Organizers confirmed to GoPride.com on June 3 that the event will return in 2020 – and they already have $15,000 banked for next year.
Buffalo Grove Deputy Village Manager Jenny Maltas has cleared the date June 7, 2020, for the second-annual Buffalo Grove Pride Parade, said Carolyn Pinta, whose 13-year-old daughter, Molly, spearheaded Buffalo Grove Pride.
Plus, Buffalo Grove organizers confirmed with organizers in Aurora that their 2020 dates will not clash.
Carolyn Pinta said the parade was the “most amazing, magical, positive, beautiful day our family could ever have imagined.”
“The incredible stories that people told us all day long about how coming to this event would change them, (including) one man in his 50s who (is going to) write a letter to his parents who he still was not out to (and) one mom who said her daughter came out to her (Sunday) night after attending (the parade).”
Pinta said that her favorite moment from the Sunday parade was when she walked to the front of the parade with her husband, Bob, then turned around “to see the mile of rainbow groups ready to step off, including Molly, way above the crowd in a float built by her dad.”
When asked it the 2019 event was a success, Pinta replied, “beyond our wildest dreams.”
Molly was named the Youth Grand Marshal for the 50th Annual Chicago Pride Parade, scheduled for Sunday, June 30, starting at 12 noon.
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot is the Honorary Grand Marshal.
“I feel incredibly honored to be recognized for the work I’ve done for the past year, especially on the special anniversary of the first time gay people truly stood up for themselves,” she told GoPride.com. “I cannot believe that my picture appears next to the new, gay mayor of Chicago’s on the Grand Marshal page for Chicago. I am overwhelmed with excitement and know that I am so lucky.
“I cannot believe that I get to meet her.”
Related: Lightfoot named Honorary Grand Marshal of 2019 Chicago Pride Parade
