Thousands packed the streets of Houston, New York, Chicago and other cities around the country this weekend to bask in pride and show their support for the LGBTQ community, determined to protect hard-won rights amid concern they’re suddenly under threat.
The events, while still full of boisterous celebration, took on a new tone days after the Supreme Court struck down the right to abortion. The decision — and particularly a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas that questioned the right to same-sex intercourse and marriage — cast a pall over the previously planned events.
“It was definitely a punch in the gut,” said Travis Torrence, 41, the Grand Marshall of the Houston Pride Parade and a lawyer at Shell Plc. He found solace, though, in words from one of the city’s beloved native daughters.
“Beyonce came out with a song this week and she says, ‘You won’t break my soul,’” he said. “I feel like that is our theme for this year.”
Revelers undeterred by temperatures approaching 100 degrees in Houston danced in the street to blaring pop, hip-hop, reggaeton and ranchera music. For many in the crowd, the high court’s decision last week underscored the importance of building community and rallying for action.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other queer Americans are confronting fresh worries about their rights after decades of progress brought an end to laws forbidding sodomy and established marriage equality nationwide. Amid recent efforts in Texas and elsewhere to criminalize some treatments for transgender children, the potentially swift reversal in rights suggested by Thomas’s opinion was another wake-up call to many attending the events.
The New York City parade was led Sunday by a group representing Planned Parenthood, with members waving black flags reading simply “abortion.”
One marcher, wearing a shirt reading “Hella gay,” led a “my body, my choice” chant.
The mood wasn’t all foreboding, though. Cheering attendees wore all manner of rainbow-colored clothing, from knee socks to tutus, and waved “Born this way” flags.
“I was honestly expecting it to be more protesty and less paradey,” said Anna Segarra, 31, who works in finance.
“The news on Friday was an attack,” Segarra said. “When you start to take away civil rights, everyone’s rights are at stake.”
Also in attendance at the parade were New York politicians, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot attended the city’s parade with her wife, while Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat, attended the event in Houston.
The abortion ruling hung heavy over a colorful crowd of about 300 who gathered Sunday at the steps of Michigan’s ornate state Capitol building in Lansing in celebration of pride month. Speakers, backed by a row of pride flags flapping in the breeze, exhorted the LGBTQ community to exercise its power at the ballot box and on the street.
“We are not going backwards,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, the first openly gay person in Michigan to hold statewide office, told the crowd. “Vote like your life depends upon it, because it does.”
In Washington, D.C., only a fraction of the demonstrators who poured out after the decision Friday returned for a third day of protests outside the Supreme Court. As temperatures climbed to the 90s on Sunday, a few hundred activists formed a circle in front of the court, passing around a megaphone to share stories about their healthcare or jeer at conservative justices.
Jo Jimenez, a 45-year-old nursing student, came to the New York parade with partner Siheima Smith, 44, to celebrate pride but also to protest the Supreme Court decision.
“I just hope they don’t overturn same-sex marriage, because we heard that’s coming next,” Smith said. “We love each other. Why can’t we get married?”
In Seattle, delegations from Alaska Air Group Inc., Providence Swedish Hospital, Nintendo Co., McDonald’s Corp. and a Zamboni from the city’s new hockey team lined up in unusually warm weather to march along with 200 groups and an expected 500,000 attendees.
While the event focused on celebrating LGBTQ pride, some abortion-rights messages dotted the parade route, from a handmade cardboard sign saying “Lesbians for Abortion” to giant banners bearing the words “Abortion on Demand & Without Apology.”
Brie Capers, of Everett, Washington, said that abortion opponents should mind their own business.
“It makes me so sad that other people have the right to even have an opinion on someone else’s anything — bodies, who they should love,” Capers said in an interview. “As long as it doesn’t affect you, why should you care?”
Meg Parks, a 46-year-old mother of five who identifies as queer, was attending her first parade in Houston.
“I kind of needed it more than other years,” she said. “I feel like we moved 50 years backward.”
