June is a busy time for the LGBTQ community around the world. The month has always been a time of celebration, remembrance and activism due to the Stonewall Inn uprising in New York City during the month in 1969. Since the first Pride marches the following year on June 27 and 28, 1970, it was unofficially the time of the year the community would celebrate.
The first official recognition of the month came 30 years after Stonewall on June 11, 1999 when then-President Bill Clinton issued the first national proclamation in honor of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. He would issue another the following year on June 2, 2000. The next proclamation wouldn’t come for nine years, when then-President Barack Obama declared June LGBT Pride Month in 2009. He would go on to do so each year of his two terms.
The LGBTQ communities in Central Florida and Tampa Bay have also shared huge celebrations in June — from Gay Day at Disney’s Magic Kingdom on the first Saturday of the month to the state’s largest Pride parade and festival with St Pete Pride during the last weekend. It has also been marked with tragedy with the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016.
It is a time enriched in LGBTQ history and a time when we gather by the thousands, and in some cases the millions, to honor and celebrate who we are. That changed earlier this year with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National LGBTQ Task Force’s Winter Party Festival in Miami hosted more than 10,000 members of the community March 4-10. By the end of the festival news broke that a festival attendee tested positive for COVID-19, then more positive test results started to surface and then reports of attendees dying.
Pride parades and festivals were at first postponed, then cancelled until 2021. Clubs and bars were ordered closed, and still remain mostly shut down, and shows in theaters and concerts were halted. The country, state and the community all stopped.
As the cases grow and social distancing and quarantining look to be practices that will carry on through the summer, LGBTQ event planners are looking for new and inventive ways to bring Pride Month to the masses.
From Pride organizations and party promoters to LGBTQ entertainers and remembrance ceremonies, June 2020 is shaping up to be a virtual LGBTQ Pride Month that will be coming to television, computer and smartphone screens near you.
In the beginning
St. Petersburg kicked off LGBTQ Pride Month on the gulf coast with an event that covered the city in rainbow colors.
“Light Up with Pride” is an initiative from the city’s LGBTQ liaison Jim Nixon. It celebrated Pride by encouraging local buildings, landmarks and monuments to display the rainbow colors in some way on June 1.
“In light of the news that St Pete Pride is cancelling its events for 2020,” says Nixon, “I wanted to do something that shows this city’s Pride as we begin LGBTQ Pride Month.”
The day began with a small event at City Hall to raise the rainbow flag in honor of LGBTQ Pride Month. The event was not open to the public due to the need for social distancing to help combat COVID-19. “We are in the middle of a global pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 Americans – including one of our LGBTQ champions here in St. Pete, Mr. Bob Barnum,” Kriseman shared. “Today when we raise the flag we also pay tribute to him and all others.”
For Light Up with Pride, Nixon says nearly 20 locations were initially approached to participate and he hopes for more to join in. While the initiative states to display the rainbow for June 1, he’s encouraged participants to display them throughout the month.
“There is no city better to show our Pride in than St. Pete,” Nixon says. “I love that we can recognize the importance of our local LGBTQ community and the diversity that makes us a welcoming community.”
More information on “Light Up with Pride” can be found on the event’s Facebook page. You can also view Watermark’s full photo gallery here.
Further inland, Gay Day at Disney’s Magic Kingdom is the centerpiece to a weeklong LGBTQ celebration in the beginning of June that pours tens of millions of dollars into the Central Florida economy. This year would have been the event’s 30th anniversary and with parties, vendor fairs and days at the parks planned from the likes of GayDayS, One Magical Weekend, Girls in Wonderland, Tidal Wave Party and the KindRED Pride Foundation, there was sure to be a sea of red shirts flooding Central Florida.
The need to social distance however left some of the groups postponing to dates later this year — Girls In Wonderland announced its 2020 events will take place Oct. 1-5 and GayDayS is moving its events to Oct. 27-Nov. 2, over Halloween weekend. Some, like One Magical Weekend and Tidal Wave Party, are simply looking ahead to June 2021 for its next events.
The KindRED Pride Foundation also announced its next We Are One benefit concert and the inaugural Pride Cup will move to June 2021, but that doesn’t mean there will be no KindRED Pride on the first Saturday of June 2020.
