For 13 years, Brad Jankowiak, 58, and Jeremy Roystom, 47, have made it a tradition to go to Chicago’s Pride Parade, preserving each year’s glittering beads in frames at home.
But this year, they brought a piece of home with them: rainbow tie-dyed shirts belonging to Roystom’s mother, who died last month.
“We wore them here so she’s with us,” Jankowiak said. “She’s always been supportive of us.”
She’d never been to Pride, but was a strong supporter of their 20-year relationship.
“We brought her with us today so she can have a last, great time,” Roystom said. “I wanted it to be her first Pride.”
The East Lakeview couple were just two of thousands who came out to Chicago’s annual Pride Parade Sunday, with spectators lining the streets to celebrate LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.
The Chicago parade hasn’t always felt celebratory to Jankowiak, who comes from a “right-winged family” in Michigan. But he said what used to feel more like a time for protest now feels festive.
“It was more of a fight,” he said. “Now we get to celebrate the fight is over.”
However, this year’s parade comes as LGBTQ+ advocates and lawmakers say rights are increasingly under threat from actions taken by the Trump administration. Since returning to office, Trump has signed executive orders recognizing only two sexes, sought to bar transgender people from serving in the military and moved to roll back federal protections for transgender students in schools and colleges.
But Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, assures LGBTQ+ Chicagoans they should feel secure in their city.
“We’re one of the few places in the country where you can feel safe,” he said. “All that work being done to constantly make sure we’re protecting folks that are marginalized is important because we’re seeing fascism at our front door.”
Vasquez wore over 600 beaded necklaces around his neck, handing them out to the crowd along the parade route as they made their way south on Halsted.
The two-mile parade stepped off from West Sheridan and Broadway in Northalsted at 11 a.m. It featured 155 registered entries, including community organizations, local businesses, sports teams and government officials.
Along the route, parade marshals held “Keep Forward Motion” signs to both guide the crowd and to reflect the day’s broader message of continuing progress on LGBTQ+ rights.
At a restaurant moments before the parade departed, Gov. JB Pritzker held a reception to sign three bills strengthening protections for LGBTQ+ people.
One bill removes testosterone from the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program, a state-run database that tracks the dispensing of controlled substances. It also prevents the tracking of abortion medications like mifepristone and misoprostol. The bill is intended to protect patient privacy.
Another bill legally codifies Illinois’ existing policy allowing residents to update or select their gender marker on state IDs and driver’s licenses.
The third requires insurance companies to cover up to six months of prescribed hormone therapy.
“I just want to point out that one of the things that we should have pride about and that all around the country, I think people look in envy about, is the fact that Illinois truly does step up and protect our LGBTQ+ people,” Pritzker said. “And we’re not gonna stop.”
Pritzker was also joined by state and local government officials and representatives from Planned Parenthood of Illinois and LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Equality Illinois.
The city’s parade, now in its 55th year, is one of the nation’s oldest and biggest Pride celebrations. It began in 1970 to mark the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York.
Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson joined this year’s parade. Grand marshals were the Alliance of Illinois Judges, Windy City Times founder Tracy Baim, civil rights leader Mona Noriega and community advocate Evette Cardona. The marshals were selected through a public nomination process.
Instead of beads and candy, the Alliance of Illinois Judges opted to distribute pocket-sized copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution from their trolley.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Stephanie Miller said the group marching in the parade humanizes the judiciary and showcases its diversity.
“It’s important for everybody who comes before us when we’re on the bench to see us as people who look like them and represent where they come from, and who they are as well,” she said.
Robin Mersereau traveled from Grand Haven, Michigan for Chicago Pride. As he watched the parade, he carefully applied streaks of rainbow paint to his friends’ faces.
Mersereau said he was impressed by the sheer number of floats and marchers.
“There was a long time where it felt like this wasn’t something people could talk about and now everybody, not just LGBTQ+ people, is coming out to celebrate, which feels pretty great,” he said.
Cheri Halla, 55, came from Bolingbrook to march with PFLAG, an advocacy organization made up of friends and family of LGBTQ+ people. She wore a t-shirt reading “Free Mom Hugs.”
“There are so many people I talk to from the community who are disowned,” she said. “They need somebody here. I can be that person.”
Halla’s own child identifies as “non-gender.”
“I worry about them,” she added.
