People’s organizations march in Denver PrideFest
Denver, CO – On the morning of June 28, tens of thousands of Coloradans gathered at Cheesman Park for the annual Pridefest parade. Dozens of organizations marched from Colfax Avenue to downtown Denver, chanting, “No hesitation! Trans liberation!” and “From Stonewall to Gaza, globalize the intifada!”
Banners from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and many other groups, spanned the mile-long parade. Many had hand-painted slogans like “Queers bash back against Trump! Stonewall was a riot!” “Pride means fight back!” “Protect trans kids!” and “Chinga la migra!”
During Denver’s previous two Pride festivals, activists took over the main stage to demand that the primary organizer of Denver Pridefest, The Center on Colfax (The Center), divest from genocidal military companies like Lockheed Martin. Organizers also demanded an end to police presence at the parade. The Center’s former CEO, Rex Fuller, resigned in 2025. In 2026, The Center has refused money from corporations invested in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
Now, for the first time in many years, The Center invited local organizers to lead a segment of the Denver Pride parade and re-center the root of Pride: protesting the injustices and violence against LGBTQ people, and connecting the Palestinian struggle to the Queer community’s struggle.
“We are here as scrappy trans folks because we fought, and we are here to recruit you to the same kind of scrappy fight, because when we fight, we win!” remarked Z Williams, a trans rights activist and the founder of Bread & Roses Legal Center, a social justice legal defense organization. “That is the only way our community has gotten what we have, and where we are at.”
There were an estimated 550,000 total Pridefest attendees, with tens of thousands watching the Pride parade and witnessing the event return to its origin as a protest fighting for LGBTQ rights.