Parade organizers said that 1.5 million people had attended the parade, which snaked down Fifth Avenue, from the Upper East Side to the West Village.

Every year, a brightly colored mélange of men in hot pants, women wearing pasties over their breasts, gay police officers in uniform and glittering drag queens with towering pink bouffants marches through Manhattan to commemorate the 1969 uprising by patrons during a police raid on the Stonewall, a gay nightclub in the Village.  The event effectively began the modern gay rights movement.

James Estrin/The New York Times

Robyn Sarig, left, and Lori Connors, are joined by their children, Jack, 7, left, Chris, 8, center, and Lex, 10, as they exhange wedding vows during the Fourth Annual mass wedding ceremony held prior to the New YorkLesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March, Sunday, June 27.

The farther south the parade snaked, the stronger the anti-Republican sentiment became.  More "Dump Bush" buttons and signs popped up, and the double entendres on President Bush's surname grew coarser and coarser.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made his usual appearance at the parade, and was again greeted by effusive cheers speckled by the occasional heckle for his continuing refusal to say publicly whether he supports same-sex marriages.

At a news conference following the march, the mayor hinted, as he has before, that he is sympathetic to efforts in Albany to change state law to allow same-sex couples to marry.  He said he has worked quietly with legislative leaders and Gov. George E. Pataki in the past on other civil rights issues benefiting gays and lesbians, and suggested similar behind-the-scenes efforts might be underway on gay marriage.

"You 'll have to see what comes out of some of these other things, whether or not that's the most effective strategy," Mr. Bloomberg said.

As Ken Weissenberg, a tax lawyer, walked slowly south through the Flatiron District with his partner, who identified himself only as Brian, and their two children, Jackie and Nicole, Mr. Weissenberg's thoughts turned north to Massachusetts, which this year became the first state in the country to legalize same-sex marriages, but only for Massachusetts residents.

Mr. Weissenberg said he and Brian planned to marry later this summer on Cape Cod so they can reap the financial, legal and emotional benefits of a marriage license.  "If we have to buy a house in Massachusetts, we'll do it," he said.

James Estrin/The New York Times

Karen Brophy,r, in wedding dress, with her partner Michaela Grey, at the gay pride parade in New York.