The organizers of the dissident march criticized the Pride march as having become essentially an advertising showcase for floats sponsored by major corporations that distracted from the message of Stonewall. Like the larger Pride parade, the Queer Liberation event had marching bands, but there was less cheering and more chanting, and the dissident group had asked the Police Department to hold to “minimum” staffing, in contrast to the very visible police presence at the Pride march - necessary, its organizers said, because of the crowds. “There is much to celebrate today,” said Jim Fouratt, a gay rights activist who took part in the 1970 march, “and still so much to fight for.” The organizers of the dissident event, the Queer Liberation March, said the Pride march “does not represent the spirit of Stonewall,” because, for all the progress that has been made, the L.G.B.T.Q.

Before the Pride March began, there was what amounted to an alternative march that went in the opposite direction - uptown, along the route of the original 1970 march, toward the Sheep Meadow in Central Park.