Pride Month 2025: Making Connections Through Community

Pride events offer a chance to celebrate and recognize the LGBTQ+ community

Abigail Seaberg,

AARP

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Published May 30, 2025

different images of pride events across the country

During Pride Month, consider parades, exhibits and screenings to enrich your understanding of the LGBTQ+ community. At bottom, Capital Pride events in Washington, D.C., which is hosting WorldPride in 2025.

AARP (Getty Images, 3; Courtesy Capital Pride Alliance)

In June, Pride Month is more than an excuse to don every color of the rainbow. It marks a special time for some members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies to join forces for celebration and advocacy.

Pride Month has been observed for decades.The month was officially recognized when President Bill Clinton designated June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999. The commemoration recognizes the LGBTQ+ community, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning.

A Statista poll found that 5.1 percent of Generation X, 3 percent of boomers and 1.8 percent of the silent generation identified as LGBTQ+, as of 2024. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, the LGBTQ+ community has grown over the years, with 7.6 percent of U.S. adults identifying as LGBTQ+.

But despite growing representation, the LGBTQ+ community still faces some challenges.

“Our elder pioneers’ strength and activism, during other extremely difficult times, paved the way for the freedom that we celebrate in this Pride season,” says Michael Adams, CEO of SAGE, the country’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to serving older LGBTQ+ individuals. Jackie Lees, 72, from Asheville, North Carolina, is on the board of directors for Blue Ridge Pride Center and a member of its AARP North Carolina-affiliated Generation Plus Committee – a group dedicated to serving members of the LGBTQ+ community who are 55 and older. She is also transgender.

Lees’ local Pride festival doesn’t happen until the fall, but she recognizes the importance of giving people 50 and older a space to embrace their identities without fear or judgment.

“[Pride] means a celebration of the struggles we went through to get to this point,” Lees says. “Whether we know each other or not … it’s a good feeling to be around others.”

One of those struggles most often honored during Pride Month is the Stonewall Uprising, a pivotal event for the gay rights movement in the U.S., which began June 28, 1969, in the New York City neighborhood of Greenwich Village.

Lees says older members of the LGBTQ+ community can use Pride to close the “generational gap.”

“We’re here to mentor the younger ones, if they want to hear us,” Lees says.

Check out our nationwide round-up of events. It’s certainly not all-encompassing, so if you don’t see an event local to you, try an online search for nearby Pride Month events.

Parades and festivals

Washington, D.C., is the host of WorldPride this year, which is celebrating 50 years of Pride in D.C. The WorldPride Parade is June 7, starting at 2 p.m. This year’s theme is “The Fabric of Freedom.” People looking to celebrate beyond the parade can check out WorldPride’s website for more information on its three-week program of events – many of which are free – around the capital region.

Northern Californians might find just what they’re looking for at Sacramento Pride. The Sacramento Pride Festival will take place June 14 from noon to 9 p.m. and June 15 from noon to 6 p.m. at the Capitol Mall in front of the Sacramento Capitol. Tickets start at about $14 for a single-day pass. The Sacramento Pride March, which is free to attend, will happen June 15 at 11 a.m. AARP will have a booth at Sacramento Pride to discuss Social Security and caregiving.

West Hartford, Connecticut, holds its Pride festival and rally on June 21.

Courtesy West Hartford Pride

This year marks the 6th Annual West Hartford Pride Festival in Connecticut. The festival will take place June 21, from noon to 6 p.m. at West Hartford Town Hall parking lot. A rally on the steps of town hall will happen at 10:30 a.m. where a pair of grandparents will talk about supporting their trans granddaughter.

“They will share how they have found their own new community among those who find themselves along the same journey,” says Johanna Schubert, co-chair of West Hartford Pride. “They are open and hopeful about the challenges and wins they have had along the way.”

Join AARP Minnesota and Twin Cities Pride at the Twin Cities Pride Festival on June 28, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and June 29, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Loring Park in Minneapolis.

“Queer Joy is Resistance” is the theme for the 55th annual San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade. The free celebration and rally takes place June 28 and 29 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Civic Center Plaza. The parade is June 29, starting at 10:30 a.m. along Market Street.

New York City boasts NYC Pride March, one of the largest LGBTQ+ Pride marches worldwide, and PrideFest, the largest LGBTQ+ street festival in the state. This year’s theme is “Rise Up: Pride in Protest.” Both free events are on June 29. The march and festival each start at 11 a.m.

Museum events

Join AARP in St. Louis at the Missouri History Museum for Queer Writes – a free event on June 5 from 5 to 8 p.m. where a diverse group of local writers who identify as LGBTQ+ read excerpts of their work.

The Museum of History & Industry in Seattle is celebrating Pride Month and Microsoft’s 50th anniversary with a special exhibit called “Pride: The Ric Weiland Collection.” The exhibition starts June 14, but visitors will have until Oct. 5 to explore the legacy of Ric Weiland, Microsoft’s second employee and a philanthropist who mainly donated to organizations that supported the LGBTQ+ community and other Seattle nonprofits. Entrance to the exhibit comes with your admission ($25 for adults; $20 for adults 65-plus).

This series of events isn’t inside a museum, but the Chicago History Museum is offering its OUT at CHM Walking Tour series in honor of Pride Month. Choose among the first three Saturdays in June to embark on a walking or bus tour that will explore various areas of the city with significance to the LGBTQ+ community. Exact locations and prices ($25 for walking tours, $50 for the bus tour) vary by tour, but your ticket includes free admission to the Chicago History Museum for one week from the date of your tour.

On June 3 at noon, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is hosting a book signing of Neil Young’s Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right, at the American History Museum. The purchase of the book gains you access to the signing.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York will host Pride Night at the Museum on June 13, starting at 7 p.m. The evening will combine chemistry experiments, artmaking and interplanetary journeys with a focus on the exhibit “Cosmic Splendor: Jewelry from the Collections of Van Cleef & Arpels.” There also will be a marketplace featuring LGBTQ+ vendors, organizations and artists. General admission is $25.

The Whitney Museum of American Art is hosting Pride Month at the Whitney with several events, including the Community Pride Mural (free) on June 8 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and a performance by the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus (free) on June 27, starting at 5:30 p.m.

Social events and screenings

people taking a picture at a pride event

Ride with Pride leaves from the Milwaukee Harley-Davidson Museum on June 7.

Cormac Kehoe

If you live near Milwaukee, join Ride With Pride on June 7. Registration begins at 10 a.m., and motorcycle riders will leave the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee with a police escort at noon.

“Ride With Pride is a parade-style ride we do to show the Milwaukee community that it is OK to show your Pride,” says Ed Zamora, the president of Pride Rides Wisconsin.

View a screening of The Birdcage on June 28, at 7 p.m. at the Mary D. Fisher and Alice Gill-Sheldon Theatres in Sedona, Arizona. This event, sponsored by Unify Sedona, is the finale to Sedona International Film Festival’s annual celebration of Pride Month. Tickets are $10 each, and costumes are encouraged for a chance to win a best costume prize.

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Abigail Seaberg is a freelance journalist based in San Diego. She covers subjects as diverse as oncology research, local news, celebrity updates, and health and wellness topics.