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Pride St. Louis is celebrating its 45th year of recognizing the LGBTQ community. This year, the organization lost major funding due to federal pressures on corporations to drop their DEI initiatives. Attendees say this year鈥檚 festival is more special because the community stepped in to support it.

Pride St. Louis鈥� annual parade down Market Street will remain free of charge.

Other corporate sponsors have also cut back on their support as Pride St. Louis looks to make up a $150,000 shortfall.

The protesters blocked the parade route for a little over an hour on Sunday. They were protesting the parade because Boeing, which supplies weapons to Israel, is a major sponsor of the event.

Members of the LGBTQ community plan to rally on Saturday to protest Boeing鈥檚 sponsorship of Pride St. Louis. They鈥檙e calling on Pride to cut ties with Boeing because the company sells weapons to the Israeli military.

Legislatures in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, passed new laws decried by LGBTQ+ communities and their allies. Still, the month of June brought exuberant Pride celebrations around the region.

LGBTQ community leaders in St. Louis said the event provides an opportunity to show solidarity among queer people and demonstrate that they will not be erased from society.

PrideFest 2023 will include hundreds of vendors, a large parade and a performance by Idina Menzel. It鈥檚 also a chance for LGBTQ people to come together after a wave of legislation targeting them.

Historian Steven Louis Brawley says the LGBTQ community is living through 鈥渞eal-time history.鈥�

BandTogether, which began as a 10-person group, now has more than 100 volunteer members. They play concerts throughout the year and perform at the St. Louis Pride parade each summer.