At Pride parades in New York and San Francisco on Sunday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets. In flashy costumes, with rainbow flags, and in colorfully decorated floats, they rolled through downtown areas. Along the routes, hundreds of thousands of spectators cheered the participants.
The Empire State Building and other New York City landmarks lit up in rainbow colors to mark NYC Pride 2026 Sunday evening. pic.twitter.com/izQuq4P3B3
ABC News (@ABC) June 29, 2026
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On the East Coast parade, among others New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Senator Chuck Schumer, and the city’s new mayor Zohran Mamdani were in attendance — the latter behind a city banner reading “Fighting for Queer New Yorkers.” Many signs at the demonstration addressed the anti-queer policies of the Republican administration under President Donald Trump and, in particular, the status of transgender people.
A massive crowd gathered at the Stonewall National Monument on Friday during New York City’s pride celebrations and belted out the tune “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The monument commemorates the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, sparked by police raids at the pic.twitter.com/FsrjYP747a
CBS News (@CBSNews) June 27, 2026
The demonstration traces back to the “Stonewall” uprisings of 1969. Back then, queer people at the popular Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, resisted a police raid. On the first anniversary of the clashes, about 4,000 people marched through New York demanding equality — today Christopher Street Day commemorates it worldwide.
Several Prides Beyond the Original Pride
The San Francisco parade was traditionally led by “Dykes on Bikes” (Lesbians on motorcycles). In the West Coast city, Democrat Nancy Pelosi took part, who has represented San Francisco in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1987.
In a rite of summer that is part party, part political rally and full-on spectacle, hundreds of thousands of people crowded Market Street for blocks Sunday morning for San Franciscos 56th annual LGBTQ Pride Parade.
: Brontë Wittpenn. / S.F. Chronicle pic.twitter.com/pFCezENcTdSan Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) June 28, 2026
There were Pride events in other U.S. cities over the weekend as well, such as Seattle, where the local World Cup organizers had designated Friday’s game as the “Pride Match” before Iran and Egypt were drawn. The visibility of rainbow flags in the stadium ultimately fell short of expectations (TheColu.mn reported). Worldwide there were hundreds of Pride events that weekend. At Toronto’s Pride on Sunday, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney joined in (TheColu.mn reported), while more than 50 people were arrested at the banned Pride in Istanbul, Turkey (TheColu.mn reported).
In France, Pride events in Paris and Lyon were canceled due to the heat (TheColu.mn reported); likewise, some Prides in Germany were canceled for the same reason, though not the one in Munich, where the city’s new openly gay mayor led the march as sponsor (TheColu.mn reported). The Pride in Winsen, already shortened due to heat, had to be halted on Saturday because of a thunderstorm.
