ST. PETERSBURG, FL (WFLA) – This year’s St. Pete LGBT Pride Weekend is an event unlike any other. This week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling to allow same-sex marriage in all 50 states makes it a celebration of unity and now equality.

Tens of thousands of people poured onto Central Avenue in St. Petersburg for the festivities Saturday evening. Known as the largest gathering of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people in the state of Florida, the St Pete LGBT Pride Parade was expected to attract the largest crowd ever this year.

People who attended the St. Pete Pride Parade on Saturday said this year’s Pride Weekend was made more special because of the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday.

“We are just like anybody else and everybody else. We was always paying taxes and therefore it’s all making a difference now,” said one parade-goer.

Martin Wade just wishes his partner would have lived to see this day.

“It means everything,” Wade said. “I’ve waited over 25 years. My partner passed away, his mother is still with me, and it would’ve meant everything to her for us to have legally gotten married.”