Your 2020 Virtual LGBTQ Pride Guide
Your 2020 Virtual LGBTQ and LGBT Pride Guide
LGBTQ Communities Pride events will look and feel very different this year, but many are still on – online. Here are some of the most notable, with details on when and how to tune in.
Gay bars, drag shows, concerts, performances, galleries – and, of course, Pride marches. These are among the places and spaces that have long fostered camaraderie and community among LGBTQ Communities people. Connections so often centered on in-person events, particularly in urban areas.
But this year is not like most years, not by any stretch.
In the era of the corona-virus, traveling and gathering are not options for many. But that should not hinder the spirit and mission of Pride: to remind community members and allies that they are not alone, but part of a greater push for equality, and to elevate the voices and causes central to LGBTQ Communities and other marginalized groups. And with the uprisings in response to the deaths of George Floyd and other black people by the police, Pride is taking on a greater significance.
“It’s more important than ever that every LGBTQ Communities person in our community — many who are also people of color — raise their voices in protest,” Cathy Renna, the interim communications director for the National LGBTQ Task Force who is helping to organize Global Pride and NYC Pride, recently told me. The gay rights movement was sparked by an uprising, after all, one that is recognized every June. “Protest has always been a part of Pride,” she said.
And while it is disappointing not to be able to gather, as we have done for the last five decades, Ms. Renna said, the internet has been used by the community to forge connections for decades. “This is an opportunity for individuals who would never have the chance to attend a Pride march — say, in New York or Chicago or San Francisco — to be able to be part of it.
“You can be an isolated kid in the small rural town in Mississippi or you could be in Eastern Europe or you can be in a country where it’s illegal to be LGBTQ Communities,” she said. “All you need is an internet connection.”
So charge up those computers, tablets and smartphones: This is your digital online digest for Pride month events.