After 2019’s big focus on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, 2020 has obviously been a very different bucket of fish.

In the US, June is officially Pride Month, but Pride celebrations are normally happening throughout the year in different parts of the world.

The enormous disruption being caused by the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of pretty much everything that we normally associate with Pride, and a last-minute switch to online celebrations.

As anti-racism protests around the world continue, it’s also important to remember and celebrate that Pride began as a protest. It was the Black and Latino queers and queens of Christopher Street that had finally had enough of the inequality and discrimination that they faced on a daily basis that fought back against police harassment and persecution.

We owe it to our queer forefathers and foremothers to support those who need their voices heard.

#BlackLivesMatter

Canada

Toronto

• Organisers switched their 2020 celebrations to an online event, but we’re expecting to be back in the streets in 2021.
• Dates of the 2021 event haven’t been announced.

United States

Miami Beach Pride

• This was scheduled for 5 April but wasn’t able to take place.

Long Beach Pride

• This was scheduled for 16 May but was postponed.

Los Angeles

• Normally held in June, this year LA Pride took everything online.

Key West

• Originally scheduled for 3-7 June, organisers have announced new dates. Key West Pride 2020 will now be held 18-22 November.

Houston

• Houston normally hosts a nighttime Pride event in June, but that wasn’t possible in 2020 and they took things online

New York City

• Like pretty much everywhere else, New York took their traditional June celebrations of Pride online.

San Francisco

• San Fran took their 2020 celebrations online.

Chicago

• Chicago cancelled their plans for a Pride March in 2020, holding everything over until 2021.

San Diego

• Originally scheduled for 18 July, organisers transferred everything online.

South America

Sao Paulo

• This was scheduled for 14 June but has now been postponed to 29 November.

UK

London

• Pride in London took their 2020 event online.

UK Black Pride

• Black Pride did hold a Black Trans Lives Matters march in London and also hosted a number of online events in 2020.

Liverpool

• Originally scheduled for 25 July, organisers opted for an online celebration instead.

Glasgow

• Organisers have confirmed that the 2020 event has been postponed.

Newcastle

• Newcastle was designated as UK Pride for 2020, and was originally scheduled for 17-19 July. While the 2020 event wasn’t able to go ahead, everything has been held over until 2021.
• Dates for 2021 have been announced as being 23-25 July 2021.

Brighton

• In line with restrictions on large events, Brighton cancelled their 2020 plans and have confirmed that their 2021 celebrations will be taking place 6-8 August 2021.

Bristol

• Originally scheduled for 11 July, organisers have announced that the 2020 event has been transferred to an online celebration.

Pride in Surrey

• Originally scheduled for 8 August, organisers have confirmed that the event has been cancelled.

Swindon & Wiltshire

• This was originally scheduled for 8 August, but on 3 April the organisers announced that they had decided to cancel the 2020 event.

Manchester

• Originally scheduled for the end of August, organisers have confirmed that the 2020 event won’t be going ahead as planned and are looking ahead to August 2021 when they’re expecting normal service to resume.

Birmingham

• Originally scheduled for 23 May, organisers initially looked to postpone their 2020 event to September. However, as the pandemic unfolded, they’ve now decided to hold everything over until 2021.
• Dates for Birmingham Pride 2021 have been confirmed as 29-30 May. Cheryl and Kelly Rowland have been confirmed to headline.

Europe

Brussels

• Originally scheduled for 23-24 May but unable to go ahead in 2020.

Lisbon

• Originally scheduled for 27 June, organisers have confirmed that the 2020 event has been cancelled.

Sitges

• Normally held in early June, the 2020 event was postponed.

Disneyland Paris Pride

• Originally scheduled for 6 June, organisers of the event formerly known as Magical Pride had to cancel.
• Dates for 2021 have been announced – they’re aiming to be back bigger and better on 12 June 2021.

Tel Aviv

• Originally scheduled for 12 June, the 2020 event was postponed.

Paris

• Originally scheduled for 27 June, organisers had to postpone.

EuroPride

• Thessaloniki was selected as the 2020 hosts of EuroPride, with the event originally scheduled to take place on 27 June. However, the event couldn’t go ahead as planned – it’s not yet clear what that means for EuroPride.

Madrid

• Originally scheduled for 4 July, organisers shifted everything online.

Cologne

• Originally scheduled for 5 July, organisers have postponed everything until October. The new date for CSD in Cologne is 11 October.

Berlin

• Originally scheduled for 25 July, organisers took everything online.

Amsterdam

• This is a spectacular Pride event because of the parade of boats on the city’s canal. The 2020 event was scheduled for 1 August, but organisers have confirmed that the 2020 event has been cancelled.
• Dates for 2021 have been confirmed. The 2021 boat parade will be on 7 August.

Copenhagen

• Originally scheduled for 18-23 August, the 2020 event had to be cancelled. Dates for 2021 have been confirmed – the Pride festival will run from 12-22 August. It’s going to be a big one in 2021 – Copenhagen will be hosting World Pride as well as the Eurogames.

