Photo Credit: Michael Lehet via Flickr

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Inn Riots in New York City, the riots credited with starting the current LGBT Rights Movement.  40 years ago a gaggle of drag queens, hustlers, and transvestites fought against the police in a raid of the Stonewall Inn that sparked three days of riots in the city and caused the community to rally together and become activists for LGBT Rights.  Having been born in 1969, the Stonewall Riots were always a part of "history" to me instead of being a contemporary issue.  I've always taken for granted the rights that I have now based on the difficulties that our queer brothers and sister worked so hard to get.

With that history in mind and the current struggles we're facing in our fight for Marriage Equality, this years Chicago Gay Pride Parade will surely be one for the records.  In years past there have been upwards of 450,000 lining the parade route - there'll probably be more this year.  Alexandra Billings will be the Grand Marshall and lead more than 250 floats in a parade that lasts more than 2 hours.

We have a lot to celebrate this year, but I wonder if all of the new rules that have been implemented for the event this year will put a damper on the whole event?

I picked up a copy of the Chicago Pride Guide a few weeks ago when I was at the local watering hole, and you should grab one too - it's got a white cover with a rainbow triangle on the cover - they have a great listing of many events going on this month.  One interesting thing included in the guide are the 4 pages of small print, single spaced rules that layout what can and cannot be done during the Pride Parade.

One of the biggest changes this year is that police barricades will be placed through the entire parade route that starts at Belmont/Halsted, runs up north to Broadway and then south to Diversey.  In the past, parts of the parade route were barricaded off - but this year the entire event will be shut off from the crowd.  This was prompted by an increase in attendance, a lot of bad behavior, but also because of an unfortunate accident last year when someone fell off of a float and broke a leg.  So no more interacting with the parade participants.

Tossing anything is another thing under the gun, so to say.  Parade participants haven't been able to toss anything from their floats for a few years now, but the rules go even further this year.  It's outlined in the rules that 'No Tossing' of anything is allowed including: glitter,confetti or streamers-either by hand or by gun.  Cleanup after the parade is enormous and the city has been cracking down and charging extra fees for cleaning.  So there's no tossing of anything this year; nothing, zilch, nada!  But don't worry, they'll still be passing out samples - it's just that they'll need to do it by hand and just one at a time.

There are also rules for parade participants, like no getting on/off a float once the parade starts, no nudity, no water guns, no animals, fireworks, firearms, helium baloons or barbecuring.....barbecuring on a Gay Pride Parade Float?  Well obviously someone was doing it, that's why there's a rule against doing it.

So there's a lot of new rules, but that doesn't mean we still can't have a fun and exciting Pride Parade - it just means we need to be more careful about how we act - we don't want to end up like the recently cancelled Southside Irish Parade due to extremecrowds and poor behavior by spectators.

The Pride Guide has a great list of Ten Tips for Parade Spectators that you should take some time to read so you can enjoy the parade to it's fullest.

See you at the parade - and please have fun - but party responsibly!