“I love the community. Everybody’s welcome and everybody’s open. There’s so many people here, and everybody’s happy and equal.”

“NYC Pride brings everyone together to celebrate unity and peace and love. The City is about diversity, and it’s the home of Stonewall. I used to work there, and it was a revolutionary thing that happened inside. It caused us to have more unity and respect for gay culture.”

“I get to see all different types of all gays, all transgenders in their costumes. There’s so much love and diversity. And ain’t nobody discriminating against nobody. Stonewall—let it stay open until the day we die. They’ll have to drive us underground to take that from us!”

“I feel like I’m always in my underwear, in some costume that I made. That’s what NYC allows me to be. I can just be myself. And Stonewall is where it all began. So much history!”

“It’s all about the people and the love. Everybody comes out here and lets that freak flag fly. It’s not like anywhere else. We continue to fight for the same rights that every other American has. We’re all the same; we all love the same.”

“We keep seeing the rainbows! Love is love. I’ve never seen anything like this. Stonewall is such a massive part of LGBT history. Bringing everyone together is so nice, everyone together to celebrate.”

“I’m here to march for our rights, our freedom, and I want to show we are together. New York City attracts people from all over the world, and it demonstrates how we’re so much stronger together. Everybody’s so connected.”

“I’ve never seen such grandeur of queerness. It’s so bold and so beautiful. It’s just a part of New York life. I come from a generation of people who don’t always consider the roots of Pride, but I think it should be remembered as a protest against oppression, hatred and ignorance.”

“It’s a combination of the amazing personalities that you see here, plus the city of New York as the backdrop. New York is just the best.”

“NYC is the most diverse place in the world. I’ve never been anywhere like it. It’s history, too. Like Stonewall. How can you even describe it? Stonewall means equality. It means history. Just walking into Stonewall you can feel the presence of everything it’s been. It’s not just a bar; it’s culture.”

“NYC Pride is about the diversity, the energy! A lot of people from around the world come here for Pride. That’s what Stonewall was all about. Stonewall means change. It means not taking no!”

“The amount of people who come is the most exciting thing. I’ve lived in New York my whole life, and this is my first Pride. But just all these wonderful people; it’s just all love. You don’t get that everyday!”

“NYC Pride is about connection, it’s about expression. It’s about an extreme pride for being who you who are, whatever that is—whatever shade and flavor and color of the rainbow.”

“Pride can be a great place for people to see themselves represented when they don’t have another support system. New York is the epicenter of that—where you can see yourself reflected back—and Stonewall represents the origin. We should be going back to that fighting spirit.”

“When this city is lit like this and you’re seeing so many different people not having to worry about what other people think, it’s amazing. You can just do what you want and be who you want to be.”

Discover all there is to see and do during the event by visiting our guide to NYC Pride.