By 1973, the parade had moved its starting point to Belmont Harbor. The "gay liberationists" leading the charge numbered 300, according to the Chicago Tribune. At that point, the parade had moved closer to its currently location, starting at Addison and Halsted, in an area then referred to as "New Town." New Town first entered the Chicago lexicon around 1969, when high-end fashion retailer Paul B. Magit opened a boutique at 2900 N Broadway Street. Current residents despised the influx of overpriced stores and "young singles looking for action." [regarded as the most diversey area in Chicago].
approaching Diversey Parkway
photo - Calumet 412 via my friend Marc Moder
with Evergreen Foods (Walgreens) on the right
& Nettlehorst School on the left
photo - Gay Chicago Rewind
all photos below by Alan Light
Heading towards the park on Diversey Parkway
chatting it up at the park after the parade
via Forgotten Chicago Discussion Group
University of Illinois-Chicago via Explore Chicago
Politics was the Theme
photo - UC Special Collections Research Center-Facebook
photo - UC Special Collections Research Center-Facebook
Pride Parade
photo - Gay Magazine via Chicago Pride
photos - Go Pride Chicago
Pride Parade
A New Route
photos - Go Pride Chicago
LAKEVIEW — Lake View's top cop saw rampant public drinking at last month's Pride Parade — and if the parade happens again next year, he wants to limit entrances so police can check bags for liquor, he said. "It's virtually impossible for us to stop it once it's going on," Town Hall Police District Cmdr. Elias Voulgaris told Hawthorne Neighbors. "It's not impossible to stop it if we can prevent it from going in." Since Voulgaris assumed his command last year, he's touted a "zero-tolerance" policy on quality-of-life issues such as drinking and urinating on the public way. With big events like Pride, which swelled to more than a million people this year, police cannot dole out enough tickets for all the drinkers.
LAKEVIEW — After officials said more than a million
people flocked to Sunday's Pride parade, some residents and their alderman are
wondering whether it's outgrown the Lake View neighborhood. "I've had
discussions that we are one or two incidents, or one or two parades, away from
not having the parade. Period," Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said Wednesday
night at a community policing meeting. Tunney has said he'd be willing to move
the parade Downtown after residents complained to his office about public
drinking, trash and safety concerns. According to Town Hall district police, 45
people were arrested for misdemeanor crimes from 5 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m.
Monday. Two others showed up in felony bond court this week after they
allegedly trashed a police car and tried to tackle an officer, respectively. A
lot of constituents are wondering whether the parade has "outgrown the
neighborhood," Tunney said. "As you know, people come from all over
the Midwest. It is certainly an economic boon to the neighborhood, but not at
the cost of public safety issues, and I think public safety comes first,"
he said.
CHICAGO — In announcing the results of a survey about the
Pride Parade last month, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said respondents favored
keeping the parade in Lake View. The survey results showed a majority of ward
residents surveyed want the parade moved Downtown, according to data posted on
Tunney's website Friday. The online survey polled more than 3,300 people, and
the initial results released by the alderman's office said more than 55 percent
of respondents favored keeping the parade in Lakeview. On Friday, a more
detailed breakdown of responses showed that 51 percent of self-identified 44th
Ward residents are in favor of moving the parade. About 61 percent of
respondents said they live in the 44th Ward. The Pride Parade marked its 45th
year in June, and drew more than a million people. The parade route snaked
through Uptown, Boystown and Lincoln Park. After residents complained about
trash, drinking and violence, Tunney said in July he'd be open to moving the
parade.
He commissioned the online survey in August. "The survey indicated that Lakeview residents want the Pride Parade to stay in our community, but it also indicated that neighbors want to see real reforms," Tunney said when the results were released Sept. 25.
The 2015 Chicago Pride Parade will be held in Boystown,
not downtown, according to multiple city sources who spoke with CWB on the
condition of anonymity this week. We first reported the development Tuesday
morning. How organizers will address concerns of overcrowding, brawls, medical
response difficulties, and persistent post-parade crime remains to be seen. But
sources who spoke with CWB stated unequivocally that virtually every city
department involved in the parade, including all emergency services, have
expressed their beliefs that the parade should be moved to a more manageable
location. Of course, first responders don’t make that decision. Politicians and
the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events do.
BOYSTOWN — Organizers of the Pride Parade will hire 90
off-duty police officers to assist with crowd control, but neighbors say it
might not be enough to quell potential evening mayhem. After an estimated one
million attendees left hundreds of citations and a damaged police cruiser in
their wake last summer, city officials vowed to improve conditions or find an
alternative location for the parade.
