Aurora Pride Parade on Sunday to feature largest number of registered marchers in event’s history
Aurora Pride is preparing to kick-off Sunday’s annual Pride Parade in the city with the largest number of registered marchers since the parade began in 2018.
Aurora Pride President Gwyn Ciesla said they’ve typically capped marching units and floats at 60 each year, but this year they will have a record number of participants with 70 units set to take part.
The parade, featuring an almost two-mile route, is set to step off at noon on Sunday, starting at East Benton Street and South Broadway in downtown Aurora, traveling northeast to Downer Place, turning left and ending at West Downer Place and North Middle Avenue.
Ciesla believes the increase in participants is due to people’s excitement that the parade is occurring after last year’s parade permit was touch-and-go for a bit due to issues stemming from not having enough police officers signed up to work overtime or extra-duty shifts to provide security for the event.
In May, Aurora Pride was granted a preliminary injunction by a federal judge in connection to a lawsuit filed by Pride against the city. The lawsuit is against the city and its special events ordinance, arguing it is unconstitutional and violated Pride’s First Amendment rights.
The preliminary injunction prevents the city from applying certain provisions of the ordinance.
City officials previously said in a statement that they had enough police officers to host the parade on Sunday. Ciesla said city officials previously said they needed 56 officers to staff security for the event, but was unsure if the number had changed since then.
“The preliminary injunction makes it something they need to worry about and it’s off our plate, which is a relief,” Ciesla said.
Aurora officials said in a statement last month that well before the judge’s ruling, the city had been actively working for months to plan the event and as a result, had staffed enough police officers to host Sunday’s parade.
”Just as I said last year during the Pride Flag-Raising Ceremony, our goal is to have an inclusive, safe, energetic and empowering event in Aurora. We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again this year,” Mayor Richard Irvin said in the statement.
Last year, Aurora Pride had requested that if police officers wanted to march in the parade, they do so not in full uniform but instead wear a “soft uniform,” like a polo shirt, identifying them as police officers.
City officials last year said they were unable to get enough Aurora police officers to work overtime or extra-duty shifts to provide adequate security for the parade. The city has said it can’t compel off-duty employees to work security at special events.
The city then revoked the special event permit for the group to host the parade last year due to the security staffing issue.
The situation ended up being resolved when the city offered a triple-time financial incentive to its police officers to take overtime to provide security for the parade.
Ciesla said no officers applied to march as attendees in this year’s parade. In the 2018 and 2019 parades, gay police officers marched, some in uniform, with a banner.
This year, Aurora resident Ashton Bishop will emcee the parade and Keri Traid will serve as the grand marshal. Traid, an Aurora native, has been a headliner performing in the North Halsted/Boystown area of Chicago for the past 10 years.
“We thought with everything going on it was important to have someone local and involved in performing because that’s been under fire lately,” Ciesla said, referencing recent issues concerning drag shows in the Chicago area.
Other events this year include a CommUNITY Market to be held by Indivisible Aurora from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at Water Street Mall, next to City Hall downtown. The market will feature a variety of vendors, informational booths, crafts, music and more.
A flag-raising ceremony by the city of Aurora and its LGBTQ Advisory Board will take place at 11 a.m. Friday at One Aurora Plaza, 8 Galena Blvd.
