LGBT Pride Month commemorates the June 1969 Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village, which began when patrons at a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, violently resisted a police raid. (Alexandra Wimley/Chicago Tribune)īRIEF HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS IN CHICAGO Why are gay rights celebrated in June? (Only registered parade participants, police officers and other city officials, security staff, parade marshals and credentialed media will be allowed in the street during the parade.) The Lakeside Pride marching band in the 2017 Pride Parade. The planned 150 registered entries will include floats, decorated vehicles, performance groups, a marching band and walking contigents representing community organizations, businesses, government officials and individual community members.

One week after presiding as “King” of the Chicago Puerto Rican People’s Parade, Orlando “El Fenomeno” Cruz - the first openly gay active professional boxer - will lead the Chicago Pride Parade.Ĭruz, who has won four world boxing titles and competed for Puerto Rico in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, came out on Oct.