Pride in 2020: Virtual Celebrations Lead to Enhanced Accessibility
Pride month celebrations look a little different this year with everyone social distancing due to COVID-19. But virtual celebrations are proving to be creative, educational, and accessible. Take a look at what we found:
Virtual Events Pave the Way for a More Inclusive Pride
With in-person events on pause due to COVID-19, virtual events are taking place around the world. Pride going virtual creates unique opportunities for events to become more inclusive and accessible by breaking down physical, communication, and sensory barriers. It is important to ensure that virtual events are accessible to anyone wanting to attend. This article talks about key considerations that can be made for not only Pride events this year, but also Pride events for years to come.
Black Drag Performers Lead ‘March For Change’
Pride has long celebrated diversity, but for 2020 in particular, people that are stepping up to lead the charge have been people of color. With the Black Lives Matter movement coinciding with Pride, it presents an opportunity for the LGBTQ+ community to go back to their roots. Marches led by queer people of color are taking place not just in Chicago, but also across the country. Here’s what some activists did in Chicago.
Why I am Actually Looking Forward to Pride under Quarantine as a Disabled Queer
This article discusses how the transition to virtual events for Pride celebrations opens up opportunities to the disability community as well as people who might not have the ability to publicly celebrate their sexuality. This article also presents the idea that Pride celebrations in the future can combine virtual and in-person programming to best meet the needs of all members of the community wishing to celebrate.
Why we owe Pride to black Trans women who threw bricks at cops
One piece of information that has been circulating heavily this Pride month is the story of the Stonewall Riots and how so many parallels can be drawn to current rhetoric around rights of the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. It is important to remember that riots led by Marsha Johnson, a queer, Black woman with a disability ultimately was a pivoting point in the rights for the LGBTQ+ community.
Test your Pride history – A Quiz!
See how much you know about the history of Pride with this quiz from The Trevor Project. It’s eight questions long and even if you get the correct answer you get an extra tidbit of knowledge to help you contextualize the question and the answer.
How LGBTQ+ Disabled People Are Celebrating Virtual Pride
This article shares a variety of first-hand accounts of how people with disabilities will be celebrating Pride virtually as well as why virtual event formatting will benefit them. It’s challenging not being able to get the same in person interactions that Pride has been known for in years past, and that is admitted by multiple people in this article, but the potential improvements to the accessibility of Pride brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic are things to consider as positives
Pride celebrations might look different this year, but the community continues to become more accessible, inclusive, and equitable despite the current challenges. Everyone who wants to celebrate Pride should have the opportunity to do so, and the work being done in 2020 is a great step forward in that effort.