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Pride parades focus on protest

NEW YORK — Thousands of people lined the streets for gay pride parades Sunday in coast-to-coast events that took both celebratory and political tones, the latter a reaction to what some see as new threats to gay rights in the Trump era.

In a year when leaders are anxious about the president’s agenda, parade organizers in New York and San Francisco were more focused on protest. In New York, for instance, grand marshals from the American Civil Liberties Union were chosen to represent a “resistance movement.”

Activists have been galled by the Trump administration’s rollback of federal guidance advising school districts to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice. The Republican president also broke from Democratic predecessor Barack Obama’s practice of issuing a proclamation in honor of Pride Month.

At the jam-packed New York City parade, a few attendees wore “Make America Gay Again” hats, while one group walking silently in the parade wore “Black Lives Matter” shirts as they held up signs with a fist and with a rainbow background, a symbol for gay pride. Still others protested potential cuts to heath care benefits, declaring that “Healthcare is an LGBT issue.”

“I think this year is even more politically charged, even though it was always a venue where people used it to express their political perspectives,” said Joannah Jones, 59, from New York with her wife Carol Phillips. She said the parade being televised for the first time gives people a wider audience. “Not only to educate people in general on the diversity of LGBTQ community but also to see how strongly we feel about what’s going on in office.”

Lemon Reimer, a 20-year-old college student from upstate New York, said the sense of community was important.

“I am starting to feel more like I need to have the security of my culture and my people around me to feel protected and safe.” Meanwhile, Kendall Bermudez, a 21-year-old parade-goer from New Jersey, felt empowered by the huge showing there. “I think with all these people here, they’re going to show we’re fighting back and we’re proud of who we are,” she said. “I think we’re going to overcome it and show Trump who’s boss.”

And in Chicago, 23-year-old Sarah Hecker was attending her first pride parade, another event that attracted wall-to-wall crowds. “I felt like this would be a way to not necessarily rebel, but just my way to show solidarity for marginalized people in trying times,” said Hecker, a marketing consultant who lives in suburban Chicago.

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