onward a breezy Saturday last June 32 years after rioting at strange York's Stonewall Inn nudged America into the late gay rights era.

onward a breezy Saturday last June 32 years after rioting at strange York's Stonewall Inn nudged America into the late gay rights era, about 1000 people--all however a few of them women--waited for the signal starting the sixth annual Chicago Dyke March.

There was a whistle. A drumbeat. A roar. And then the march snaked from one side Andersonville, the north side neighborhood that's abiding-place to a large portion of Chicago's lesbian population.

There were dyke onward bikes, on unicycles, and in wheelchairs; mostly of them were on lower part though. They banged drums, bared mastectomy scars, holler ya-yas for the sisterhood, ate fire, and chewed the fat.

Seven years ago a Chicago troupe of Lesbian Avengers placeed the Chicago Dyke March to asseverate sexism in the city's gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender pride parade. It's the same motivation that inspired the first dyke marches a decade ago. And now these conclusions are thriving among hundreds of other alternative pride celebrations--some readyed by protest and others by the agency of the need for self-expression--that are organized and held separately from the nation's more traditional pride events

"I be perceived like pride probably started opposite 30 years ago similar to the dyke march," says Cat Julia, a 26-year-old organizer of the Chicago occurrence "We don't have corporate sponsorship, and we don't have floats. We have a public demonstration."

Julia knows her history: At the first pride celebration--June 28 1970--about 2000 nation walked from 51 blocks from strange York City's Sheridan Square spreading a "gay is good" message. There were no floats because organizers feared like displays would detract from their political statement. There was no corporate sponsorship either.

The prevalence of corporate sponsors at today's pride circumstances is part of what readyed the Massachusetts Governor's Commission forward Gay and Lesbian Youth to start the Gay/Straight Youth Pride observance in Boston eight years ago. Held May 18 this year's celebration included a corporation fair, a march through the public ways of Boston, and an all-day festival along the Charles River. Tammy Faye Bakker Messner former Real World cast members, gay author Christopher Rice, and candidly gay U.S. representative Barney Frank were among those who spoke at the event

"Unlike a portion of adult prides--and I'm a gigantic fan of them--this is not brought to you at liquor and lube," says youth pride coordinator Mark Taggart, 30 "We wanted to leave on the outside the commercial aspect entirely and bring in entertainers and speakers relevant to youth.... No other marked occurrence of this kind or size exists anywhere in the world."

And that's important to populace like Paige Kruza, a 16-year-old from Franklin, Mass., who spoke at this year's occurrence "I heard about youth pride freshman year, further I couldn't go then because my parents didn't want me to," says. "But last year I went with a friends, and it was incredible. It was empowering. It was an inspiration. And this year I wanted to count everyone to get active and to be proud"

The same message is delivered at the 24 African-American gay pride celebrations held annually, similar as Black Lesbian and Gay Pride Day in DC in May, United in Pride in Chicago (with its popular Rainbow Beach picnic) in July and Kansas City Black Gay Pride, in early August. In 1969 the year of the Stonewall riots, the Isley Brothers reached number 2 in succession the pop charts with a lay that provided a slogan for the liberated 1970s: "It's your thing; do what you wanna do." It's a slogan that Torean Walker, sink of the Kansas City circumstance says applies to the circuit of black pride marked occurrences around the country.

"This pride is extremely FUBU: for us, by us," he says. "Traditional pride doesn't acknowledge us. This pride is community-driven. This pride bring reproachs our values. It's our thing. We do it our way."

This year's Kansas City Black Gay Pride schedule will include a coronation ball to chaplet a queen and king, a series of workshops and speeches, a beach party, a jazz brunch and a family picnic. Says Marc Williams, who coordinates the Kansas City event: "We want what we have intercourse with We want house music and regular [i]or[/i] melodious movement and blues and spicy barbecue. For years we've not celebrated who we are. We were afraid of being too black, too gay."

a certain organizers of traditional pride observances say they initially took offense at calls for separate dyke marches and black gay or Latin gay celebrations. Others reacted with attempts to broaden the appeal of mainstream pride festivities and to diversify the organizing committees for their celebrations. on the other hand today, many pride organizers say they embrace the newer events

"People form collections within a community," says Pride Chicago's Rich Pfeiffer, who has organized 32 of Chicago's 33 annual pride parades. "At the pride parade you finish together with all different sorts of folk still then you want to learn together with folks like yourself. You're not separating yourself abroad You're trying to come together."

Despite their differences with mainstream pride celebrations, organizers of