Chicago’s Pride Parade Attendance Increased Throughout the Years (1985–2014)

The LGBTQ+ community has been a close-knit community; however, the community struggled for years, and still do, to be accepted in society. Being able to have pride in themselves for being who they are is important; the pride parade’s significance is more profound than what meets the eye.

Above, the graphic depicts the attendance at pride parades in Chicago throughout the years.

The graphic begins in the year 1985. According to The New York Times, the pride parade has been held each year since the 70’s. By the year 1985, it was the 16th anniversary of pride with only 35,000 individuals attending in Chicago.

In the graph we see a trend depicting the attendance every 5 years. Each year, the attendance increases until we reach 2010. From 2005–2010, the attendance numbers were stagnant with 450,000 attendees.

Following CNN, there is a distinct statement of the difficulties in politics in terms of legalizing same-sex marriage that were occurring in this timeframe; the views were extremely polarizing.

After 2010, the attendees in Chicago’s pride parade continued to increase with an increase of 300,000 attendees from 2010–2011.

In 2013 the number of attendees at pride reached an all time high with 1,000,000 individuals. A significant event occurred in 2013.

Individuals who love the same sex were scrutinized and stripped of their rights; however, on Nov. 5, same-sex marriage was legalized in Illinois.

The bill did not take effect until 2014, which also had the same amount of attendees as recorded in 2013.