CHICAGO, JULY 2, 2014 The award-winning Lakeside Pride Freedom Marching Band will once again march with the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association ( OPALGA ) in the Oak Park Fourth of July Parade on Friday, July 4 at 10 a.m. For the past three years, both organizations have appeared together at this Oak Park tradition to celebrate Independence Day and families of all different shapes and sizes.
"The cheers and applause we receive from the crowd validate everything we represent," said Pete Henry, board chair, Lakeside Pride Music Ensembles. "Our LGBT community has much to celebrate, and marching arm in arm with OPALGA is just another way for us to say we are family."
Lakeside Pride plans to entertain spectators with a medley of Armed Forces songs, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams and "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge. OPALGA plans to bring the crowd to their feet with a spectacle that includes balloons and roller skates. They will also hand out rainbow flags along the route, which begins at Longfellow Park from the corner of Ridgeland Ave. and Adams St. The parade will head north on Ridgeland Ave. to Augusta St., ending near Whittier Elementary School. Oak Park also hosts a fireworks display at dusk at Oak Park River Forest High School.
The legacy of Chicago's award-winning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LGBT ) marching band, which re-formed as Lakeside Pride in 1997, dates back to 1979 when the original Chicago Gay Pride Band emerged out of the desire to have a marching band in the annual pride parade. The Freedom Marching Band has appeared at parades and events across the Midwest, including the Chicago Memorial Day Parade, Indy Pride Parade and Milwaukee Pride Parade.
Additionally, members of Lakeside Pride marched with more than 200 musicians from across the country in the nation's 56th and 57th Presidential Inaugural Parade under the banner of the Lesbian and Gay Band Association ( LGBA ), which formed in Chicago in 1982. The groups chosen to participate in this parade reflect the spirit, values and diversity of our great nation. LGBA is the only LGBT group in history to be invited to march in a Presidential Inaugural Parade.
The appearance of the Lakeside Pride Freedom Marching Band in the Oak Park Fourth of July Parade is generously underwritten by OPALGA. Since its inception in 1989, OPALGA has become one of the largest community based, multipurpose lesbian and gay membership organizations in Illinois. OPALGA produces and sponsors a vast array of regular events and activities for the Oak Park area LGBTQ community and their families and friends.
The Lakeside Pride Freedom Marching Band is part of Lakeside Pride Music Ensembles, a recognized 501 ( c )( 3 ) nonprofit organization. Inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 2011, the Lakeside Pride Freedom Marching Band, Lakeside Pride Symphonic Band, and shhh...OUT! Lakeside Pride Jazz Ensemble together reach more than one million people annually. Formore information, or to join a
Lakeside Pride ensemble, visit www.lakesidepride.org .