Annual Pride Parade to Draw 500,000

Just a friendly reminder, Chicago's 40th Annual Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Parade kicks off at noon in Lakeview today. The parade is expected to draw nearly half a million spectators and participants.

Several streets on the North Side are closed due to the parade -- which will take about 2.5 hours to complete. The parade will march north on Halsted from Belmont to Grace Street, south on Broadway Street to Diversey Parkway, and east on Diversey to Cannon Drive in Lincoln Park. Cross streets in the area will also be closed.

If you can't make it to the parade but want to know what's happening in the streets, check out Gay Chicago Magazine's live tweets from the parade.

And if you are heading out, be sure to take lots of photos and add them to the Chicagoist Flickr Pool for our photo round-up.