A New Era Of NYC Pride

Featured Image: (Top L-R) Tyler Sadonis, Im Lynde. (Bottom L-R) Destinee Aaliyah, Khoa Nguyen.

More than 25 city blocks. Over one million spectators. Greater than 900 volunteers. If NYC Pride is known for one thing, it’s scale. Yet, behind the magnitude of NYC Pride is a small but mighty team of just seven full-time staff. 

These nonprofit team members are not only responsible for orchestrating the largest pride march in the country, but are also ushering in a new era of pride through year-round efforts. From open houses to corporate summits to networking events, NYC Pride is intentionally carving out inclusive spaces for all corners of the LGBTQIA+ community to gather in. 

This commitment to inclusivity is mirrored within the nonprofit’s internal structure. Im Lynde is the first Asian American Executive Director of NYC Pride, leading a team where more than half of the full-time and temporary staff, alongside the Board of Directors, identify as People of Color. 

“The faces of today’s generation of queer people are not all white, especially in New York City,” Lynde says. “It’s important for queer youth of color to see leaders who look similar to them.” 

The team’s structure and its greater footprint also mirror its origin story. The first gay pride march, just one year after the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, was organized by a diverse coalition of New York City grassroots activists who successfully marched around 15 blocks. Each year, NYC Pride honors this history while taking inventory of the current political moment. 

The legacy of Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender activist and Stonewall veteran, remains central to NYC Pride. This year’s theme, “For All of Us,” pays homage to one of her many notable quotes: “There is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.” With Lynde at the helm, the NYC Pride team has been working tirelessly year-round to bring this sentiment to life.

Lynde, who began his nonprofit career 25 years ago, has a rich and varied background uplifting an array of causes, including HIV/AIDS healthcare, emergency housing, pro bono legal services for LGBTQ+ and HIV-positive asylum seekers, and supporting low-income or uninsured LGBTQ+ patients with substance use disorders through free and low-cost residential treatment.

Lynde hopes to use his platform to inspire the next generation. He can still recall his first time at NYC Pride, standing in awe watching the March for hours and taking in the millions of spectators. He hopes attendees can share this same feeling he felt in 2000, at only 22, and feel empowered by the team behind it.

“I hope that my tenure as the [executive director] will inspire other young, queer people—especially Asian youth or youth of color—that a career in nonprofit can be rewarding and fun,” Lynde says. “Growing up as a closeted gay kid in the Midwest, there was a lot of pressure from my family to excel at my studies, get into a high-paying corporate job, or a highly skilled profession.”

Through his tenure as Executive Director, Lynde has strengthened this driving mission of inclusivity. His leadership position puts him at the forefront of NYC Pride, overseeing year-round programming and partnerships with other nonprofits and the surrounding community, and ensuring the longevity of the nonprofit. Each month, NYC Pride’s in-office events attract over 100 queer and trans attendees. Community involvement and reach are growing at such a rate that Lynde is hoping to secure a larger office space by NYC Pride’s 60th anniversary in three years.

A cornerstone of maintaining these events and safe spaces, especially amidst heightened attacks from the current administration, is fundraising. Last year, several major corporate sponsors scaled back their partnerships with NYC Pride, creating a $750,000 shortfall. Among the companies were Mastercard, PepsiCo, Nissan, Citi, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

Khoa Nguyen is the Development Coordinator for NYC Pride. Before joining the team, she would consistently attend the march and celebrate with NY Live Arts. Now, in her position, she reaches and engages sponsors and donors to ensure that NYC Pride can raise the over $3 million necessary to execute Youth Pride, PrideFest, and The March, all of which occur on the last weekend of June. With last year’s abrupt decline in donations and a threatening political backdrop, Khoa shared that NYC Pride has shifted toward individual donors to diversify the organization’s giving portfolio.

“Ever since the Trump administration, we are very aware of corporations not being very responsive to, not just Pride, but lots of DEI-driven organizations,” Nguyen says. “It’s a good wake-up call to realize that we really still rely on the support of our community. New York City Pride started as a grassroots organization from the need to celebrate Pride, and we still need that.”

Nguyen has a background in development for the Brooklyn Museum and The High Line. She emphasizes that fundraising for NYC Pride is important year-round to maintain its momentum throughout the year. This consistency is especially vital since NYC Pride is not funded by any city or state agencies.

