NYC Pride Announces Grand Marshals for In-Person March! #PinkInOurLives

NYC Pride, or Heritage of Pride, has rolled out a slate of grand marshals for this year’s annual Pride March, which will return to a fully in-person format for the first time since WorldPride stormed through the Big Apple in 2019.

This year’s march — slated to take place on June 26 at noon — will be led by five grand marshals: TV personality TS Madison, “Saturday Night Live” star Punkie Johnson, athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar, activist and speaker Dominique Morgan, and attorney Chase Strangio of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, who has worked on prominent LGBTQ rights cases ranging from federal to state courts.

Bansri Manek, the director of the NYC Pride March, said the grand marshals embody this year’s theme, “Unapologetically Us,” which is intended to celebrate LGBTQ community members regardless of their respective backgrounds.

While NYC Pride’s annual march pivoted to a virtual or hybrid format in recent years, the Reclaim Pride Coalition has drawn tens of thousands of people to the alternative Queer Liberation March. That event — which was first held in 2019 due in large part to frustration over Heritage of Pride’s ties to corporate sponsors and the police presence at the march — is scheduled to take place on the same day as the NYC Pride March. Last year’s Queer Liberation March was the largest one yet.

Among other plans, Heritage of Pride is also bringing Pride Island festivities back to an in-person format this year — this time on Governor’s Island. Papi Juice will lead the performances on Saturday and Kim Petras will be the headliner on Pride Sunday. DJ Eddie Martinez, DJ Dani Toro, and DJ Alex Chapman will also perform on Sunday.