'This is where the revolution began': Thousands celebrate WorldPride in NYC

New York City's WorldPride March drew thousands Sunday decked in rainbow colors to Fifth Avenue in a blockbuster celebration of the LGBTQ community.

The march is the largest in the world, topping off a month of rallies, parties and conferences honoring LGBTQ activism.

2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, when members of the city's LGBTQ community stood up to police during a raid at the Stonewall Inn and ignited the gay liberation movement.

Hudson Pride Board Member Leslie Scott Seale was a teenager when the Stonewall riots happened and participated in the second Pride march in 1971. Seale said Stonewall helped LGBTQ people find a supportive, visible community.

“Stonewall spurred our modern-day movement; it was also very personal for us,” Seale said. “Giving (us) a sense of community, a place to stand, and seeing publicly, others like ourselves, maybe for the first time.”

First-time New York Pride attendee Tiffany Fantasia, a drag queen from Miami, told The New York Times she couldn't miss the historic anniversary.

“Fifty years ago, this is where the revolution began," Fantasia said. "Fifty years ago was when we decided enough is enough. I had to be here for this.”

WorldPride, an international LGBTQ celebration, began in Rome in 2000. This is the first time it's being held in the United States.

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Gary Piper, 55, who came from Kansas to celebrate Pride with his partner, said the progress the LGBTQ rights movement has made is significant.

“We’ve come so far in the past 20 years,” Piper said. “I remember friends who would be snatched off the streets in Texas for dressing in drag. They’d have to worry about being persecuted for their identity. But now we’re so much more accepted. I’m not saying we don’t have ways to go, but let’s celebrate how far we’ve come."

Alyssa Christianson, 29 and a New York City native, said she's worried about future obstacles the movement may face during the Trump administration.

“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," Christianson said. "We’ve come so far, especially in the last few decades, that I don’t want to see that repressed in any way.”

Sunday's march included cast members from the dance musical POSE, transgender activist and veteran Monica Helms and the Gay Liberation front, the first LGBTQ activist organization formed after Stonewall.

Police officers were stationed at every corner, and metal barricades lined the parade route. The heavy police presence and concerns about commercialization sparked controversy prior to the parade, leading The Reclaim Pride Coalition to host a rival event called the Queer Liberation March.

“What’s important to remember is that this is a protest against the monetization of the Pride parade, against the police brutality of our community, against the poor treatment of sections of our community, of black and brown folk, of immigrants,” said Jake Seller, a 24-year-old Indiana native who now lives in Brooklyn and worked as one of the Queer Liberation March's volunteers.

New York was not alone in celebrating Pride on Sunday. Chicago also hosted a parade in which Lori Lightfoot, the city's first openly gay mayor, was one of the grand marshals.

Sunday's San Francisco Pride included Google as a sponsor, prompting backlash from a group of Google employees who spoke of harassment and hate speech directed toward LGBTQ people on the company's platforms. SF Pride declined to remove Google as a sponsor but said the Google opponents could protest the company's policies as part of the "Resistance Contingent."

Anti-police protesters lying on the ground and chanting stopped San Francisco Pride for about an hour, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle reported that the group took out a banner with the phrase, "Queer and Trans against Kops and Korps." At least two arrests were made.

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Pride celebrations took place across the world as well. Thousands of LGBTQ activists marched in Paris this weekend, braving a heat wave to commemorate the Stonewall protests. In Dublin, police officers took place in the Pride parade for the first time, according to BBC.

Contributing: Katie Sobko and Anthony Zurita, North Jersey Record; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'This is where the revolution began': Thousands celebrate WorldPride in NYC