NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� 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.
The festivities in Manhattan, home to the nation鈥檚 oldest and largest Pride celebration, kick off with a march down Fifth Avenue featuring more than 700 participating groups and expected huge crowds.
Marchers will wind past , a Greenwich Village gay bar where a 1969 police raid triggered protests and fired up . The site is now a .
In San Francisco, marchers in another of the world鈥檚 largest Pride events will head down the city鈥檚 central Market Street, reaching concert stages set up at the Civic Center Plaza. San Francisco鈥檚 mammoth City Hall is also among the venues hosting a post-march party.
Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Toronto, Canada are among the other major North American cities hosting Pride parades on Sunday.
Several global cities including Tokyo, Paris and , held their events while others come later in the year, including London in July and Rio de Janeiro in November.
The first pride march was held in New York City in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the .
Pride celebrations are typically a daylong mix of jubilant street parties and political protest, but organizers said this year鈥檚 iterations will take a more defiant stance than recent years.
The festivities come days after the of the Supreme Court鈥檚 landmark June 26, 2015, ruling in that recognized same-sex marriage nationwide.
But Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have sought to roll back LGBTQ+ friendly policies.
Since taking office in January, Trump has specifically targeted transgender people, removing , preventing federal insurance programs from paying for for young people and attempting to keep transgender athletes out of .
The theme for the Manhattan event is, appropriately, 鈥淩ise Up: Pride in Protest." San Francisco鈥檚 Pride theme is 鈥淨ueer Joy is Resistance鈥� while Seattle鈥檚 is simply 鈥淟ouder.鈥�
鈥淭his is not a time to be quiet,鈥� Patti Hearn, Seattle Pride鈥檚 executive director, said in a statement ahead of the event. 鈥淲e will stand up. We will speak up. We will get loud.鈥�
Among the other headwinds faced by gay rights groups this year is the loss of corporate sponsorship.
American companies have of Pride events, reflecting a broader walking back of diversity and inclusion efforts amid shifting public sentiment.
NYC Pride said earlier this month that about 20% of its corporate sponsors dropped or reduced support, including PepsiCo and Nissan. Organizers of San Francisco Pride said they lost the support of five major corporate donors, including Comcast and Anheuser-Busch.
Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press
