HELENA — Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Helena Saturday for the annual Big Sky Pride Parade and Festival.
The parade kicked off at 11:00 a.m. with people lining Last Chance Gulch to show their support for the LGBTQ community.
This is the 26th year of the Big Sky Pride and the second year in a row it has been held in Helena.
The parade ended at Helena’s Anchor and Pioneer Parks where people gathered to hear from Grand Marshal Kelli Twoteeth and other speakers, including Helena Mayor and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Wilmot Collins.
Attendees told MTN News that this is an especially important year for Pride because 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, an LGBTQ establishment in Greenwich Village.
According to the National Park Service, which maintains the Stonewall National Monument, the raid led to six days of protests and marked a major change in the movement for equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Big Sky Pride kicked off on Thursday in Helena and goes through Sunday.
-Reported by Eric Jochim/MTN News