Outside of the $3 million+ necessary to put on Pride weekend’s three main events, NYC Pride provides grants with a combined sum of up to $110,000 annually to smaller organizations supplying crucial services to the LGBTQIA+ community across the NYC tri-state area, through its Pride Gives Back Program. This year’s grant recipients span from OurTransLife.org, which provides educational support services to transgender and GNB/GNC communities in the Bridgeport, CT area to The Generations Project, which organizes storytelling events focused on preserving LGBTQIA+ history. Since 1984, NYC Pride has awarded organizations like these and select individuals more than $25 million in funding. 

Lynde emphasized that donors are more crucial than ever to this work, especially in the current political climate.

“The threat of NYC Pride pausing, getting canceled, [or] even closing is very real, especially when the current administration is instructing corporate supporters to withdraw sponsorship support of LGBTQIA+, DEIA, and ‘woke’ initiatives,” Lynde says. “Can you imagine if there could be no more NYC Pride? The first, biggest, and the best Pride that ignited a global movement of Prides 57 years ago. We cannot let that happen. Hence, we need the community’s support because Pride is not a given.”

Alongside donors, NYC Pride relies on the time, energy, and labor of volunteers. Tyler Sadonis, who has been with NYC Pride for five years, is the Senior Volunteer Manager. Even though his first NYC Pride March was an unplanned pitstop on a family trip over 20 years ago, Sadonis still remembers it fondly and anchors his work in that moment. Hailing from a background in political work across campaigns for Pete Buttigieg and Andy Kim, Sadonis now coordinates and leads the more than 900 volunteers who work with NYC Pride.

From confirming budgets to reviewing previous volunteer survey results to recruiting volunteers, Sadonis takes a comprehensive approach that spans the whole year. He says it’s almost like “planning for three different weddings that are all going to be happening on the same weekend.”

“We have volunteers who this year are celebrating 30 years of involvement with NYC Pride, and we have other volunteers who are helping out for the very first time,” Sadonis says. “Bringing together all these lived experiences, especially at a time when our community is under attack, and to do so in a way that feels like we can channel our energy and our anger into something so beautiful and so powerful, like the Pride March — that is the most rewarding part of doing this work every day.”

Sadonis shared that the NYC Pride team is proud to have reached their volunteer goals for both Youth Pride and PrideFest, while remaining less than 100 volunteers away from The March goal. Sadonis emphasized that the execution and impact of NYC Pride is truly impossible without volunteers. 

One of many moments where volunteers are essential is at the beginning of June, when the NYC Pride office transforms into what Sadonis refers to as a “mini Amazon fulfillment center.” Volunteers travel from across the city, unload deliveries, pack bins, and take inventory of supplies. This work continues in different forms throughout the month, eventually culminating in The March and other final weekend events. Sadonis’s message to the volunteers was one of gratitude.

“I want them to know that they are a part of something bigger than just any one individual,” Sadonis says. “They’re doing this work on the shoulders of people who came before us, and they should take time during the events to just pause and look around and soak in what they’ve created and the safe space that they’ve provided for millions of people. We always say that there is someone in that crowd who is attending their very first Pride event, and the ripple effect that that can have, not just on that one person, but on other individuals, is really powerful.” 

With the help of these volunteers, NYC Pride is powering on in troubled times. In honor of this year’s theme, “For All of Us,” organizers of Prides around the country who have had their celebrations scaled back due to political and economic pushback will be joining NYC Pride this year. These guests include organizers from the HELP Center for LGBTQ+ Health in Arlington, TX, Upstate Pride SC in South Carolina, and LGBTQ+ Allies of Lake County, OH, proving that the 57th NYC Pride March is a protest and a celebration, just like the first.

“I hope that the world will still view NYC Pride as the Queen of all Prides, [that] we are,” Lynde says. “And, I hope that folks in ‘small-town USA’ will notice NYC Pride this summer, and be empowered to organize and launch their own very first pride celebration in their towns. At last count, there were over 15 prides around the country that had to cancel due to funding losses or hateful legislation in their local communities. I hope they can wrangle and bring their pride celebrations back soon.”

To support NYC Pride, donate at nycpride.org/donate and register to volunteer at nycpride.org/volunteer. To follow along with NYC Pride and meet the 2026 Grand Marshals, visit @nycpride on Instagram.