We've come so far, especially in the last few decades, that I don't want to see that repressed in any way." "I'm definitely a little scared of how things are going, just the anger and violence that comes out of it and just the tone of conversation about it. "I've been to the Pride parade before, but this is the first year I kind of wanted to dress up and get into it," she said.Ĭhristianson said she was concerned that the movement could suffer setbacks during the Trump administration, which has moved to revoke newly won health care protections for transgender people, restrict their presence in the military and withdraw federal guidance that trans students should be able to use bathrooms of their choice. A Pride flag was tied around her neck like a cape. I'm just like everybody else."Īlyssa Christianson, 29, of New York City, was topless, wearing just sparkly pasties and boy shorts underwear. "I think that we should be able to say we've been here for so long, and so many people are gay that everybody should be able to have the chance to enjoy their lives and be who they are," Clay said. The parade in New York and others like it across the nation concluded a month of events marking the anniversary.Įraina Clay, 63, of suburban New Rochelle, came to celebrate a half-century of fighting for equality. Marchers and onlookers took over much of midtown Manhattan with a procession that lasted hours and paid tribute to the uprising that began at the tavern when patrons resisted officers on June 28, 1969. The march was a dazzling celebration of the 50th anniversary of the infamous police raid on the Stonewall Inn.