The June 28 parade will remain on the same route, but will hopefully be limited to 2½ hours, while checkpoints along the route will "really limit the amount of public drinking," said Erin Duffy, 44th Ward director of community outreach. Northalsted Business Alliance will have another 20 private security officers in the area from 3 p.m. until after bar close, the organization said Wednesday. "We have the ability to up the security so everyone has a good time and also gets home safe," said Chad Honeycutt, Northalsted assistant director of external affairs. As for the Chicago Police Department, Duffy said there will a "very large police force" to maintain order in the evening hours following the parade. Belmont Avenue will be barricaded, while mounted officers will patrol the area and other officers will be at CTA stations. But the off-duty officers will be gone around 6 p.m., which left some neighbors concerned.
LAKEVIEW — The 2015 Chicago Pride Parade came to a
grinding halt around 1:45 p.m. Sunday as protesters staged a "die-in"
to draw attention to the challenges facing LGBT communities of color.
About 15 protesters, most wearing black shirts sporting #BlackOutPride logos, were marching in the parade before they reached Addison and Halsted streets. Then, some laid down on the ground and others sat in a circle around them, bringing the parade to a stop. They chanted "Black lives matter" and "Stonewall was a f---ing riot," a reminder of June 1969 riots for LGBT rights in New York that led to pride parades in Chicago and around the country. After the pause in the parade progression was noted by the crowd, some booed, while other cheered the protesters. Police officers spoke to a woman who appeared to lead the protesters, who refused to disband at officers' request. After about 10 minutes, about six of the protesters were led away from the intersection in handcuffs and taken to the Town Hall police district, 850 W. Addison Street.
Some parade-goers have been complaining for years that
Chicago's pride festivities have gone corporate, and in the process turned into
a commercialized spectacle and yet another excuse for straight people to day
drink in the streets. Some LGBTQ revelers have simply chosen to stay home from
the parade in response; others have turned to the growing Chicago Dyke March
for a more indie alternative and still others have opted to bring their
displeasure to the parade itself, as a group of #BlackLivesMatter protesters
did last week, with a die-in style protest that brought the parade to a halt.
To test the theory, Illinois-resident Riley Kollaritsch crunched the numbers of parade participants, listed on the parade's website, and graphed them with a pie chart by organization type.
LAKEVIEW — While regrouping from last weekend's Pride
Parade, officials are considering adding a staging area on Halsted Street for
next year's fest to keep Pride attendees in and troublemakers out.
The idea of gating off the Northalsted strip for a
permitted event was floated too late for the 2015 parade, but neighbors voiced
support for it during a Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy meeting Wednesday
at the Town Hall District, 850 W. Addison Street. The monthly CAPS meeting
provided a sounding board for neighbors just three days after Sunday's parade,
during which hundreds of thousands of attendees swarmed 21 blocks and cheered
on 200 participating groups and floats.
Police said they discussed creating an event to block off
the streets after the parade and take donations for entry, but, "at the
time, it was too late to actually have a permitted event and shut down
Halsted," said Capt. Bill Looney. The staging area could be used to
streamline entrance to the festivities, acting as a sort of checkpoint for the
throngs that flood the streets of Lakeview after the parade. Alternately,
officials considered using the Northalsted strip to stage an "after
party" that would concentrate post-parade activity, which in previous
years has bled into residential sections of the neighborhood.
According to CNN Mateen carried an assault rifle and a pistol into the
packed Pulse club about 2 a.m. Sunday and started shooting, killing 49 people
and wounding at least 53, officials said. After a standoff of about three
hours, while people trapped inside the club desperately called and messaged
friends and relatives, police crashed into the building with an armored vehicle
and stun grenades and killed Mateen.
Ray Rivera, a DJ at Pulse Orlando nightclub, is consoled
by a friend, outside of the Orlando Police Department after a shooting
involving multiple fatalities at the nightclub, Sunday, June 12.
Live updates: Latest news on Orlando shootings. “It
appears he was organized and well-prepared,” Orlando Police Chief John Mina
said early Sunday. Authorities said they haven’t found any accomplices.
