NEW YORK -- Tennis legend Billie Jean King was one of the grand marshals of New York City's gay pride march on Sunday, as cities around the world held LGBT pride events.
The event, and others like it around the country, commemorate the riots that erupted in response to a police raid at a New York gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in June 1969. A park across the street from the Stonewall was designated a national monument in 2016.
New York's march will pass by the Stonewall National Monument in the Greenwich Village on Sunday before heading up Fifth Avenue.
Onlookers and participants in New York noted those origins at Sunday's event, which was both a celebration of the diversity of LGBT culture and a statement against anti-LGBT policies promoted by President Donald Trump, such as the Republican president's attempt to ban all transgender people from serving in the military. They also spoke out against policies aimed at other communities, like immigrants and minorities.
The theme of this year's march was "Defiantly Different." Eighty floats and tens of thousands of marchers were expected.
In addition to King, the grand marshals include transgender advocate Tyler Ford and civil rights organization Lambda Legal.
March organizers planned to honor "community heroes" including Emma Gonzalez, a Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor.