(photo via TheOUTfront.com)For the first time in its half-century history, the NYC Pride March, has been along with all in-person events leading up to the annual June event, has been canceled.
From NBC News:
Heritage of Pride, the organization that runs the march, made the announcement Monday, shortly after New York Mayor Bill De Blasio announced the cancellation of permits for all large events for the month of June.
“This probably will not surprise you,” De Blasio said at a coronavirus briefing before announcing the cancellation of June’s Celebrate Israel, Puerto Rican Day and LGBTQ pride parades. The mayor promised these events would go on in some format “when it’s the right time.”
“This year is the 50th anniversary of the pride parade, and it’s a very, very big deal,” De Blasio said in Monday’s briefing. “That march is such an important part of life in this city, but this year in particular it was going to be something that was a historic moment.”
That first pride march, held in June 1970 a year after the Stonewall riots, is often regarded as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
Last year’s events, celebrating the Stonewall uprising, drew more than 5 million people to the city.
This year’s NYC Pride events were scheduled to commence June 14 with Janelle Monaé and Pussy Riot set to perform.
Heritage of Pride has announced a plan to coordinate with InterPride, an international organization comprised of local, regional and national pride planning organizations, to participate in a 24-hour virtual, online “Global Pride” scheduled for June 27.
“The plan is to have this 24-hour program that will be a worldwide celebration of pride,” said Ron deHarte, co-president of the United States Association of Prides and a member of the InterPride organizing committee.
“It will peak in time zones around the world, and in each of those time zones, those regional pride organizations and those local pride organizations will be directly involved in that programming component,” added deHarte.
Several major cities in the U.S. have already announced similar news about their local Pride events. Los Angeles postponed, San Francisco canceled and Seattle plans to “go virtual.”
It's with a sad heart that we let everyone know that Mayor De Blasio has made the decision to cancel all June in-person gatherings, including NYC Pride events, in response to the ongoing health crisis.
Read more and please stay tuned for more updates: https://t.co/Wwoy6IUlbD pic.twitter.com/i72kIsUoNn
— New York City Pride (@NYCPride) April 20, 2020