Chicago’s Pride Parade is postponed again
COVID-19 has yet to exit the scene, but smaller celebrations will carry on
For the second year in a row, the last Sunday in June will come and go without a Pride parade winding its way down Halsted Street.
Prior to COVID-19, Chicago’s Pride Parade was a summer staple dating back to 1970, when 150 or so participants marched through the Loop and ended in a dance chain around the Picasso statue. The pandemic pressed pause on the tradition last year, canceling what would have been the 51st annual celebration of love, humanity and hard-won progress.
Organizers hoped to resume the extravaganza — which typically draws about 1 million people — this year, but COVID-19 has yet to exit the scene.
“We would hate to have an event or be a sponsor of a major event, knowing a few weeks later we had to shut everything down again because it was a superspreader,” said Lake Alen, executive director of the Northalsted Business Alliance, a chamber of commerce that hosts LGBTQ programs and events along the stretch of Lakeview that hosts the parade.
Tim Frye recently took over as parade coordinator after his husband, Richard Pfeiffer, died from cancer in October 2019. Pfeiffer had been in charge of the parade since 1974.
“We’re in a wait-and-see period,” Frye told me last week. “We just want it to be as safe as possible. If it’s not safe, there’s no way.”
Frye said he hasn’t ruled out a Pride Parade in the fall, depending on COVID19 metrics.
“If it’s safe and it’s not snowing, we might be able to do it,” he said. “Some people have told me they’ll come even if it is snowing.”
Never doubt Chicago’s mettle.
The last Sunday in June isn’t set in stone, Frye noted.
“Houston, Phoenix, lots of Pride parades are not in June,” he said. “It’s definitely better to have the parade on a different date than to not have it at all.”
Harold Gatewood, board chair for the Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus, said the parade pause is a downer; his organization looks forward to marching every year. But the pandemic has given them an opportunity to expand their programming and outreach to neighborhoods all across the city, particularly since they’ve been able to conduct so many events virtually.
“Especially with Pride being so focused on the North Side, this has been an opportunity for us to make sure we’re reaching out to members of the Black same-gender loving community throughout the city,” Gatewood said. “We’re still out there, we’re still present. When Pride comes back, when things reopen safely, we’ll be there. But we’re also there now.”
Suburban Pride celebrations, a relatively new phenomenon, are marching forward with pandemic-minded plans throughout June.
Wheaton resident Jacob Kniep launched a #WheatonProud campaign last year, encouraging downtown businesses to display stickers or decorate their windows in support of LGBTQ rights. Dozens signed on.
He’s hoping even more join in this year, and he’s organized a drive-by parade for June 27, which will wind participants by homes and businesses that are decked out in rainbow and other Pride-affirming decor.
“The whole theme of our Pride celebration this year is #welcomehome,” Kniep said. “We really want to drive home the fact that Pride isn’t just about the gays anymore. It’s about every single person, no matter who they love or what they look like, feeling safe in their communities. We’re making Pride less of a, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it’ and more of a celebration of every single person in the community.”
On June 6, Buffalo Grove will host its own drive-by Pride parade, a tradition that began in 2020 as a way to keep the momentum going from 2019’s Buffalo Grove Pride parade — the town’s first.
“Every time I open my email there’s a new request to be a sponsor or be in the parade,” said organizer Carolyn Pinta, whose daughter, Molly Pinta, launched Buffalo Grove’s first Pride parade. “I love it that all these kids are going to see these decorations and know that no matter who’s in their house and how they’re treated in their house, there’s so much support for them.”
Pride is bigger, of course, than a single day or month or event. The movement’s strength is its resilience, its inclusivity, its refusal to rest until all love is treated equally. A pandemic isn’t going to put a damper on that.
Still, traditions are traditions. And hard work deserves a joyful celebration.
“It’s just more important than ever, after what we’ve been through in this country lately, to have a big, beautiful Pride,” Pinta said.
And it’s lovely to see that continuing to grow in ways and on days and in places that transcend one Chicago neighborhood on the last Sunday in June.
— Wheaton resident Jacob Kniep
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