The monthlong celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride reaches its rainbow-laden crescendo as New York and other major cities around the world host major parades and marches on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The festivities in Manhattan, home to the nation\u2019s oldest and largest Pride celebration, kick off with a march down Fifth Avenue<\/a> featuring more than 700 participating groups and expected huge crowds.<\/p>\n Marchers will wind past\u00a0the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar where a 1969 police raid triggered protests and fired up\u00a0the LGBTQ+ rights movement. The site is now a\u00a0national monument.<\/p>\n In San Francisco, marchers in another of the world\u2019s largest Pride events will head down the city\u2019s central Market Street, reaching concert stages set up at the Civic Center Plaza. San Francisco\u2019s mammoth City Hall is also among the venues hosting a post-march party.<\/p>\n Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Toronto, Canada are among the other major North American cities hosting Pride parades on Sunday.<\/p>\n Several global cities including Tokyo, Paris and\u00a0Sao Paulo, held their events\u00a0earlier this month\u00a0while others come later in the year, including London in July and Rio de Janeiro in November.<\/p>\n The first pride march was held in New York City in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the\u00a0Stonewall uprising<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAhead of the Pride March on Sunday, the NYPD is criticizing a decision keeping some officers from participating. The decision comes down to, at least in part, the officers’ uniforms. NBC New York’s Gilma Avalos reports.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Pride celebrations are typically a daylong mix of jubilant street parties and political protest, but organizers said this year\u2019s iterations will take a more defiant stance than recent years.<\/p>\n The festivities come days after the\u00a0tenth anniversary\u00a0of the Supreme Court\u2019s landmark June 26, 2015, ruling in\u00a0Obergefell v. Hodges<\/a>\u00a0that recognized same-sex marriage nationwide.<\/p>\n But Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have sought to roll back LGBTQ+ friendly policies.<\/p>\n Since taking office in January, Trump has specifically targeted transgender people, removing\u00a0them from the military, preventing federal insurance programs from paying for\u00a0gender-affirmation surgeries\u00a0for young people and attempting to keep transgender athletes out of\u00a0girls and women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n The theme for the Manhattan event is, appropriately, \u201cRise Up: Pride in Protest.” San Francisco\u2019s Pride theme is \u201cQueer Joy is Resistance\u201d while Seattle\u2019s is simply \u201cLouder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a time to be quiet,\u201d Patti Hearn, Seattle Pride\u2019s executive director, said in a statement ahead of the event. \u201cWe will stand up. We will speak up. We will get loud.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the other headwinds faced by gay rights groups this year is the loss of corporate sponsorship.<\/p>\n