CHICAGO, IL – One of the oldest Roman Catholic churches in Chicago has objected to the proposed route for the city’s gay pride parade claiming that the parade will draw large crowds and block the entrance of the church for Sunday Mass, the Chicago Tribune reported.
For over 40 years, the parade has run through the north side of the Chicago and attracted over 800,000 people last year. To better accommodate the large crowds, the parade organizers extended the route next year further north, has scaled back the number of floats and will start the parade earlier in the day. Chicago’s gay pride parade is held the last Sunday in June.
The new route takes the parade in front of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. Church officials are circulating a petition informing the city that the extended route and the earlier parade start time conflicts with the church’s Mass schedule and that the church may, for the first time in almost 100 years, have to cancel services the day of the parade.