Then, in 1977, attendance jumped from a few hundred to several thousand. More and more people participated and watched as the years went on. The next year, the march became a parade in Chicago’s gay-friendly East Lakeview neighborhood. “It was a statement to the people of Chicago: yes, there are gay people, and we want to have real visibility.” So instead of a parade, we had a march,” says gay rights activist Vernita Gray in the WTTW documentary Out & Proud in Chicago. Some demonstrators continued on to what is now Daley Plaza. The march’s route was symbolic, beginning in the shadows of Bughouse Square and walking visibly into the city along Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile. In 1970, a group of 100 to 150 people gathered in Chicago’s Washington Square Park, known as “Bughouse Square,” which was a popular cruising spot for gay men. The first Chicago Pride march was one of three around the country that was held to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York City. How did it go from a small march to a large celebration?

Now, 49 years later, the Chicago Pride Parade boasts an estimated one million people in attendance each year. It started as a small political march of 150 people.