LGBT Activists March Through The Streets Of DC In Pride Parade [PHOTOS]

LGBT activists marched through the streets of Washington, D.C. Saturday in the city’s annual Pride Parade.

Capital Pride Alliance hosted the annual parade in partnership with local businesses and activists groups. Their goal is to advocate for gay individuals, transgenders and other people of varying sexual orientations.

The Pride Parade came within a day of the violent terrorist attack on an Orlando, Florida gay nightclub, which killed nearly 50 people and injured at least 53.

The Washington D.C. Pride Parade started in 1975 as a one-day block party. It eventually developed into a week-long festival, which starts off with a parade through downtown.

“From ten years ago to now it has been so vast and so dynamic, I only hope it progresses even more than it has,” participant Sarah Marshall told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “From today, to tomorrow to ten years from now. That’s really all you can hope for. The type of progression you’d like to see your family and your kids live in.”

DC Pride Parade 2016 (Connor D. Wolf/DCNF)

“I believe the world is full of a lot of anger, war and hate, why not support something that brings love,” Marshall continued. “All they want is the same rights, the same, pretty much the same thing everyone wants. Why deny them the same rights everyone else gets.”

The gay rights movement first began after World War II but didn’t takeoff until the 1960s. For many years, gay behavior was suppressed under law, forcing many to meet in secret clubs and bars. Laws and society have become more open to gay individuals, including the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage across the country in 2015.

“I think there’s still more work to be done, in like for minority groups, in representation in the laws,” one participant who identified herself as Cameron told TheDCNF. “There’s diffidently more work to be done in more rural areas and maybe in the metropolitan areas. There’s also people that come out for gay pride type events but where were from their nothing like this.”

Some attendees advocate that cake makers or florists should be forced to service gay marriages even if their faith doesn’t support it. Additionally some believe there hasn’t been enough attention given to gay issues during the election, claiming Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton have been much more focused on other policy matters.

“I’d say right now its please don’t let Trump win,” Cameron continued. “But I’d say Hillary isn’t the greatest either. She’s just as bad.”

Democratic primary candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, in contrast, was much more liked among the crowd. He is unlikely to win the primary, however, with Clinton securing much more support among party delegates.

Another Pride Parade attendee, Keely Beard, noted she likes Sanders more than Clinton, but would support either of them over Trump.

“I’d say either one between Hillary and Bernie I’d support,” Beard told TheDCNF. “The gay rights movement isn’t getting any light with how the Trump campaign is going.”

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