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Chicago, IL — June 1st officially began a month of celebration of pride in the international and local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. The international theme for Pride 2007 is United For Equality. Each year, close to 100 different social, cultural, athletic and political events take place during Chicago's June Pride Month celebration including choral concerts, dances, theater presentations, receptions, workshops, a competitive run, a street fest and the Annual Pride Parade just to name a few. Crowd estimates at the parade have been as high as 450,000 people.

PRIDEChicago, organizers of the Annual Pride Parade, also assemble and publicize the June Pride Month Calendar. However, PRIDEChicago's primary responsibility is to coordinate the parade, which takes place in the East Lakeview neighborhood.

Chicago's 38th Annual Pride Parade is scheduled for Sunday June 24 at 12 Noon stepping off from the Halsted/Belmont corner, proceeding north on Halsted (to Broadway); then south on Broadway (to Diversey); then east on Diversey (to Cannon Drive). Each year there are 250 registered entries representing businesses, organizations, individuals and elected government officials. Floats, decorated vehicles and marching units will be part of the procession.

The parade Grand Marshal is John Amaechi, former NBA player who recently acknowledged that he is gay. Amaechi recently completed a book tour for his New York Times best selling autobiography, Man in the Middle, in which he discusses his life journey, including his experiences in the NBA.

Pride Parades were originally started to commemorate a night in June 1969 when gays and lesbians fought back during a raid at the Stonewall Inn, a New York City gay bar. Gay bars were routinely raided by the police in the 1960's across the country. That night, a riot ensued, that kicked off the formation of the modern day gay rights movement. Since that time, pride parades in most cities have grown into celebrations that include social, as well as political expressions of pride.

In Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley has issued his annual proclamation naming June as "Pride Month in Chicago" to recognize the many contributions that the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender communities have made to the City of Chicago.

The news media does extensive pre and post parade coverage of the Annual Pride Parade---and for the past several years, ABC 7 Chicago presents a show featuring taped highlights of the parade on the night of the parade.

For additional public information: www.ChicagoPrideCalendar.org

Related: Parade Line of March (official parade order)
Related: ChicagoPride.com 2007 Online Pride Guide
Related: Interview with John Amaechi

Photo by: Frank Failing

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