NYC Pride March Arrives Amid Growing National Backlash

Millions of people gathered on Sunday for the New York City Pride March, packing the streets of Manhattan for a celebration amid the most hostile political environment for L.G.B.T.Q. Americans in decades.

The march commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots, which are widely seen as giving rise to the modern L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. That effort, over many years, has increased public support for L.G.B.T.Q. people, but the movement has begun to falter badly in the face of opposition from the Supreme Court, the Trump administration and even some Democrats.

Pride celebrations have always been equal parts party and protest, and those who planned to march on Sunday said that filling the streets with rainbow flags and colorful floats was now more important than ever as the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. people come under increasing attack.

Stacy Lentz, an owner of the Stonewall Inn, where the 1969 riots took place, and the chief executive of an affiliated nonprofit, said she thought L.G.B.T.Q. 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.”

“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 two million spectators, according to organizers. It is also broadcast on network television, a testament to how much public support for L.G.B.T.Q. people has grown over a generation.