Pride Month - Celebrations will look different this year
Pride Month was born to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, where a private gay club was raided in New York City in 1969. The riots from this event were thought to be the beginning of gay power movements, and today, along with the LGBTA community, their friends, and supporters, the city comes alive with celebrations all month long. However, this year the NYC Pride March and hundreds of other events are cancelled due to COVID-19. Gay bars, clubs, performance venues, and galleries are finding new ways to celebrate during the era of social distancing.
As expected, many cities are postponing their celebration during Pride month, yet others, like Chicago are going ahead with caution.
Washington, D.C., a city where people pay attention to significant issues, is postponing this summer’s big Capital Pride festivities. It will be a massive disappointment to the hundreds of thousands of people it draws and a blow to D.C.’s economy. Social distancing restrictions affect events like this because of the high number of participants they attract. Maybe like everything else, organizers will come up with unique ways to celebrate and get their message across simultaneously.
Photos courtesy of Unsplash and Clem Onojeghuo