NEW YORK — Tennis legend Billie Jean King will be one of the grand marshals of New York City’s gay pride march as cities around the world hold LGBT pride events.
The marches commemorate the riots that erupted in response to a police raid at a New York gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in June 1969. A park across the street from the Stonewall was designated a national monument in 2016.
New York’s march will pass by the Stonewall National Monument in the Greenwich Village on Sunday before heading up Fifth Avenue.
The march will be both a celebration of the diversity of LGBT culture and a protest against anti-LGBT policies promoted by Republican President Donald Trump, such as Trump’s attempt to ban all transgender people from serving in the military.
The theme of this year’s march is “Defiantly Different.” Eighty floats and tens of thousands of marchers are expected.
In addition to King, the grand marshals include transgender advocate Tyler Ford and civil rights organization Lambda Legal.
March organizers plan to honor “community heroes” including Emma Gonzalez, the Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor.