As gatherings of virtually any size and purpose fall victim to coronavirus-related closures, it appears even LGBT “Pride” events are not immune.
According to Time Magazine, these celebrations the world over are being canceled in favor of virtual alternatives that will be more conducive to social distancing:
In an ordinary year, Pride celebrations would offer a chance to gather together, celebrate the achievements of the community and reflect on the future for social change. But three months into 2020, more than 220 Pride celebrations scheduled worldwide have been forced to cancel or postpone due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, with rights coming under threat in various places and exacerbated by the virus outbreak, organizers are finding innovative ways of reaching out to their communities to provide alternative spaces online to celebrate.
“LGBT people around the world are insanely resilient, but they face isolation every day in their life,” said J. Andrew Baker, co-President of Interpride, the international association of Pride organizers, Time notes. “One of the challenges we find today is that LGBT people are even more isolated.”
As a result, Interpride and the European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA), two of the world’s biggest international Pride networks, are organizing a 24-hour “Global Pride” event to be live-streamed on June 27.
According to Reuters, the event will include musical performances, speeches, and key messages from human rights activists.
“Pride isn’t going to be anyone’s most important priority at the moment,” said EPOA spokesman Steve Taylor, who came up with the idea. “But the sense of community, love and kinship that Pride gives to people, sometimes for the first time in their lives, is an incredible thing to witness every year and it would be devastating if that couldn’t happen in some way.”
Regional and national Pride networks that represent around 800 marches have signed up to take part and the next stage is to recruit the individual Prides themselves, Taylor told Reuters, adding that organizers want the event “to especially be accessible to people who have never been to Pride, who don’t feel able to go to Pride, whether that’s because of where they live or their family.”
“Annual Pride events in the United States engage and unite 20 million people who gather to celebrate the strength and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community,” Ron deHarte, co-president of the United States Association of Prides, said in a statement according to Reuters. “Through the pain and disruption caused by the novel coronavirus, we will deliver a virtual message of hope, comfort, love.”
Saints, this is not “hope,” this is not “love.” Outside of Christ, anything claiming to be love or hope is a cleverly-disguised counterfeit. Now more than ever it should be our burden to speak this truth boldly and in love to those deceived by this insidious agenda.
Let it be your prayer that these individuals would come to know true love—the love of the Savior.
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