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A30 FEATURE
Saturday 27 June 2020
LGBTQ Pride at 50: Focus shifts amid pandemic, racial unrest

By JEFF McMILLAN politicians, including Ca- trans actor who starred in lice, it was immediately in 2015.
Associated Press In northeastern Pennsylva-
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — LG- nia, the group Queer NEPA
BTQ Pride is turning 50 this is hosting online events and
year a little short on its sig- supporting others held by
nature fanfare, after the Black activists after rallying
coronavirus pandemic in previous years in nearby
drove it to the internet and Wilkes-Barre and raising a
after calls for racial equal- rainbow flag at Scranton
ity sparked by the killing of City Hall.
George Floyd further over- “Some people would say
took it. Pride is canceled, but I
Activists and organizers are would say it has evolved,”
using the intersection of said board co-chair Em
holiday and history in the Maloney.
making — including the “This year is different be-
Supreme Court’s decision cause more people have
giving LGBT people work- a better consciousness of
place protections — to up- white privilege and of the
lift the people of color al- problems surrounding ra-
ready among them and by cial justice.”
making Black Lives Matter Maloney was heartened to
the centerpiece of Global see a big turnout at a re-
Pride events Saturday. cent Black Lives Matter pro-
“Pride was born of protest,” test in Scranton, describing
said Cathy Renna, com- it as “everyone coming to-
munications director of the gether because of the be-
National LGBTQ Task Force, In this June 30, 2019, file photo, marchers participate in the Queer Liberation March in New York. lief that nobody will be free
seeing analogies in the Associated Press until everyone is free.”
pandemic and in common The Pride website for Phila-
threads of the Black and nadian Prime Minister Justin “Orange Is the New Black,” clear that Pride as usual — delphia, a two-hour drive
LGBTQ rights movements. Trudeau, and entertainers told The Associated Press in one of the nation’s largest south, notes that events
“Trans women of color such as Betty Who, Debo- an interview this month. — would be inappropriate, planned earlier in June
have been targeted in rah Cox, Laverne Cox, Jake “And so, part of what the said Twin Cities Pride board were canceled — and it
what has been called an Shears and Martha Wash. Black Trans Lives Matter member Felix Foster. shouts BLACK LIVES MATTER!
epidemic, and the Stone- “Trans folks, particularly the movement ... is acknowl- Instead, the backbone of before advising of online
wall uprising happened in LGBTQ-I folks of color, have edging that communities this year’s Twin Cities Pride alternatives.
response to police harass- gotten discrimination from of color still have a lot of will take the form of a soli- Philadelphia in 2017 intro-
ment and brutality,” Renna the larger systems of white work to do to fully reconcile darity march called Taking duced a new rainbow flag
said in an email. supremacy and on racist our history of transphobia, Back Pride: Justice4Ge- that featured a black and
The first Pride march took terms, and then also have specifically, and homopho- orgeFloyd DefendBlack- a brown stripe above the
place June 28, 1970, a experienced transphobia bia as well,” Cox said. TransFolks, honoring the usual colors of the spec-
year after the 1969 upris- and homophobia within In Minnesota, where Floyd memory of Floyd and oth- trum, to highlight people
ings at the Stonewall Inn, a our own communities,” La- died last month at the ers killed by Minnesota po- of color. It was instantly
gay bar in New York, which verne Cox, the pioneering hands of Minneapolis po- lice, including Jamar Clark polarizing, but critics have
were led by trans women largely come around and
of color. the design is now common
A few other commemora- around the world.
tions took place that year “Our flag helped start a
and later spread until 50 global conversation and
years on, there’s scarce- it’s brought me to tears
ly a patch on Earth that to see it everywhere dur-
doesn’t host some type of ing this pivotal time in our
Pride event. country’s history,” Amber
New York’s is among the Hikes — who worked for the
largest, but social distanc- mayor’s office when she re-
ing measures to check the vealed the design and who
spread of COVID-19 ev- is now the American Civil
erywhere from Scranton to Liberties Union’s first chief
Sao Paulo made cancel- equity and inclusion officer
lation or postponement a — said in a Facebook post.
certainty. “We’re never going to stop
Global Pride is billed as a letting ourselves, each oth-
24-hour stream of music, er, and the whole damn
performances, speeches world know that our lib-
and messages of support. It eration has always been
is being hosted Saturday by led by BIPOC queer and
Todrick Hall on his YouTube trans folks — and when we
channel, on iHeartRadio’s do get free, when we get
YouTube channel and on In this June 30, 2019, file photo, marchers carry signs with historical LGBTQ figures during the free together, it will be with
the Global Pride website. Queer Liberation March in New York. Black and brown queer &
It will feature activists and Associated Press trans folks at the front.”q