New York City Cancels Its 50th Anniversary Pride March

NEW YORK—The New York City Pride March, which would be celebrating its 50th anniversary in June, has been canceled, along with all in-person events leading up to the march, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement came this morning from event organizer Heritage of Pride after a briefing by New York Mayor Bill De Blasio where he announced the cancellation of permits for all large events during June. The event draws millions of participants each year from throughout the country. The first pride march took place in June 1970, honoring the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising the year before, which helped spark the modern LGBTQ rights movement. An estimated five million people attended last year's NYC Pride March on the 50th anniversary of the rebellion. The Stonewall Uprising played out over six days of clashes between young gay, lesbian and transgender individuals and the New York Police Department after a police raid of the Christopher Street bar in Manhattan's West Village. The raid was part a broader police crackdown on gay bars for operating without New York State Liquor Authority licenses. Heritage of Pride announced it would support an effort by InterPride, an international organization comprised of many pride planning organizations, to hold a 24-hour virtual "Global Pride" event on June 27, that would be broadcast around the world. The New York announcement comes after a number of other major cities around the country had already announced they were canceling or postponing their Pride events. Los Angeles postponed its event, while San Francisco canceled and Seattle said it would do an online celebration.