Pride is Cancelled for 2020, and that’s Great
By: Zoey Milford
Tags: Opinion, LGBTQ, Equality, Pride, Queer

Pride is Cancelled for 2020, and that’s Great

I’m glad there will be no parades this year

Photo by Delia Giandeini on Unsplash

Cities all over the world are cancelling their planned Pride parades for 2020. In America, June celebrations are off. In Belgium, the May plans are scrapped. In Canada, the June/July marches are quashed. In a fluke, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand managed to sneak in Sydney Mardi Gras and Auckland Pride respectively, back in February 2020 before all of this — but they seem to be the exception. Even in my own state of Western Australia, it’s unknown if we’ll get to hold our usual Pride events in November this year.

Of course, many people are going to miss these celebrations, the coming together of community, the show of support from allies in the crowd. Some countries and cities are being optimistic about hosting Pride later in the year, or holding events online. Belgium, for example, is hoping to shift their march plans to August, if all goes well. The problem is, not much is going well for the world — and that includes LGBT+ people, who have a largely, unheard lament within the unfolding tragedy.

Mismanaged government responses to the deadly COVID-19 virus, as it riddles nations, has brought back horrific memories of the AIDs epidemic for many. And for those of us who didn’t live through that crisis, feeling the utter fear and confusion of an invisible threat is sobering to say the least…filled with grief at its worst. This pandemic is hitting LGBT+ people hard, especially in countries where healthcare and welfare is difficult to access, and homophobic discrimination is rife.

The reality of Pride being cancelled this year has forced me to reflect on the event itself. Clearly, it’s best for all attendee’s safety that Pride has been cancelled in so many cities. Health and safety are paramount. But, in Pride’s absence, all I can think about is: what are we really missing?

Are we missing the councils, local governments, and business spending hoards of money on the parade, the party, but not on us, the queer community? Are we missing the way the police follow the marches to stop them morphing from party into actual protest? Are we missing the price gouging of Pride events that edge out large portions of our community from attending? Are we missing the way capitalistic profit is made off of decades of LGBT+ activism, meanwhile corporations and councils do nothing to support us in the issues surrounding legislation, education, and anti-discrimination that we’re still fighting? I don’t think I’ll miss any of that…

But I am going to miss seeing all the different local, LGBT+ groups in my city hanging out together in one place as they march in the parade. I’m going to miss it being the first year I qualify for Dykes on Bikes, now I have my full motorcycle license. I’m going to miss all the colour, and the excitement in kid’s eyes as they watch the fun and see that being queer is full of cheer. I’m going to miss the smaller events, where the little organisations, who do so much background work for our rainbow collective, get to showcase themselves and their causes. I’m going to miss regional-town Pride’s around my state that aren’t corporatized and mean the world to local people. I’m going to miss the big, borderless family that get’s together once a year without fail.

To presently miss some parts of Pride and to be happy that other parts aren’t happening in 2020, is difficult to contemplate. I’m left feeling that perhaps Pride needed a year off from all the corporate money, from the shallow, rainbow drapes over brand logos online and everywhere else, from the ever-present policing. Maybe, this one year without Pride will act like a reset. Maybe Pride organisers and businesses in 2021 will have had time to remember the need for our protest, remember the fights we still have to face. Maybe this breath will reignite the knowledge that we’re strong because we’re together, because we’re fighting as a family, not because the local banks have put their floats in our parades.