The Windy City Times co-founder joins the 55th annual parade as a Community Grand Marshal.
Tracy Baim has attended the Chicago Pride Parade annually since 1984 and yet is set for a personal first at the 2026 event on Sunday, June 28, starting at 11 a.m.
Baim will be front and center, but not in a journalistic working role. Instead, organizers of the 55th-annual Chicago Pride Parade named Windy City Times owner and co-founder Baim among the 2026 community grand marshals. Baim will serve alongside fellow community grand marshals Evette Cardona and Mona Noriega, as well as the Alliance of Illinois Judges.
“The Pride Parade and Pride Month are important for so many reasons,” Baim said. “It is there for the people who don’t have support from family or friends. It is there for those who do. It is there for our allies to show their support. And it is there to express joy when so many people and forces still fight against us.”
This year’s Chicago Pride Parade theme, “Free to Be Proud,” is intended to honor the legacy of LGBTQ+ activists and community members while underscoring the ongoing fight for visibility, safety and equality. Organizers said the theme reflects both the movement’s history and the present moment when hard-won rights remain contested.
Organizers said the theme will serve as a call to reflection and action, inviting community members to share what “Free to Be Proud” means to them—from statements like “Free to Be Trans” to “Free to Be Seen” or “Free to Be Safe.”
Baim attended the 1984 Chicago Pride Parade, covering the annual event for GayLife newspaper a month after graduating from college and having moved back to Chicago from Des Moines. “It was my first parade and I had the photographer’s eye view. I even somehow convinced a two-story restaurant to allow me to go on their roof to take photos from the six-corner area at the end of the parade, at Diversey, Broadway and Clark (streets), she said. “It was an incredible site, seeing thousands of people marching together for pride.”
Baim was emotional then, will be emotional this June and has been emotional every year in between.
“I always get tears when the PFLAG parents and friends group goes by. Ever since the first parade I attended in 1984,” she said. “They were there giving out free hugs to all who needed it. And so many needed it. I also love the young kids from grammar schools; they are what gives me hope.”
Baim admitted she was being named a 2026 Community Grand Marshal “was quote a shock.” She added, “I didn’t even know there was a vote going on; I am honored.”
Baim has never been the Chicago Pride Parade grand marshal, or for any parade.
“Free to Be Proud is intentional and declarative,” said Steve Long, board chair of PRIDEChicago, which organizes the annual parade. “Pride has never been just about (the) celebration—it is about visibility, dignity, resilience and the right to exist safely and authentically. It is a reminder that no one is truly free until everyone is free to be.”
In a statement, parade organizers said the community grand marshals build on this message because they are, “individuals and organizations whose leadership and service reflect the spirit and values of the 2026 theme of Free to Be Proud.”
Baim was recognized for her decades documenting LGBTQ+ life, politics and culture in Chicago and beyond. A journalist, historian and community leader, she is also executive director of Press Forward Chicago, a pooled fund supporting local journalism.
Over the course of her career, Baim has co-founded multiple LGBTQ+ organizations, authored and edited numerous books and been inducted into several journalism and LGBTQ+ halls of fame.
“When I first started covering (the Chicago Pride Parade), there were thousands of people, but half the street was not even closed off,” Baim said. “It grew so much in the 1980s, in part because of the fight for both gay rights and support around HIV/AIDS. The diversity of contingents blossomed, and there were so many different groups and bars and allies. It felt more queer then, somehow. Certainly, more scrappy.”
Baim recalls the post-parade rallies at Diversey and Lake Shore Drive in the 1980s. Mayor Harold Washington spoke at one, she said. “That was amazing. There were parades in blistering heat and in rain—though the weather has been especially good these last Sundays of June.”
Baim said the Chicago Pride Parade is, to a degree, on par with Chicago’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, with a lot of “Irish for the day” types, so many allies, which is a good thing. “It means those LGBTQ+ people who need it attend, and many do not. But it is there to show unity and pride for those who want to celebrate. And it is there when you need it,” she said.
Baim will be joined by two of her closest friends as community grand marshals, Evette Cardona and Mona Noriega.
Cardona, a longtime philanthropic leader and community advocate, retired in 2025 from the Polk Bros. Foundation after a 27-year career, most recently serving as vice president of programs.
A Puerto Rican lesbian and Chicago native, she co-founded Women of All Colors and Cultures Together and Amigas Latinas, organizations created to support Latina lesbian, bisexual and questioning women. She also served as a founding board member of Center on Halsted and continues to work on initiatives advancing equity and opportunity across the city.
Noriega, a Chicago-born Chicana lesbian and mother of two, has spent her career advancing civil rights and LGBTQ+ protections. She previously opened and led the Midwest office of Lambda Legal and has held leadership roles with the City of Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations and the Illinois Commission on Human Rights.
Under Noriega’s leadership, Chicago expanded anti-discrimination protections in its municipal code.
“I accepted this (role) in part because they were going to be there too. And, my partner, Jean Albright, who has spent the last six years taking care of her mom in Ohio, is going to make the trip in. I need a movement to get her to wear her Air Force uniform alongside me. She spent 20 years in the Air Force, before we met, and it would be great for her to be acknowledged for that work—and her subsequent years of fighting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
“Both Evette and Mona have done so much for our movement. Mona has been a mentor and colleague for decades. Mona is one of our most important long-time activists — she helped move the generation before me forward. Evette and I are about the same age and have just kept at this work so long together. I have learned so much from both. And I just have loved covering all their efforts supporting community, especially Amigas Latinas.”
Baim also wrote for years about Tom Chiola’s history-making run for Cook County Judge in the early 1990s. “Judges have not just been part of history, many made history by being the first to break down the doors of elected office, including Tom,” Baim said. “At a time when the judiciary is both helping and hurting the fight for social justice, it is important to honor the work of LGBTQ+ judges.”
When asked what “Free To Be Proud” mean to her, Baim answered: “We have to have free choice and free will in this world. Without it, we can’t have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The 55th annual Chicago Pride Parade steps off at 11 a.m. (CST) on Sunday, June 28, 2026, beginning at the corner of Grace and Broadway and traveling through the landmark Northalsted neighborhood.
To march, volunteer, or support the parade’s mission of sustainability and advocacy, please visit pridechicago.org.
