Every June, many people around the world come together to celebrate queer identities at various state-sponsored Pride events. However, given the infiltration of rainbow capitalism in mainstream Pride movements, many radical leftists within the queer community have begun to organize anti-capitalist "Critical Pride" protests. In this thesis, I trace the emergence of mainstream Pride celebrations in Spain and the United States and their role in the creation of Critical Pride movements, and I explore how academic queer theory, specifically queer Marxist theory, relates to this form of real-life praxis.