“I assume those will be virtual as a way to raise money to support the community, especially for those who depend on entertaining for their livelihoods. “I know that a lot of our drag entertainers are really chomping at the bit to do some fundraisers,” says Jim Morgrage, Club Café’s general manager. (Courtesy Pat Donahue/The History Project) Club Café in Back Bay has been a safe space for the LGBTQ community since 1983, especially during Pride, when the line to enter the restaurant and nightclub snakes down Columbus Avenue. In a time of social distancing and uncertainty around when bars will reopen, it’s hard to imagine crowding a dancefloor to celebrate Pride anytime soon. “We need to advocate and continue to educate people about equality and love, so it would be really poor judgment for us to just say, ‘oh, we have the summer off.’” “We’re really fortunate that we have a webmaster who’s been taking a lot of education courses and working with NBC to help train us on licensing and copyrighting to be the best we can be online.” Though the virtual programming marks a big shift, the organization sitting out the season outright was just never an option.
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The switch to the online format has, however, been “a learning process for all of us,” DeMarco says. (Boston Pride plans to keep their website updated with upcoming events.) So far, other livestreamed events include an author talk on June 6, an LBGTQ veterans panel discussion on June 8, a Pride lights ceremony on June 9 and a collaboration with NBC10 for a virtual event in lieu of the parade on June 13. Her organization has switched to virtual programming, which kicks off at noon on June 5 with the traditional rainbow flag raising ceremony at City Hall. “We’re going to try to keep our calendar going,” says Boston Pride president Linda DeMarco. (And please, remember to send a few Venmo tips to the performers.) Welcome to the 2020 Pride of Zoom dance parties, digital drag shows and online connection. So how does a community meld celebration and safety? Especially one that - due to the ongoing AIDS epidemic - already has firsthand experience dealing with the trauma and inequity that a health crisis exposes in our country.
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NEW GAY FLAG SNAKE FULL
The month-long combination of recognition, remembrance and revelry marks the successes of the modern LGBTQ movement but also highlights how far the nation has yet to go - especially for transgender rights - before we reach full equality.īut Pride is going to feel different this year, with the Boston Pride Committee announcing in April that all in-person events for what would’ve been Boston’s 50th Pride will be postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19. In June, Boston is usually awash in color - rainbow lights illuminating the Prudential Center, rainbow flags outside the Boston Public Library, glitter and confetti that trails the annual Pride parade from Copley Square to City Hall Plaza. (Elise Amendola/AP) This article is more than 1 year old. Spectators watch from balconies along the route of the Gay Pride Parade, Saturday, June 8, 2019, in Boston.