Pride Weekend Trifecta: 3 Local LGBTQ Parades Vie for Attention

The culmination of Pride Month is Pride Weekend, a two-day span so bursting with complex and sometimes conflicting passions no single parade can contain them. So instead, from late Saturday afternoon June 27 through Sunday afternoon June 28, the streets of Manhattan, played host to three—count ‘em—geographically overlapping but distinct parades, each representing a range of political opinions among the LGBTQIA+ population: the Dyke March, the NYC Pride March—which is the big parade most people think of— and the Reclaim Pride Parade.

A fourth event, 17 Shades of Pride, organized by Harlem Pride, which bills itself as “NYC’s Premiere SGL/LGBTQ Pride Organization,” also took place on Saturday afternoon. Because of its location at 12th Avenue and West 130th Street, and its focus on the uptown Black community, this event stood largely apart from the intrigues further south in Manhattan.

The Dyke March

Kicking things off in spirited fashion despite Saturday’s light drizzle was the Dyke March, which began at Bryant Park and would amble its way down Fifth Avenue to Washington Square. Walked into blindly, the event appears both a high-spirited celebration of self-identified “dykes” and allies, with myriad other causes alongside, pro-migrant and trans rights especially. Less evident than in recent years were Palestinian flags–whether by intent or the ebb and flow of activist ardor is unclear.

Whatever the answer, it’s no minor issue, as anti-Zionist fervor had became so aggressive at the Dyke Parade, a phalanx of otherwise very liberal Jewish women left to form their own splinter group, the playfully named Shalom, Dykes. Because of ongoing hostility, the Shalom, Dykes don’t announce the location of their events publicly but they can be found online and are otherwise welcoming, declaring, “We embrace trans, pan, lesbian, bi, and ace dykes as well as those who love us–wherever you are in your Jewish or queer journey.”

As for Dyke March’s journey, security was ample but relaxed. NYPD was out with Patrol Borough Manhattan South Deputy Chief– and man with the megaphone– Timothy Beaudette on the scene with scores of other cops helping with street closures. Groups of Dyke March volunteers in matching white and pink t-shirts a variety of COVID masks also moved along the route.

Initial impressions that such masking was politically motivated, or intended to hide their identities proved mistaken. Rather, it reflected the Dyke March organizers’ ongoing belief that outdoor masking protects people from airborne disease. Indeed, last year’s event was supposed to feature mandatory masking but since most marchers ignored the edict, bare faces and open mouths for smiling, kissing and cheering prevailed.

Among the highlights of the unmasked masses: Church Ladies for Choice, a group of jovial, campy crossdressing men; self-affirming protest signs like “Hot Dykes Melt Ice” and the “Sapphic With an Ice Pick”; and the Queer Big Apple Drum Corps Marching Band, who’d also feature in Sunday NYC Pride March.

The Big Parade

Organized by Heritage of Pride (HOP), the NYC Pride March is the big one, an immense and joyous journey from Madison Square Park to the Stonewall National Monument on Christopher Street. Just because it’s huge, however, doesn’t inure it from criticism. To the contrary, on its left flank, the parade has often been assailed as too “corporate” and insufficiently activist.

To counter that impression, in 2022, HOP banned cops from marching in uniform. Though HOP’s stated reasons for the ban—which George Floyd from 2021, Stonewall Riots of 1969—struck many observers as ill-considered, they have stuck by them, despite protestation of the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL), founded in 1982; despite the fact it was cops who cleared the parade route of disruptive pro-Palestine protestors in 2024; and despite NYPD Commssioner’s Jessica Tisch’s condemnation of the ban.

As many casual parade attendees aren’t aware of HOP’s anti-cop policy, NYPD and GOAL came out to Fifth Avenue and West 20th Street with a tent and pride-themed cop car to show them. Among the politicians who joined GOAL and Tisch to show their support for NYPD participation were Governor Kathy Hochul, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clarke and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, the former wearing a Knicks lanyard, the latter a Knicks t-shirt and pin.

An older white man posted next to GOAL and protesting on their behalf was asked if he was retired police officer. No, he answered, he’s just disagreed with HOP’s anti-cop policy and suggested that, as when Mayor De Blasio boycotted the St. Patrick’s Day Parade for its exclusion of gay marchers, politicians might have to boycott the Pride march to get results. When various GOAL members were asked if they thought Mayor Mamdani would show his support for them, none said they expected him too—a telling intuition that proved correct, though Hizzoner was otherwise a jovial marcher, even if within his long cordon, he was surrounded by plainclothes and other cops.

Less burdened by appearances, other marching politicos moved more freely among the many thousands, including Attorney General Letitia James, City Comptroller Mark Levine, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and recent Democratic primary election winners Brad Lander, who waved a pride flag and wore a rainbow-banded straw hat; and Grace Lee, who did double duty as a mom carrying her daughter’s kick scooter after her daughter tired. A certain silver-haired former State Senator had a playful photo op with Mamdani holding a sign that read “Meet Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Manhattan’s First Gay Borough President” on one side, “That We Know Of” on the other.

A veritable Noah’s Ark of State legislators and City Council Members were also in attendance: rainbows for everyone!

Reclaim Pride... In What?

While last year’s Reclaim Pride parade, which often resembled a pro-Palestine, anti-Trump march, took place concurrently with HOP, this year the events were staggered. Hopping off the HOP route and into Washington Square Park, where the Reclaim event would end later that afternoon, messages to NYPD, who written in pink chalk around the fountain: “Cops Are Not Our Friends” and “Every Gay Cop is a Traitor.”