“One of our main missions is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gay Disney by sharing with the world the ‘kindred spirit’ created by the very first ‘Gay and Lesbian Day at Magic Kingdom’ in 1991,” says Billy Looper, president of the KindRED Pride Foundation. “The small group of Disney castmembers and friends that braved being ‘out’ in 1991 at Magic Kingdom sparked one of the most iconic LGBT+ events in the world.”
KindRED Pride is looking to spread that “kindred spirit” with the virtual Take the RED Shirt Challenge. From now until Saturday, June 6, KindRED Pride is asking everyone to take a photo or video of themselves in a red shirt and share it on their social media accounts, tagging 30 family members and/or friends in honor of the 30th anniversary of red shirts at Disney.
“Now more than ever, we need to unite the world with a simple, free and COVID-19 compliant social connection,” Looper says. When posting your photos, use the hashtags #RSPD and #TakeTheREDShirtChallenge.
KindRED Pride will also team up with Pride Radio and One Magical Weekend to stream a virtual Red Shirt Pride Day celebration around the world. More details to be released soon on what you can expect, but Looper says you can anticipate a full day of One Magical Weekend’s international DJs along with special local and national performances.
KindRED Pride has a collection of official RED T-shirts and masks featuring local and national LGBTQ nonprofits and organizations’ logos available on its website at Store.KindREDPride.org, including Watermark’s. Whichever shirt or mask you purchase, a portion of the proceeds are donated back to the group.
Pride TV
PBS will celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month virtually with a digital series and televised special examining LGBTQ life in the American South.
“PRIDELAND” is a six-episode, short-form series that will be available to stream on PBS Voices, a documentary-focused YouTube channel, starting with episode one on May 26. PBS will release a new episode every Tuesday after that through the month of June.
The series follows “Pose” star and series host Dyllón Burnside as he journeys across the South to see what modern day life is like for the LGBTQ community in the traditionally conservative part of the U.S.
“Being a queer boy raised in the South, I had distinct memories of feeling like I could never be my authentic self there, so I left seeking acceptance and affirming communities. But I never left my southern roots,” Burnside said of his Southern upbringing. “I wanted to go back as an adult and see if things had changed, and I’m proud to report that they have.”
Burnside continued, “Although there are still many challenges for queer folks in the south, which is home to more LGBTQ+ adults than anywhere else in the U.S., I’m in awe of everyone I met who are creating change in their communities. I believe that authenticity is a superpower, and these queer heroes and allies are truly inspirational.”
Burnside will also host a “PRIDELAND” presentation on PBS June 12. The one-hour special will highlight more LGBTQ individuals and their stories from the American South including a lesbian rodeo champ from Texas and a black mayor ally in Alabama.
“PRIDELAND” will be available across all streaming platforms, PBS.org and the PBS video app.
Along with “PRIDELAND,” PBS will also celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month with LGBTQ-focused programs including a film from its “American Experience” series entitled “Stonewall Uprising.”
An episode of “American Masters” will also examine the life and works of the late Terrence McNally, the openly LGBTQ, Tony Award-winning playwright. The St. Petersburg native died from complications of COVID-19 in Sarasota March 24.
PBS will also feature an encore presentation of the celebrated film “The Lavender Scare.” The documentary – based off of Tampa historian David K. Johnson’s book – details the U.S. government’s witch hunt for gay and lesbian workers in the McCarthy era. For more information on PBS’ Pride programming and schedules, visit PBS.org.
The “OUTLOUD Pride Artist Showcase” also premiered just before June. Initially conceived as a live, LGBTQ concert to be held at South by Southwest (SXSW) in March to support a handful of Pride organizations in the U.S., it was changed after SXSW was cancelled due to COVID-19.
“We have a longstanding history with SXSW and they approached Jeff [Consoletti, founder of JJ|LA, the event production and entertainment firm] and I about producing the first-ever Pride event at SXSW this year,” says Artie Kenney, a business partner of Consoletti. “There’s been LGBTQ events at SXSW before but there wasn’t any official Pride events, so this was going to be the first one.
“Then COVID happened and SXSW was cancelled,” he continues, “and we had all these artists, all these Pride organizations, and we went back to SXSW and said, ‘Do you have any ideas on how we can keep this going?’ They introduced us to the LGBTQ team at Facebook and we partnered with them to create a web series.”
