June is Pride month

Most major cities in the USA and around the world hold their gay pride parade on June. This month was picked because it was in June 28, 1969 when the Stonewall Inn was raided by NYC police. Stonewall Inn was the gathering place of gay and transgender in Greenwich village. The raid resulted to a riot and eventual unification of the GLBT (gay lesbian bisexual transgender) community to fight for their rights. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was created after the Stonewall riot. Other cities in the USA and around the world followed in creating organization to fight for GLBT rights. This resulted to the birth of the Gay Pride celebration. This celebration is primarily a way for the GLBT community to show their unity and to be visible to the world. "We are queer and we are here to stay!" is the cry that reverberates in the GLBT community during this celebration.
For Chicago, our gay pride celebration and parade is held every last weekend of June. The last Saturday of June (28th) is Chicago Pride fest where in Halsted street from Addison to Grace is closed down. Booths will be set up and there will be two stages where performances from the Chicago Gay men's chorus, ROTC (righteously outrageous twirling corp), Tifanny, Kimberly Locke, Martha Wash and many more will be held. The last Sunday of June (29th) is gay pride parade in Chicago. The parade starts at Belmont and Halsted marching north on Halsted then turning south on Broadway at Grace street. The parade continues south on Broadway till Diversey. The parade starts at noon and can last for more than 4 hours depending on the number of participants. The members of the gay community are usually represented well in the parade. Sometimes you get politicians trying to vie for the gay votes. Most of the time you also get commercial organizations participating in the parade for advertisement purposes to get more GLBT patrons. And of course you got the gay clubs with their floats and scantily clad men and women marching and handing out free stuffs like hand held fan, t shirt, beads and/or condoms! For whatever you do and see during the parade, you are bound to have a good time. Fun is almost guaranteed if alcohol is involved...