NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City's annual pride parade kicked off Sunday with glittering confetti, cheering crowds, fluttering rainbow flags and newfound fears about losing freedoms won through decades of activism.
The annual marches in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere are taking place just two days after one conservative justice on the Supreme Court signaled, in a ruling on abortion, that the court should reconsider the right to same-sex marriage recognized in 2015.
"We're here to make a statement," said 31-year-old Mercedes Sharpe, who traveled to Manhattan from Massachusetts. "I think it's about making a point, rather than all the other years like how we normally celebrate it. This one's really gonna stand out. I think a lot of angry people, not even just women, angry men, angry women."
Thousands of people -- many decked in pride colors -- lined the parade route through Manhattan, cheering as floats and marchers passed by.
The warning shot from the nation's top court came after a year of legislative defeats for the LGBTQ community, including the passage of laws in some states limiting the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity with children.
As anti-gay sentiments resurface, some are pushing for pride parades to return to their roots -- less blocks-long street parties, more overtly civil rights marches.
"It has gone from being a statement of advocacy and protest to being much more of a celebration of gay life," Sean Clarkin, 67, said of New York City's annual parade while enjoying a drink recently at Julius's, one of the oldest gay bars in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.
As he remembers things, the parade was once about defiance and pushing against an oppressive mainstream that saw gays, lesbians and transgender people as unworthy outsiders.
"As satisfying and empowering as it may be to now be accepted by the mainstream," Clarkin said, "there was also something energizing and wonderful about being on the outside looking in."
New York's first Pride March, then called the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, was held in 1970 to mark the first anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, a spontaneous street uprising triggered by a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan.
San Francisco's first march was in 1972 and had been held every year since, except during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Celebrations are now global, taking place throughout the year in multiple countries, with many of the biggest parades taking place in June. One of the world's largest, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was held June 19.
In the United States, this year's celebrations take place amid a potential crisis.
In a Supreme Court ruling Friday striking down the right to abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas said in a concurring opinion that the court should also reconsider its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage and a 2003 decision striking down laws criminalizing gay sex.
New York City parade spectator Jackie English said she and her fiancee Dana had yet to set a wedding date, but have a new sense of urgency.
"Now we feel a bit pressured," she said, adding they might "jump the gun a little sooner. Because, what if that right gets taken away from us?"
Several states have put laws in place prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in team sports that coincide with the gender in which they identify.
Flags affirming LGBTQ identity dress the fencing surrounding the Stonewall National Monument, Wednesday, June 22, 2022, in New York. Sunday's Pride Parade wraps a month marking the anniversary of the June 28th, 1969, Stonewall uprising, sparked by a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan and a catalyst of the modern LGBTQ movement. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
FILE- In this Aug. 31,1970 file photo, an NYPD officer grabs a youth by the hair as another officer clubs a young man during a confrontation in Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march in New York. Parades celebrating LGBTQ pride kick off in some of America's biggest cities Sunday amid new fears about the potential erosion of freedoms won through decades of activism. The annual marches in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere take place just two days after one conservative justice on the Supreme Court signaled, in a ruling on abortion, that the court should reconsider the right to same-sex marriage recognized in 2015. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - Reveler carry a LTBGQ flag along Fifth Avenue during the New York City Pride Parade on Sunday, June 24, 2018, in New York. Parades celebrating LGBTQ pride kick off in some of America's biggest cities Sunday amid new fears about the potential erosion of freedoms won through decades of activism. The annual marches in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere take place just two days after one conservative justice on the Supreme Court signaled, in a ruling on abortion, that the court should reconsider the right to same-sex marriage recognized in 2015. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, File)
FILE - Marchers participate in the Queer Liberation March in New York, Sunday, June 30, 2019. Parades celebrating LGBTQ pride kick off in some of America's biggest cities Sunday amid new fears about the potential erosion of freedoms won through decades of activism. The annual marches in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere take place just two days after one conservative justice on the Supreme Court signaled, in a ruling on abortion, that the court should reconsider the right to same-sex marriage recognized in 2015. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE - A person holds up a sign referencing the Stonewall Inn, during a queer liberation march for Black Lives Matter and against police brutality, Sunday, June 28, 2020, in New York. Parades celebrating LGBTQ pride kick off in some of America's biggest cities Sunday amid new fears about the potential erosion of freedoms won through decades of activism. The annual marches in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere take place just two days after one conservative justice on the Supreme Court signaled, in a ruling on abortion, that the court should reconsider the right to same-sex marriage recognized in 2015. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)