NEW YORK — The month-long Pride celebration comes to a grand finale on Sunday, bringing rainbow-laden revelers into the streets for parades in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere around the world.
The wide-ranging festivities will function as both jubilant parties and political protests, as participants recognize community gains while drawing attention to recent anti-LGBTQ+ laws, such as transgender health care bans, passed by Republican-led states.
This year, tensions related to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza are also seeping into the celebrations, exposing divisions within a community that is often aligned over political issues.
Already this month, pro-Palestinian activists have disrupted pride parades organized in Boston, Denver and Philadelphia. Several groups taking part in Sunday’s marches said they would seek to center the victims of the war in Gaza, spurring resistance from Israel’s supporters.
“It’s certainly a more active presence this year in terms of protest at Pride events,” said Sandra Pérez, executive director of NYC Pride. “But we were born out of a protest.”
The first Pride march was held in New York City in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Inn uprising, a riot that began with a police raid on a Manhattan gay bar.
In addition to the New York City Pride March, the largest in the country, the city will also host on Sunday the Queer Liberation March, an activism-centered event launched five years ago amid concerns that the most popular parade had become too corporate.
Another of the world’s largest Pride celebrations will also begin on Sunday in San Francisco. Additional parades are scheduled in Chicago, Minneapolis and Seattle.
In addition to concerns about the protests, federal agencies have warned that foreign terrorist organizations and their supporters could target the parades and adjacent sites. A strong security presence is expected at all events.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
