A record number of onlookers gathered along the
newly re-routed path of the annual
Chicago
Pride Parade, officials said.
City officials said this year’s parade drew a
record crowd estimated at 850,000.
Delores Robinson of the Office of
Emergency Management gave that figure as the crowds continued to disperse. Last
year’s attendance was estimated at 750,000. Robinson said no “unusual incidents”
had been reported.
The parade kicked off at noon today with Chicago Mayor
Rahm
Emanuel and Illinois Gov.
Pat Quinn at
the front of the parade as it began its march from the Uptown neighborhood.
Minutes before the parade began, Emanuel, dressed in khaki pants, a blue
gingham shirt and tennis shoes, was speedwalking around, shaking hands with
police, posing for pictures with parade goers and greeting the throngs gathered
behind metal barriers on Broadway and Montrose Avenue.
The final floats were embarking south down Broadway as the parade began to
wrap up.
Though the route was reinvented because of crowding concerns last year, the
thousands who lined the street saw that the parade's aesthetic was
unchanged.
The procession was the usual mix of politics, commercialism and unabashed
sexuality, with politicians leading the parade followed by men in hot pants
dancing to techno music, women on loud motorcycles and floats branded with the
logos of businesses such as Walgreen's and Chipotle.
Marissa Zesinger of Chicago marched for the first time since coming out of
the closet in January. Carrying a sign for the Center on Halsted, Zesinger said
it was gratifying to see people, gay and straight, supporting one another.
"It makes you feel not alone," she said.
Parade coordinator Richard Pfeiffer said the event had run smoothly as of 2
p.m. and Chicago police reported no serious disturbances.
Last year, the event was marred by pre-parade vandalism of dozens of
floats.
"So far, so good. We just hope the weather holds," Pfeiffer said earlier in
the day before gray clouds moved out.
"We'll march rain or shine."
As vendors hawked rainbow flags and observers planted lawn chairs along
Broadway, marchers made final embellishments to the floats that were lined along
Montrose Avenue.
Instead of stepping off at Halsted Street and
Belmont Avenue, as it has for the last 20 years, this year's parade started
farther north at Montrose Avenue and Broadway and headed south through the
Uptown and
Lakeview
neighborhoods, wrapping up at Diversey Street and Cannon Drive.
Organizers cut the number of groups in the procession and altered the route
to ease the congestion that plagued last year's event, when some 750,000 people
turned out.
"Last year, we had some crowd control issues," Pfeiffer said.
The grand marshal is Evan Wolfson. He is founder and president of Freedom to
Marry, a national campaign to win gay marriage rights.
Moving the route didn't change the nature of the floats and groups marching,
whose causes ranged from politically serious to whimsical or overtly sexual.
Wearing combat boots and camouflage shorts as he practiced twirling a fake
wooden rifle, marcher Jason Hess of Chicago said he hoped the parade's revised
logistics would make the day a more pleasant experience for everyone.
"It's safer," he said, continuing to practice with the rifle he would carry
alongside other members of the Righteously Outrageous Twirling Corps.
This year the community celebrates a year of
landmark LGBT civil rights victories.
Over just the past year and a half,
civil unions have become legal in Illinois, President
Barack
Obama has expressed support for same-sex marriage, the military has done
away with its "don't ask, don't tell" policy and two lawsuits have been filed
challenging the constitutionality of the Illinois law that bans same-sex
marriage.
Religious groups were a notable presence toward the front of the queue.
American Baptist pastor David Weasley strummed a mandolin on the grass along
Montrose Avenue. He was wearing a clergyman's collar and a t-shirt reading
"Queer to the World."
Religious groups' presence at the front challenges the perception of faith
organizations as intolerant, he said.
"I'm really proud that the faith community is toward the front," Weasley
said. "It's a good opportunity to just be really clear about that."
Today's parade wound past Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Catholic Church, which officials said has been supportive about being along the
route. Organizers considered moving the parade to a 10 a.m. start time, but
stuck with noon so Mount Carmel could celebrate Masses and get parishioners in
and out before the parade, he said.
The
CTA's
Belmont station had to be closed five or six times last year because of
overcrowding. Organizers hoped the extension of the parade north will disperse
crowds among the Addison, Sheridan, Wilson and Lawrence Red Line
stops.
The old route formed a "V" shape that trapped residents and
emergency vehicles, officials said. The new route allowed for viewers to get to
the east side of the route with the help of stationed police officers.
