history and education.
“For us to be able to represent preserving queer history and literature at a time when so many people want to take that away is what this is about for us,” Rashid said. “They can try to take that away as much as they want, but as long as places like Gerber/Hart and other organizations exist to protect queer history, literature, culture and education, they will never be able to erase our history.”
Other parade participants reflected on the recent attacks on the transgender community, including President Donald Trump’s onslaught of anti-transgender executive orders and the recent Supreme Court decision allowing for a youth gender-affirming health care ban in Tennessee.
Channyn Lynne Parker, CEO of the Black- and trans-led organization Brave Space Alliance, said the group’s participation in the parade was about reclaiming the narrative.
“They’re taking our existence and twisting it into something that it isn’t,” Parker said. “But our visibility here today is an act of defiance wrapped in joy—it’s everything they don’t want us to have, and our joy is more powerful than ever.”
Life is Work, a trans-led organization based on the West Side, marched in the parade for the first time in the organization’s history. CEO Zahara Bassett, who has traditionally opted to participate in protests rather than the parade, said it was important to her staff that they be featured this year.
“And to be here today feels liberating,” Bassett said. “Everyone is feeling torn and challenged with all the injustice that’s happening around our country, but today we’re showing what true love and community looks like. We’re here, we are queer and we’re not going anywhere.”
Pride in protest
Others took the opportunity of marching in the parade to make political statements, including Chicago LSD Radio, a nonprofit group dedicated to showcasing queer artists and promoting inclusion.
As LSD Radio’s contingent passed Halsted and Roscoe streets, members of its group pulled out signs with messages against discrimination, anti-trans attacks and the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, among other issues.
At the same time, someone on the group’s float sang “Dear Mr. President” by P!nk, followed by a broadcast of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the song “Freedom” by Beyoncé.
Daniel Perez, founder of LSD Radio, told Windy City Times the performance was intended to call upon people from both sides of the political aisle to stand up for human rights.
“As a Latino immigrant, my rights are under attack, but so are trans rights, women’s rights and so many other rights in this country,” Perez said. “We wanted to use this platform and our voice to amplify these messages in front of such a large audience.”
The Gay Liberation Network, which was last in the parade, took the opportunity to make a statement against Israel’s actions in Gaza and the ICE raids across the U.S.
Members of the TransChicago Empowerment Center, a trans-focused organization housed within the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, also used their participation in the parade to send a message, with members of its contingent carrying protest signs calling for the abolition of ICE and against anti-trans attacks.
Jaileen Perez, a member of TransChicago, said their visibility in the parade was also a statement that the organization will continue to thrive, even after losing federal funds due to one of Trump’s executive orders.
“We’re here with protest signs and didn’t invest in a float because we’re taking a stand against commercialism,” Jaileen Perez said. “We want to state loudly that ICE should be dismantled because its actions are an injustice. And it should be a human right to access health care and financial services, no matter your gender identity. We all deserve stability.”
A celebration of LGBTQ+ joy and visibility
While this year’s parade carried the weight of recent political attacks, it never lost sight of what makes the celebration so powerful: the joy, creativity and unapologetic presence of LGBTQ+ people.
From dance routines and circus tricks to confetti cannons, drag queens and music, the day reflected a community that knows how to resist with both purpose and pride.
Zoe Schor and Whitney LaMora, owners of the lesbian bar Dorothy, 2500 W. Chicago Ave., celebrated their business’s first time participating in the parade.
“To be out here representing lesbians with our community, staff, friends and family feels amazing,” LaMora said.
Schor said the parade was “invigorating.”
“Being in the parade and seeing the thousands of people out here celebrating and supporting—some queer and some allies—is even more incredible than I’ve ever experienced watching the parade,” Schor said. “This is what it’s about: celebrating together, because we’re all united in the fight, no matter how challenging it is. And coming together to have a good time reminds us that we’re here for each other.”
Rohan Anane, a volunteer for Trikone Chicago, echoed Schor’s and LaMora’s words. Trikone is a volunteer-run nonprofit dedicated to supporting queer South Asians in Chicago, and this marked the group’s fifth time in the parade.
“It’s so important for us to have this kind of visibility now more than ever,” Anane said. “The best thing we can do is show up for each other with love, and the visibility that we have today is something that I don’t think any of us imagined we could have ever had growing up.”
Precious Brady-Davis, a commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the first Black trans woman elected in Cook County, said the day’s celebration represented “coming out of the shadows” thanks to the work of LGBTQ+ activists who came before.
“Today is a celebration saying that we’ve always been here and we always will be,” Brady-Davis said. “I want every LGBTQ+ person to know that your life matters. Shine bright like a diamond, be authentically you, and know there is a great throng of LGBTQ+ people who came before us and a great throng of LGBTQ+ people who will come after us.”
