We’re entering the month of June and that means a few things: backyard cookouts without neighbors and family you don’t like, murdering mosquitoes before they eat your arms alive, and celebrating LGBTQIA people with a Pride parade.
Once primarily relegated to those in the LGBTQIA community, Pride Month is now something everyone recognizes. Well, unless you’re a conservative Republican in Congress, but then who cares what they think anyway.
The month-long celebration commemorates the Stonewall riots, which began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Ever since that fateful day, the LGBTQIA community across the country celebrates the month with parades featuring pretty grandiose floats. Typically, these floats tend to include various trappings of LGBTQIA culture, with the most obvious being the rainbow flag. However, some of them border on the absurd and outrageous.
Even though NYC is the most popular place to celebrate Pride, Covid and the desire to not be smack dab in the middle of a plague crockpot has caused many to celebrate in smaller cities or gatherings. Provincetown, Massachusetts, is among one of the growing smaller cities to enjoy such festivities. One of the city’s famed events is the annual Pride Rally, accompanied by the “Sashay” to Tea dance event, which takes place in the heart of town.
But even if Pride events around the world aren’t nearly as massive as the ones in NYC, they do come with their own very unique and grandiose floats. So we at Mandatory tried to locate some of the best ones.
Cover Photo: Dave Kotinsky / Stringer (Getty Images)
pride floats
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6. Pulse Survivors Float
A float of Orlando Pulse Survivors passed by the State House in Boston during the annual Pride Parade on June 10, 2017. Twenty-nine survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting rode the float, which was adorned with 49 flags honoring those who died in the attack.
Photo: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe (Getty Images)
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5. Erase Hate Float
People celebrated during Manchester Pride, one of the UK's largest Gay Pride events, with a very special message to those opposing LGBTQIA people.
Photo: Roots Shoots (Getty Images)
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4. Jewish Gay and Lesbian Float
Jewish Gay and Lesbian group activists traveled on a float while taking part in the Gay Pride parade in Paris on June 24, 2017. It marked the 40th anniversary of the first Gay Pride march in the French capital.
Photo: JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP (Getty Images)
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3. Aubrey O'Day and the 'Ride With Pride' Float
American singer Aubrey O'Day appeared on the Virgin America "Ride With Pride" Float at the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade on June 24, 2012, in San Francisco, California.
Photo: Steve Jennings/WireImage (Getty Images)
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2. San Francisco Mayor Float
Parade participants danced on San Francisco Mayor London Breed's float during the 2019 San Francisco Pride parade on Sunday, June 30, 2019, in San Francisco, California.
Photo: San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers ( Getty Images)
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1. Mermaid Pride Float
The city of Copenhagen, Denmark had a lavish mermaid float.
Photo: Anders Blomqvist (Getty Images)
