New York City pride march arrives amid growing national backlash
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Stacy Lentz, an owner of the Stonewall Inn, where the 1969 riots took place, and the CEO of an affiliated nonprofit, said she thought LGBTQ+ people and their supporters needed 'to get back to the roots of Pride and what happened at Stonewall because our rights are under attack in a way we haven't been in decades.'
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'I have had young folks ask me, 'What do you think it was like back then? How do you think people felt to be fighting for their rights?'' she said. 'I tell them we've never been closer to that time then we are right now. We all need to pick up the torch.'
The New York march is the largest of its kind in the United States, with 75,000 participants and roughly 2 million spectators, according to organizers. It is also broadcast on network television, a testament to how much public support for LGBTQ+ people has grown over a generation.
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But backlash against LGBTQ+ rights has increased since same-sex marriage became legal nationwide almost exactly 10 years ago. The fallout has mainly, though not solely, affected transgender people.
'The gay and lesbian movement succeeded beyond the expectations of the founders,' said David K. Johnson, a professor of history at the University of South Florida. 'But now trans people are the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community, which is why I think sometimes using the term LGBTQ actually obscures more than it explains.'
Over the past three years, Americans have become more supportive of laws that limit transgender rights, according to the Pew Research Center. A majority of adults now support laws that ban gender-affirming care for minors and require trans people to play on sports teams based on their sex at birth.
A poll released by Gallup in May showed that 54% of Americans -- up from 51% four years ago -- said that it was morally wrong to change one's gender. The share of Americans who said that homosexuality was morally wrong had risen much further, from 25% in 2022 to 33% in 2025.
'As my grandma used to say, 'Now we are hustling backward,'' said Sean Ebony Coleman, the founder and CEO of Destination Tomorrow, an LGBTQ+ center in the Bronx.
Transgender individuals and their allies have been hit hard by the anti-diversity fervor of the Trump administration, which spent heavily on campaign ads attacking trans people in the months leading up to last year's presidential election.
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Soon after President Donald Trump took office, he issued a series of executive orders seeking to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limit the rights of transgender individuals.
One order barred federal contractors or those that received federal grant money from making use of DEI policies. That set off a confusing scramble in the private sector, leading many corporations to cut back or cancel their donations to Pride events in New York and around the country.
Another executive order banned openly transgender people from serving in the military, while another stated that the federal government would recognize only two unchangeable sexes -- male and female -- and banned the use of federal funds for the promotion of 'gender ideology,' a term whose legal definition is unclear.
All the orders have been challenged in court, but they have severely harmed the nation's LGBTQ+ organizations, many of which rely on federal grants to provide social services to older adults, young people or those struggling with issues such as substance abuse or homelessness.
The administration has also canceled roughly $800 million worth of grants on topics related to LGBTQ+ people, a move that has devastated research programs focused on LGBTQ+ health.
The amount of canceled funds was wildly out of proportion to the number of LGBTQ+ people in the United States. Roughly half of all the research funding canceled by the administration was dedicated to the health of LGBTQ+ individuals, who make up about 10% of the population.
(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.)
The ban on 'gender ideology' and DEI has also led to a number of symbolic affronts. In February, the National Park Service removed references to trans people from the webpages of the Stonewall National Monument. And last week, the U.S. Navy renamed a ship that had honored Harvey Milk, one of the country's first openly gay elected officials, who was assassinated in 1978.
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The LGBTQ+ movement has also suffered a series of Supreme Court defeats in recent weeks. The court ruled that the Trump administration could begin enforcing a ban on transgender troops in the military. It upheld the rights of parents to withdraw their children from public schools when LGBTQ+ themes are discussed. It sided with a heterosexual woman who claimed her gay co-workers had discriminated against her. And it upheld a ban on gender-affirming care for young people.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM.)
The parade is also the occasion for ideological fights within the movement itself.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch criticized organizers over their decision to ban the Gay Officers Action League from fully participating in this year's parade. She said that the organizers had refused to allow officers to carry guns, which she said are an integral part of their dress uniform.
It is the 'height of hypocrisy to request the security and protection of thousands of armed, uniformed police officers for the march on Sunday and then ban from that event the very officers that proudly represent your community,' Tisch wrote in a letter Saturday that was shared with The New York Times.
'In a year when LGBTQ+ rights are under siege in ways we had thought were behind us, this is the time to stand together, not to splinter.'
She and members of the group plan to protest their exclusion at 11 a.m. Eastern near the parade route, according to a department news release.
Police and corrections officers had been banned from marching as a group at Pride since 2021 in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests and widespread criticism of violence by law enforcement officers.
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