Benidorm

• Normally held at the beginning of September. Organisers had hoped that the 2020 event might be able to ahead but have now officially confirmed that everything is being held over until 2021.

Maspalomas

• Originally scheduled for 7-17 May, the 2020 event has been postponed until October. New dates for this event in 2020 are 2-11 October.

Asia

Tokyo Rainbow Pride

• Originally scheduled for 25 April, organisers had to cancel.

Taipei

• One of the biggest LGBTQ Pride celebrations in the world, we’re hoping that Taipei Pride will be able to go ahead this year – it’s scheduled for 31 October. Organisers have said that they’re monitoring the situation closely, but as things currently stand they haven’t made the move to cancel.

Africa

Cape Town

• The 2020 event was successfully held in February. We’re expecting LGBTQ Pride to return to Cape Town in February of 2021.

Australia

Sydney

• Sydney’s Mardi Gras celebrations were successfully held in early 2020.
• Dates for 2021 have been confirmed – the parade and party are scheduled for 6 March.

Melbourne

• Melbourne’s Midsumma festival was successfully held in early 2020.
• Dates for 2021 have been confirmed – the festival will run from 17 Jan – 7 Feb.

Brisbane

• Brisbane normally embraces September as an entire month of Pride, but Covid-19 has meant that this is not going to be possible in 2020.

Why is June recognised as Pride Month?

Across the United States – and in many other parts of the world – the month of June is officially recognised as a time to celebrate LGBTQ Pride.

The month of June is significant because the Stonewall riots took place at the end of June in 1969.

Brenda Howard is credited with being one of the main driving forces in coordinating the first LGBTQ Pride march. Howard is also credited with the idea for a week-long series of events around Pride Day. Additionally, Howard – along with fellow activists Robert Martin and Craig Schoonmaker – is credited with popularising the word Pride to describe these events.

Throughout the month of June, towns and cities across the US and around the world hold LGBTQ Pride celebrations.

Why were the Stonewall riots a big deal?

The Stonewall riots of 28 June 1969 weren’t the first protests or confrontations between police and the LGBTQ community, but they’ve become symbolic of the growing consciousness and confidence that paved the way for the fight for equality and freedom from discrimination.

What triggered the Stonewall riots was a police raid on the Stonewall Inn. In the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn was a mafia-run bar that was a hub for the neighbourhood’s marginalised queer community.

In the late 60s, police raids on bars like the Stonewall Inn were commonplace – part of the continuing harassment and victimisation that LGBTQ people were experiencing at that time. The raid on the Stonewall Inn on 28 June 1969 sparked that sense of frustration into violent protests – protests that lasted six days and involved thousands of people. Perhaps most importantly, the riots received widespread media coverage.

Prior to the Stonewall riots, the push for LGBTQ equality was led by ‘homophile’ advocates – organisations such as the Mattachine Society. The Mattachine Society sought to organise and speak for gay men, and they favoured assimilation. Their objective was to demonstrate that gay men were ‘normal’ and just like everybody else.

Following the Stonewall riots, and in line with the counter-culture movements of the late-60s, representatives of the LGBTQ community became increasingly emboldened and more confrontational. New organisations were established, community-focused newspapers were published, and there was more of a willingness to be open, to be visible, to be different.

It was on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, 28 June 1970, that the first Gay Pride marches were held . The LGBTQ communities of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago held events to commemorate the raid on the Stonewall Inn and the violent confrontation that followed. The following year, Gay Pride marches were also held in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin, and Stockholm . In subsequent years, the number of cities participating continued to grow.

Today, Pride events and celebrations are a big moment. They’re an important and symbolic opportunity for our community to come together, to celebrate our diversity and our visibility as well as our strength and resilience.

If you’re growing up in today’s world, starting to navigate your sexuality, starting to understand how you connect with the LGBTQ community that you see around you, it’s important to understand how LGBTQ identity has evolved over time, and the role that events such as the Stonewall riots have played in that.

History is important because it helps us learn from those that have gone before us – the battles that have been fought, the struggles that have been won, the mistakes that have been made.

You might not feel that you’ve got much connection with the people who lived in New York City in 1969, but it’s because of those people  –  because of their lifetimes of harassment and discrimination that culminated in six nights of violence  –  that we can proudly identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, or however you want to define yourself within the broad LGBTQ umbrella. It’s because of those people that we can live openly as ourselves, that we can get married if we want, that we can have families if we want, that we have the freedom to lead the lives that we want. It’s because of those people that we continue to hold Pride marches around the world.

We honour the marginalised people of Greenwich Village  –  people who had nothing left to lose, people who were pushed so far that they had no alternative but to stand up to harassment and stand up to discrimination .

When is World Pride?

In 2019, World Pride was held in New York City to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Stonewall.

World Pride is an international Pride celebration that happens every two years. A different city hosts World Pride each time.

Since it began in 2000, World Pride has been held in the following cities:

• 2000: Rome
• 2006: Jerusalem
• 2012: London
• 2014: Toronto
• 2017: Madrid
• 2019: New York City

Future World Pride events are scheduled for Copenhagen in 2021, and Sydney in 2023.

Comments