Courtesy of The Next Web, you can find all the virtual events you need to know for Pride month below.
Pride 2020: Your guide to virtual events in June
Photo Credit: Nicole Gray
Welcome to TNW Pride 2020! All throughout June, we’ll highlight articles that focus on representation for LGBTQPIA+ people in the STEM communities. Click here to check out all of our Pride 2020 coverage.
Reports of Pride’s cancellation are greatly exaggerated. The annual celebration may not feature the parades and vivacious crowds it’s become known for, but it’s still here and it’s still queer. You’ll just have to attend most of the events online.
COVID-19 and civil unrest over the murder of George Floyd have taken Pride parades off the streets for the first time in its 50 year history. This is a bitter pill for the queer community. For many, Pride is the only place they’re allowed to be themselves.
But Pride is more than a celebration of queer culture. It also commemorates the Stonewall Riots, where hundreds of people stood up against injustice and police brutality.
On June 28th, 1969 a group of queers and queens stood up to the state-perpetuated bigotry and violence of the New York Police Department. They rioted for six days. As a result, the laws surrounding entrapment and homosexuality were changed. After decades of police violence, queers had finally had enough.
8,000 people marched through the streets of New York City on June 28th, 1970 to commemorate the Stonewall Riots and let the US government know that queers would no longer be intimidated by corrupt, bigoted policing.
And while many things have changed, far too much remains the same as we prepare to celebrate Pride 50. US police have only gotten worse. The iconic photographs from the 1950s and 1960s featuring police losing dogs on peaceful black protesters and using fire hoses for crowd control have been replaced by hundreds of videos showing thousands of police attacking and assaulting peaceful protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets.
These are not different struggles. Violence against black queers occurs at higher rates than other queer communities and trans black women are murdered at higher rates than nearly any other group. Black Lives Matter.
That’s why it’s more important now than ever to go forth with Pride. Black members of the LGBTQPIA+ community will still be black and queer when the protests end whether real police reform happens. And beyond that, both black and queer people face systemic discrimination that goes far beyond the immediate threat to survival represented by racist/bigoted law enforcement.
Pride, whether virtual or not, gives queer folk and our allies the opportunity to see each other and to feel seen. We need that now more than ever.
And that’s why we hope everyone, queer or straight, will join us in celebration and commemoration. For many queers, attending Pride has never been an option – whether due to disability or illness, geography, or not being out. So this year represents the first time that Pride is accessible for almost everyone.
Here’s a small smattering of free events from around the world available for everyone to attend virtually. We’ll update this list throughout the month as more information becomes available.
NYC Pride
- Criminal Queerness Festival 2020 (June 9 – 29)
- Pride 2020 Dragfest (June 19 – 21)
- The Virtual Rally (Friday, June 26)
Check out the NYC Pride site for details.
Global Pride 2020
The festivities take place starting June 27, click here for details.
San Francisco Pride
San Diego Pride
Boston Pride
Pride Prom
Stonewall Day
Denver Pride
- Queer the Census Variety Show (19 June)
- Denver Virtual Pride 5K (20 June)
- Coors Light Virtual Denver Pride Parade (21 June)
Check out Denver Pride’s Facebook Page here for details.
Brooklyn Pride
Together for Pride
- Trans Pride (June 26)
- Pride Fest (June 27)
- Seattle Pride (June 28)
Check out the Together for Pride page for details and schedules.
Dublin Digital Pride Festival and Parade
Toronto Pride
Keep in mind that this is a small list of the available global Pride events. We’ll update this list as necessary. Be sure to let us know if we missed anything email-protected!