As New York City prepares for an influx of millions of visitors for the annual NYC Pride March on Sunday, a contending group is gearing up for its own protest march on the same day. The Reclaim Pride Coalition, which has the backing of over 100 local and international LGBTQ organizations, has pledged to hold a non-corporate political gathering that highlights the ongoing discrimination and violence that the community faces.  

"The current parade is a corporate party that addresses none of this," said Colin Ashley, an organizer of the Queer Liberation March, at a press conference last month. 

The NYC Pride March has grown and changed since its inception in 1970, the year after the historic Stonewall Uprising. Roughly 150,000 people are expected to march in the parade this year alongside more than 100 corporate floats and contingents. The duration of the parade will likely last for well over nine hours.

Supporters of the march say that police and corporate sponsors are necessary to put on a gathering of that scale. Members of Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit that has put on the march since 1984, say they want it to be a place for all community members and allies to come together.

"Not everyone wants a resistance march. Not everyone wants a celebratory march," said Chris Frederick, the managing director of Heritage of Pride. "But we have to kind of make sure that both kind of coexist in the same experience."

The Queer Liberation March is slated to step off from 7th Avenue and Christopher Street at 9:30 a.m. The NYC Pride March plans to start from 26th Street and 5th Avenue at noon.