Chicago Pride Parade Will Honor Orlando Victims, Celebrate LGBT Pride

Juan Ramon Guerrero and Christopher Leinonen are among the 49 victims who died in the Pulse nightclub attack. | Facebook

Chicago, IL, June 16, 2016 -- This year’s Chicago Pride Parade will include a moment of silence and a tribute to the 49 people who were gunned down in a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, FL, last Sunday.
Long-time parade coordinator Richard Pfeiffer said that at 11:59 a.m. -- one minute before the parade steps off at noon on June 26 -- there will be a moment of silence for the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.
“We would love to have the whole parade lineup to be quiet at that point,” Pfeiffer said. “Our community was so devastated by the loss of 49 of our brothers and sisters. We want the parade to be special this year.”
Marchers will also carry pictures and the names of the 49 victims near the front of the parade. The gathering of the victims’ photos is being coordinated by Windy City Times and ChicagoPride.com.
“We’re going to be in the sunshine marching on parade day, proud, with our community organizations and elected officials, and our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and our co-workers in the booth next to us at work that are out there to support us through the year. We’re looking forward to a commemoration but also a celebration of our lives.”
At a press conference on Thursday at the 19th Police District, CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Acting Special Agent in Charge John Brown, of Chicago’s FBI Division, said there has been no intelligence or threats mades that they know of to Chicago’s LGBT community or the number of pride events taking place over the next two weekends.
The 47th annual Chicago Pride Parade will step off at noon Sunday, June 26, at Montrose and Broadway in Uptown, ending near the intersection of Sheridan and Diversey Parkway in Lincoln Park.
Pfeiffer said in addition to uniformed and plainclothes Chicago police officers, volunteer parade marshals will be stationed along the 4-mile parade route, watching for barricade jumpers and suspicious activity or packages.
Pfieffer said parade organizers have already hired 147 security officers, which include off-duty police, retired police and private security, to supplement CPD officers. By parade day, he hoped to bring that number to 160.
He expected the tragic event in Orlando to “energize the LGBT community.”
“Most of the victims were young people, 20, 21, 23. I remember when I was at that age at my first pride parade the energy and verve for life that ended for no reason other than they were there that night,” Pfeiffer said. “We going to commemorate all those 49 young people and then we’re going to celebrate who we are. We’re not going back into the closet because of homophobic gunman and terrorist.”