An unprecedented number of people are expected to flood the streets for this year’s NYC Pride March as the city hosts WorldPride and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.
This week, NYC Pride announced the official route of the 2019 LGBTQIA+ Pride March that steps off at noon on June 30.
About 150,000 marchers will start at 26th Street and Fifth Avenue and proceed south on Fifth Avenue before heading west on Eighth Street. After crossing over Sixth Avenue, the march will continue on to Christopher Street, passing the Stonewall National Monument. Then it will turn north on Seventh Avenue, passing the New York City AIDS Memorial, before finishing up in Chelsea just north of 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue.
The route was a subject of contention last year, when Heritage of Pride and the NYPD introduced a new, shorter route that they said would ease congestion and speed up wait times for the hundreds of groups that participate in the march.
This year, Chelsea residents asked that parade organizers reduce disruption at the parade’s staging areas.
In a statement, NYC Pride said it worked closely with officials to craft the 2019 route.
“As we prepare for the largest LGBTQIA+ Pride event in history, NYC Pride has worked closely with the New York Police Department, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, and Council Speaker Corey Johnson to determine the most efficient and safest route and staging areas possible for the 2019 march,” said Julian Sanjivan, NYC Pride’s march director.
NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson said this year’s route honors history.
"As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, it is fitting that we will march down Fifth Avenue, past the Stonewall Inn and through the neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and Chelsea, cradles of the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement," he said.
June 28 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, when LGBTQ patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village clashed with police, who had been increasingly raiding the bar and making arrests related to New York’s sodomy laws. The riot touched off six days of demonstrations around the Stonewall Inn and is considered the cornerstone of what has become the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement.
The combination of World Pride and the march is expected to draw a record 3 million spectators.
There is an influx of LGBTQ-centric celebrations, events and exhibitions this year, including more than 50 rallies, lectures, parties, film screenings, conferences, panels and concerts.
