5 Biggest Gay Events in the United States

In this article we are going to list the 5 biggest gay events in the United States. For a detailed coverage of this topic and a more comprehensive list please take a look at the 10 biggest gay events in the United States.

5. 2017 Houston Gay Pride Parade

Attendance: 750,000

Held annually since 1979, the Houston Gay Pride Parade takes place in June to celebrate the LGBTQ members of the community. It commemorated the 1969 police raid on Stonewall Inn in New York City. This event is held on the 4^th Saturday of June, and the highlight is definitely the parade, being held after sunset since 1997. Every year, there is a specific theme assigned to the parade, and 2017’s theme was Wonderland- Escape the craziness of today’s real world. The parade has been constantly growing in numbers, with people from all over the worlds coming to Houston to join in on the celebration of gay rights. It is currently the largest and most attended gay pride event in Texas, and the second largest Houston-organized event in the city after Houston Rodeo.

4. 2016 Chicago Pride Parade

Attendance: 1,000,000+

A hallmark summer event of the Windy City, The Chicago Pride Parade is held annually on the last Sunday of June in Chicago, Illinois. The 2016 edition marked the 46^th anniversary of the event, held for the first time on Saturday, June 27, 1970. The event also featured a moment of silence at Broadway and Montrose to honor the 49 victims of the Orlando shooting a couple weeks prior. Their names and photographs were highlighted by at the front of the parade. It is one of the most widely attended events of the country and has received upwards of 1 million attendees since 2016.

3. San Francisco Pride 2015

Attendance: 1,800,000

One of the largest LGBT people and allies’ event of the nation, San Francisco Pride took place on June 27-28, 2015, with the theme Equality without Exception. The 2015 edition was the 45^th San Francisco Pride celebration. The festivities included over 200 parade contingents, 300 exhibitors, a more than twenty community-run stages and venues. The festival in run by a nonprofit organization, the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee.

2. New York City Pride March 2016

Attendance: 2,500,000

One of the largest annual Pride marches in the world, NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of spectators every June  since 1970. The 2016 version commemorated the 47^th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots and had a record turnout of an estimated 2.5 million people. The New York City Pride March is consistently considered the largest Pride parade in the US, with numbers upwards of 2 million since 2015. The 2016 event also boasted a surprise appearance by democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Around 30,000 people marched in the parade itself, with almost 2 million spectators joining them. This was a large jump from the previous year’s turnout of 1.6 million. The large turnout could be due to it being the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

1. Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019

Attendance: 5,000,000,

Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC tops the list of 10 biggest gay event in the United States. Taking place in June 2019, Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was a series of events and celebrations to honor the 50^th anniversary of the 1968 Stonewall riots. It was also the first time that WorldPride was held in the United States. The event is known to be the largest LGBTQ event in history, with an estimated turnout of five million attendees in Manhattan alone. Of that number, four million were estimated to be at the twelve-hour long parade which included 150,000 registered participants and 695 groups. The events were a month long, held throughout June, the traditionally Pride month worldwide. The planning for this event had been started a decade before, in July 2009 by the Heritage of Pride Planning Committee. The next WorldPride is set to be this year in Copenhagen, Denmark.

See also: 15 most dangerous countries for gay travelers and 10 gayest states in America in 2018