Orange is the New Black star Lea DeLaria named grand marshal of Chicago Pride

Orange is the New Black star Lea DeLaria will take pride of place in this year’s Chicago Pride parade.

Organisers on Wednesday announced that DeLaria will be Grand Marshal in the parade this year.

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The 58-year-old who plays ‘Boo’ in OITNB, will ride in a convertible near the front of the parade.

Chicago Pride organisers noted DeLaria’s LGBT activism for the reason she was chosen for Grand Marshal.

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The parade will take place on 25 June.

DeLaria opened up about her recent weight loss earlier this year and shared her hilarious, but totally true, secret on Conan O’Brien’s show.

The comedian and actor had lost fifty pounds after doctors warned her about her health.

Orange is the New Black star Lea DeLaria named grand marshal of Chicago Pride

“They told me I had diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol all at the same time,” she said on the show, quickly adding: “So basically all I can eat is pussy.”

The two went on to speak about DeLaria’s recent split from her former fiancé Chelsea Fairless.

“You know the thing is, it’s easier for us, because I am a lesbian and we have a time honoured tradition of keeping our exes friends,” DeLaria explained.

Conan pried further into DeLaria’s future love life, but she said that she has resided to her life of the “lesbian Jack Nicholson.”

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New York Pride will this year be broadcast live on TV next month for the first time.

New York City Pride takes place on Sunday, June 25, 2017.

Police officers in Toronto were this year invited to march in New York’s Pride parade, after getting banned from Toronto Pride.

Pride Toronto took the unprecedented step this year of banning LGBT police officers from participating in this year’s Pride parade, after a highly controversial clash with Black Lives Matter protesters.