Mayor: Unity celebrated in 43rd annual Seattle Pride parade

SEATTLE – As temperatures began to rise, hundreds of men, women and children carrying rainbow flags hit the streets for the 43rd annual Seattle Pride Parade on Sunday.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said on Twitter that the city is celebrating unity and a strong community. Participants danced, sang and cheered as marching bands and other groups moved down the parade route.

Raymond Crossman, the president of Chicago’s Adler University, was among a group of about 25 gay and lesbian presidents from college and universities who attended. The group had marched together in Chicago shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision recognizing same-sex marriage in 2015 and in New York last year, not long after the mass shootings at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Both of those events were emotional for different reasons and “this year has its own kind of emotion” with President Donald Trump now in office, Crossman said.

Black Lives Matter protesters held a brief sit-in on the route to honor Charleena Lyles, who was shot and killed by police last week after she confronted the officers with a knife.

A few protesters carrying signs with bible verses and “you are a great sinner” disrupted the pre-parade celebration.