Chicago Pride Parade

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Rainbow flags decorate Lake View East in anticipation of the Chicago Pride Parade.

A Human Rights Campaign float moves past spectators.

The Chicago Pride Parade, also colloquially called the Chicago Gay Pride Parade, is the annual gay pride parade held on the last Sunday of June in Chicago, Illinois in the United States. It is considered the culmination of the larger Gay Pride Month, as promulgated by the Chicago City Council and Mayor of Chicago.

The first parade was organized in 1969 upon the establishment of Boystown, the nation's first government recognized gay village. The parade takes place through the main streets of Lake View East, a neighborhood enclave of the Lakeview community area. Recent parades have started at noon on Halsted Street, proceeding north from Belmont Avenue, south on Broadway Avenue to Diversey Avenue and east on Diversey Avenue to Cannon Drive.

With the increasing political participation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans and the community's relatively high financial resources through political action groups and as individual donors, Illinois politicians have increased their presence at the Chicago Pride Parade. Both the Illinois Democratic and Republican Parties are heavily represented, most noticeably by current Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, and Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, a Republican. Both have strong support from the vast many gay and lesbian groups.

The 2006 parade is the 37th annual parade. The 2005 parade included 250 entries and was attended by over 400,000 spectators. Among them were several marching bands.