With corona virus cancelling Pride Month’s parades and events, it is eminent to still celebrate who you are and who you love. Just because pride events are cancelled it doesn’t mean you can’t commemorate pride from home. As Sylvia Rivera said- “I’m not missing a minute of this. It’s the revolution!”
Therefore, the Spirit of Pride must lives on. Usually, every year the LGBT+ community celebrates pride in different ways. Across the globe, various events are been held during the month of June as a way of recognising the LGBT+ people around the world. Why June Month? Because it was when the Stonewall Riots took place, way back in 1969. It was a movement that celebrated equal rights for LGBT+ people also promoted their dignity, self-affirmation and increased awareness about the issues of LGBT+ groups faces in the society. Pride month is also an opportunity for LGBT+ community to raise political awareness to let government know what difficulties they are facing. In the past years we have seen Pride Month Celebration in the form of parades, events, street plays, public speaking, educational classes all covered by media houses which attracts huge audience.
So how pride will be celebrated in 2020 without parades, etc. during this pandemic time? Answer is simple. At home!
Yes, we can celebrate 2020 Pride Month from our home or wherever we are right now with the same spirit we used to do in the past without the fear of getting infected by corona virus.
Basically we’ll be showing our joy for Pride through online mediums. It will be great way for LGBT+ people who are still in closet or live in a country which is conservative can take part in 2020 Pride Month and support the movement. Throughout the June, we can try different ways to be actively supportive for LGBT+ community like- we can wear a pride print clothes, place a pride flag outside our windows, let our ally friend and family know about pride importance, share our stories through videos and sharing with the world, learn about LGBT+ history and gain knowledge so that we can aware ourselves and others too, sign worthy petitions for LGBT+ community, donate to LGBT+ charities or may help an LGBT+ individual nearby you, support local LGBT+ businesses, stay up-to-date with online Pride events or even buy LGBT+ products online to show your support.I came across a famous virtual challenge called 21 Days Ally Challenge, an initiative by Pride Circle is being organised as a “global programme to take conscious steps to recognise and neutralise biases and stereotypes about the LGBT+ community and enable social change”.
Even on 27th June, 2020 Global Pride will be doing a 24 hours online stream of contents which will be free to watch on youtube and other platforms. Do check the Global Pride website for further updates. Global Pride is an initiative from national and international Pride networks in response to hundreds of Pride events were cancelling due to COVID-19.
I would like to encourage everyone who believes in LGBT+ equality to Stand For Equality and find out more about how they can be an ally.
– Ali Nawaz
That awesome great we should almost support our LGBT+ community at home in different ways as Ali Nawaz said. And there many more to do and to be done by each individual.
Thank you!
Brilliant article. Happy pride month
Thank you. Happy Pride month to you too!