The 57th NYC Pride March steps off at noon on Sunday, June 28, from 26th Street and Fifth Avenue, and for the second consecutive year, the grand marshal lineup tells you as much about what the march is pushing back against as what it is celebrating. Three of the five honorees leading the procession through lower Manhattan are transgender women — Dominique Jackson, Peppermint, and Bernie Wagenblast — a deliberate choice by organizers at Heritage of Pride at a moment when trans Americans continue to face escalating legislative and political pressure nationwide.
The march will proceed south along Fifth Avenue, turn west onto Eighth Street through Greenwich Village, pass the Stonewall National Monument at 53 Christopher Street — the site of the 1969 uprising that launched the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement — then continue past the NYC AIDS Memorial before turning north on Seventh Avenue and concluding near 15th Street. More than a million spectators are expected along the route, with roughly 75,000 marchers participating.
The Grand Marshals and What Their Selection Signals
NYC Pride Executive Director Im Lynde framed this year’s selections in explicit terms. “Our Grand Marshals have blazed trails and opened doors in entertainment, media, and advocacy,” Lynde said in a statement. “Their visibility alone is worth celebrating, but they are fighting for opportunity, support, and safety for our entire LGBTQIA+ community.”
Dominique Jackson, the model, actress, and activist who redefined mainstream representation for Black trans women through her role as Electra Abundance on FX’s Pose, has continued advocacy work since the series ended. She helped expand programming at Destination Tomorrow, a Bronx-based, trans-founded nonprofit serving local LGBTQ+ communities, and produced a documentary honoring Venus Xtravaganza — the ballroom icon whose 1988 murder was documented in the landmark film Paris Is Burning — while working with local activists to protect Venus’s childhood home as a historic landmark.
Jackson described the honor in terms of obligation. “This recognition does not make me better than anyone, nor does it place me above others as a leader,” she said. “It makes me a living example of hope.”
Peppermint, who became the first openly transgender woman to originate a principal role on Broadway in the 2018 musical Head Over Heels, has spent more than two decades as a fixture of New York’s LGBTQ+ performance scene. Her visibility expanded through RuPaul’s Drag Race, but her work in live performance, activism, and community organizing in New York predates and extends well beyond reality television.
Bowen Yang, the Emmy-nominated comedian and first Chinese American cast member on Saturday Night Live, brings mainstream pop-culture visibility to the marshal slate. Yang, who co-hosts the Las Culturistas podcast and starred in the 2022 film Fire Island, has become one of the most prominent gay Asian American performers in American entertainment. His response to the honor was characteristically direct: “Being a Grand Marshal in the city that helped me find my community and my voice is incredibly special. Marsha P. Johnson was fighting for all of us, and we owe it to her to keep up that fight today.”
Bernie Wagenblast — the voice behind the announcements on New York City’s subway system and a prominent transgender advocate — brings a distinctly New York form of cultural recognition. For millions of daily commuters, Wagenblast’s voice is among the most heard in the city. Her selection ties the march to the infrastructure of daily life in New York rather than exclusively to entertainment or activist circles.
Gays Against Guns, the direct-action organization founded in response to the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, rounds out the marshal slate. The group, known for die-in protests and civil-disobedience tactics at public events, has consistently used Pride as a platform for demanding gun-safety reforms — connecting the celebration of LGBTQ+ identity to the physical safety of the community in public spaces.
The Theme: “For All of Us”
This year’s theme borrows from a quote widely attributed to Marsha P. Johnson, the Black transgender woman who was present at the Stonewall Uprising and spent decades afterward doing direct support work for the most marginalized members of New York’s LGBTQ+ community: “There is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
The choice is pointed. In a year when state legislatures across the country have continued to advance restrictions targeting transgender Americans — particularly transgender youth — the theme reframes Pride not as a celebration of progress already won but as an assertion that the movement’s work remains unfinished and that the people most at risk deserve the most visible platform.
PrideFest and the Full Weekend Calendar
The march is one component of a weekend-long program. PrideFest, now in its 32nd year and billed as the largest LGBTQIA+ street fair in the United States, runs concurrently on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., taking over Fourth Avenue from East 14th Street to East 8th Street with live entertainment, vendor activations, food, and community programming. Youth Pride, an affirming celebration for LGBTQ+ young people and their allies, takes place Saturday, June 27. Re-United Pride, NYC Pride’s official womxn event, follows the march at HK Hall in Hell’s Kitchen, with tickets starting at $25.
The Queer Liberation March, organized independently by the Reclaim Pride Coalition, also takes place on Sunday. The event is explicitly corporation-free and positions itself as a return to Pride’s protest roots, offering an alternative for marchers who view the Heritage of Pride event as overly commercialized. Both events are recognized expressions of Pride, and their coexistence on the same day reflects a long-running conversation within the community about what the march should prioritize.
Logistics and Broadcast
The march will be broadcast live on WABC-7 from noon to 3 p.m., anchored by Sam Champion, Lauren Glassberg, Kemberly Richardson, and Pedro Rivera. Multiple Manhattan street closures will be in effect throughout the day. The NYPD and NYC Pride’s internal security teams are coordinating public safety operations along the full route. Organizers encourage attendees to use public transit and to check nycpride.org for real-time updates.
The march passes the Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street — a narrow, unremarkable building from the outside that holds the single most consequential address in LGBTQ+ history. Every year on June 28, the city returns to that doorstep. This year, three trans women will lead the way.
