The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps (LGBAC) on Thursday became the first LGBT marching band to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. LGBAC, one of the first queer marching bands in the United States, was founded in 1979 in New York City. At Thursday’s scaled down parade, the marching band performed ABBA’s Dancing Queen as a tribute to the LGBT Pride parades canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Marita Begley, the group’s director, described performing in the annual parade as reaching “the mountaintop.” Speaking with The Atlantic, Begley called the marching band members “quiet activists.” “We were quiet activists. No one would invite ACT UP to their parade,” she said, referring to the HIV/AIDS group. “But small towns were inviting the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps to march in their Fourth of July parade.” “It was almost subversive to use the most mom-and-apple-pie, all-American of mediums, the marching band, to open minds. It really is,” she said.