Pride in the time of coronavirus: a welcome move online?

This year is different in many ways – not least as celebrations are also taking place against the dramatic backdrop of a global health crisis and a resurgence in grassroots activism following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.


Amelia TaylorAmelia Taylor | Updated: 02-07-2020 10:51 IST | Created: 02-07-2020 10:50 IST
Pride in the time of coronavirus: a welcome move online?
Image Credit: Pxhere
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This year’s Pride month has been like no other, as the coronavirus crisis has prevented the exuberant parades and events that normally liven up city streets around the world in June. Events like the all-day online Pride festival recently hosted by social media platform Yubo, however, have made it clear that there are still plenty of ways to celebrate Pride while observing social distancing.

It’s not surprising that Yubo was hosting such an event for Gen Z teens around the world. The platform, aimed at sparking long-distance friendships between young people aged 13-25, has already been singled out as a safe space for LGBTQ teens by young influencers and recently struck a partnership with the UK-based LGBTQ helpline Switchboard. The strong interest the event generated among Gen Zers, meanwhile, supports the company’s own research—a recent survey Yubo carried out for Business Insider revealed that a third of Gen Zers consider themselves as activists fighting for equality.

Yubo’s event, replete with dozens of live streams, including frank Q&A sessions and Pride-themed makeup tutorials from young influencers, made it clear that the same community spirit which usually characterises Pride marches can be found online as well. As movements like Pride are sparked and sustained by activism, finding creative ways to bring like-minded communities together to celebrate this ‘chain’ of change is more important than ever.

Marking a half-century of activism

2020 is a special year for Pride, as it marks the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march in New York. Countless other digital events have been hosted online throughout the month, capped off by the 24-hour virtual Global Pride festival on June 27.  

It’s thought that more than 1500 individual events came together to make up the Global Pride celebration. The worldwide event was free to view online and featured an impressive line-up of speakers, from world leaders, like Canadian President Justin Trudeau and the Prime Ministers of Norway and Luxembourg, to queer ambassadors and allies including Olivia Newton John, the Dixie Chicks and Thelma Houston.

This year is different in many ways – not least as celebrations are also taking place against the dramatic backdrop of a global health crisis and a resurgence in grassroots activism following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The battle for inclusion, which is a basic tenet of the LGBT struggle, is once more gaining momentum.

Pride marches have traditionally allocated representation for people of colour, especially from the transgender community, and the organisers of Global Pride committed from the get-go to reinforcing the event’s messaging on racial issues. Julian Sanjivan, co-president of Interpride, commented: ‘Pride organizations are always fighting for equality. Race is always an integral part of who we are and what we fight for’. Indeed, the event made a special effort to amplify the voices of people of colour, collaborating with the founders of Black Lives Matter and inviting speakers such as U.S. Representative Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), the first openly LGBT Native American elected to the U.S. Congress.

Creating a digital safe space

It’s easy to see these online celebrations as an inferior substitute to in-person events, made necessary by the pandemic, but there’s something to be said for the move to the digital sphere.

The internet has long been a lifeline to many over the years and virtual Pride is creating a safe space for LGBTQ participants. Online events are more inclusive, providing a warm welcome not only to attendees from the furthest corners of the world but also to people with disabilities, those from rural areas and young people who aren’t out to their families. Simply put, events like Global Pride and Yubo’s day-long Pride bonanza for young people enabled all members of the global LGBTQ community the opportunity to attend a landmark event – an opportunity that might not exist for some at location-based celebrations.

A change for good?

The fact that the ‘Spirit of Pride’ will live on, despite in-person Pride events having been cancelled, is a central theme of this year’s celebrations. It’s particularly poignant as the Covid pandemic appears to be disproportionately affecting people from the LGBTQ community.

No-one attending a Pride event last year could have predicted how preparations for the 2020 celebrations were going to change so drastically. That said, it’s likely that one unexpected corollary of the pandemic may be its lasting impact on the inclusivity of Pride events in the future.

For instance, one development worth embracing is the opening up of conversations that underpin activism, especially among the young organisers and attendees who are likely to be early adopters of digital Pride. In fact, UK National Student Pride has digitally streamed its event for years in a bid to open up attendance to hard-to-reach groups and to create more productive dialogue between participants.

It’s a theme echoed by LGBTQ group Unite UK which is this year hosting its first digital Pride. Unite UK organisers believe that the online Pride events which took off this year will ultimately help shift Pride activism away from general awareness and social engagement and towards the important discussions that will drive growth and propel change through the twenty-first century.

Covid-19 may well have been an unwelcome catalyst for changes this year, but the dedicated spaces and resources that will emerge as a result of the enforced move to digital platforms could end up transforming LGBTQ activism for good.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)

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