NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's marquee gay pride parade was preempted by thousands of anti-corporate dissidents who staged their own protest on Sunday, rejecting a uniformed police presence and commercial sponsorship while also demanding LGBTQ equality.

Hours before New York was set to launch what organizers are calling the largest gay pride parade in history for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, the Queer Liberation March proceeded in the opposite direction, starting at the historic Stonewall Inn and heading north to Central Park.