every mayor since Harold Washington
has supported the parade and LBGTQ+ community
Transgender is an umbrella term that describes people
whose gender identity or expression does not match the sex they were assigned
at birth. For example, a transgender person may identify as a woman despite
having been born with male genitalia. –
Live Science
A long-running tradition in Chicago, the annual Pride Parade is one of the city’s biggest summer events. Attendees can expect to see jubilant revelers throughout the full length of the parade, which takes place this Sunday, June 25 starting at the Montrose and Broadway intersection at noon. According to the Pride Parade’s official website, this year’s edition will feature 150 entries, including but not limited to parade floats, marching bands, and performance groups. The parade will run south on Broadway Avenue to Halsted Avenue where it will continue for several blocks before turning east on Belmont, then it’ll get back on Broadway heading south towards Diversey where it’ll conclude. - Curbed Chicago
The Pride Train pulls up to the Belmont Station
Chicago Skyline Preps for Sunday's parade
Lake View East Chamber
photo - Lake View East Chamber of Commerce
More personal prepping
photo - Paul Montodo
photo - Greg Baird
Street Closures in Place
Security in Place
with an alert from CWB Chicago Boystown
According to Anthony Meade, a freelance photographer,
Camping out along the Parade Route
,photo - Greg Baird
photo - Greg Baird
photo - Greg Baird
photo - Greg Baird
photos below all by DNAinfo
On Sunday, a collective of trans and queer people of
color shut down the Chicago Pride Parade at Belmont and Halsted to remind
people of that history — and demand better for the future. Nearly 40 protesters
marched between the WGN floats and the Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches
in the second leg of the parade, which began at noon Sunday at Montrose and
Broadway and finished just after 4 p.m. at Diversey and Sheridan Road. But for nearly
15 minutes, the coalition — filled with members of the Black Transgender Gender
Non-Conforming Collective, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Jewish Voice for Peace,
Assata's Daughters and Pilsen Alliance — chanted explicative-laced insults
toward police officers and Donald Trump and denounced LGBTQ organizations they
said overlook marginalized people within the community. "The rainbow
masquerade is not enough," Vita Cleveland declared into a megaphone,
fellow protesters echoing them. Later, Toni Marie Preston cried out in a hoarse
voice that, "Black trans lives matter."
DOWNTOWN — A new music festival happening in Grant Park this June is bringing big name performers to the city during its 50th annual Pride weekend. While organizers expected the announcement to thrill the city’s LGBTQ community, some locals are feeling left out. “Pride in the Park,” a one-day music festival featuring Iggy Azalea and Steve Aoki as headliners, will happen June 29 in Grant Park’s Butler Field, drawing inspiration from Lollapalooza and electronic music festivals. The festival is produced by Dreambrite, a special event planning company co-founded by Dusty Carpenter, director of operations at Another Round Hospitality Group, and Ramesh Ariyanayakam, co-owner of the Kit Kat Supper Club and Lark Restaurant Bar in Boystown. “For years we’ve had Pride Fest, which is an amazing event one weekend, but then a dead period until the parade next weekend,” Carpenter said. “I’ve also heard people complain about Chicago never getting big talent for Pride. So I got the idea to help Chicago put on our Pride Month at the level of Pride in New York and San Francisco.” Representing Chicago in the lineup are drag queen Shea Couleé, rapper KC Ortiz and Miss DJ Meg. Other performers include singers Tamar Braxton, Taylor Dayne, Todrick Hall, Kathy Sledge and Gia Woods, as well as “Rupaul’s Drag Race” queens Alexis Michelle and Coco Montrese.
 |
   Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays
these LGBTQ folks from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. It has
never ever rain on this parade since its inception – never ever!!
‘Although cut short by severe thunderstorms, Chicago’s
Pride Parade drew an impressive crowd along its four-mile route between Uptown
and Lincoln Park on Sunday. This year’s event commemorated the 50th anniversary
of the famous uprising following police raids on New York’s Stonewall Inn in
1969, a seminal moment in the LGBTQ rights movement. Lori Lightfoot, Chicago’s
first openly gay mayor, presided over the festivities as Grand Marshall. While
Pride is always a feast for the senses, this year’s edition got an extra pop of
color thanks to new rainbow crosswalks along Halsted. As the party unfolded on
street level, parade-goers also captured impressive shots of an ominous shelf
cloud rolling in overhead. A sudden downpour did little to derail the
festivities—at least until officials were forced to delay and ultimately cancel
the celebration around 3 p.m. Hundreds of organizations, clubs, and companies
participated in the parade. One of our personal favorites was AIA Chicago’s
LGBTQI + Alliance, which marched with over-sized models of some of Chicago’s
most recognizable skyscrapers including Willis Tower, the building formerly
known as the John Hancock Center, and Jeanne Gang’s upcoming Vista Tower.’ - Curbed Chicago 2019
As additional note, this year marks the first time in a
nation’s history there is a serious LGBTQ+ contender for the White House for the 2020 election – Mayor Pete of Indiana. He was appointed Transportation Secretary to the Biden administration.
      
photo below - forgotten source
 2020 Canceled due to Covid-19 for the First Time Ever but not the memory of the day is not lost Instead a Protest March/Parade in 2020 a new generation wants to be heard               |