JJ|LA’s “OUTLOUD Pride Artist Showcase” became “OUTLOUD: Raising Voices,” a 10-episode virtual concert series scheduled to air on Facebook over a five-week period. Each episode will focus on one Pride organization from across the U.S. and will feature Houston Pride, Phoenix Pride, Los Angeles Pride, D.C.’s Capital Pride, NYC Pride, Chicago Pride, Boston Pride, Atlanta Pride and two Florida-based Pride organizations — Fort Lauderdale Pride and Orlando’s Come Out With Pride (COWP) — over the course of the series. Two episodes will air per week, with each one’s runtime coming in under 30 minutes.
“Each episode has a host who does an introduction, then there are about two performances, then a message from the Pride group and a little clip showcasing the city, followed by one or two more performances and a guest speaker,” Kenney says.
The first two episodes aired May 26 and 27 and were hosted by “Grey’s Anatomy” star Jake Borelli. The May 26 show, which benefited Houston Pride, featured appearances by Betty Who, Ryan Cassata, Bang Bang Romeo, pineappleCITI and Pabllo Vittar. The May 27 show, benefiting Phoenix Pride, featured appearances by Madame Gandhi, Flavia, SWSH and Ariel View.
Future episodes — which will air every Tuesday and Wednesday through the month of June — will feature appearances and performances from an array of talent including Kesha, Margaret Cho, Candis Cayne, Morgan McMichaels, Allie X, Vincint, Greyson Chance, The Aces, and Wrabel.
“Every episode we try to touch on all aspects of the rainbow, so the list of performers in each episode is going to be a good mix of diverse performers and representation,” Kenney says.
The COWP-focused episode will air during the week of June 12 with the show’s host, speaker and performers to be announced in the coming days.
“OUTLOUD: Raising Voices” will air on the LGBTQ@Facebook and the OUTLOUD and JJ|LA Facebook pages every Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST through June 24.
Pulse – 4 years later
The global effects of this virus are also impacting how the LGBTQ community will be able to mourn, remember and honor those who we lost four years ago during the Pulse nightclub tragedy.
“As you can imagine, the June 12 Pulse Annual Remembrance Ceremony will look a little different this year as we work to keep our community healthy amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” says Scott Bowman, onePULSE Foundation’s chief communications and government relations officer.
The fourth annual remembrance ceremony will be pre-recorded and air June 12 at 7 p.m. on the onePULSE Foundation Facebook page and YouTube channel.
The program “will honor the 49 Angels whose lives were tragically taken, survivors, first responders, trauma teams and all the lives affected,” Bowman says. It will feature the reading of the 49 names by family members, as well as remarks from Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings, onePULSE Board Chair Earl Crittenden and onePULSE CEO Barbara Poma.
Along with the pre-recorded ceremony, a virtual tour of the Pulse Interim Memorial is being made available at onePULSEFoundation.org. Those whose lives were affected by the tragedy are encouraged to share their remembrances on social media using the hashtag #WeWillNotLetHateWin.
Equality Florida, Florida’s largest LGBTQ organization, will remember those lost at the tragedy with a video presentation of “From Here,” a musical inspired by writer Donald Rupe’s own experiences in Orlando surrounding the Pulse tragedy.
The musical, presented in its entirety, was filmed during its world premiere at Central Florida Community Arts earlier this year. It is a part of Equality Florida’s annual #HonorThemWithAction campaign.
“From Here” will be available, free of charge, starting on June 12 at 9 p.m. EST and will remain available until June 28 on FromHere.com and EQFL.org/FromHere. Viewers are encouraged to donate to Equality Florida’s #HonorThemWithAction campaign.
Global Pride
InterPride, the organization behind the World Pride events including last year’s massive Pride event in New York City for Stonewall’s 50th anniversary, looks to bring June to an end with a worldwide virtual event called Global Pride 2020.
Global Pride will be a 24-hour stream of content that “reflects and celebrates the beautiful diversity of LGBTI+ people everywhere.” It is scheduled to air live on June 27.
The Washington Post reports that nearly 350 Pride organizations have indicated they would like to participate in the event.
“InterPride likens its concept to New Year’s Eve broadcasts, which cycle through time zones with fireworks and fanfare,” the Post stated, “allowing organizers to spotlight queer hot spots like Sydney, Tel Aviv and Rio de Janeiro, as well as less-covered events in Africa, Latin America and Asia.”
“As a proud member of InterPride, we will be inviting everyone to watch along with us on June 27 when the world celebrates with Global Pride 2020,” St Pete Pride President Chrys Bundy tells Watermark.
Little is known about the virtual celebration just yet, but InterPride’s website indicates the stream will feature musical and artistic performances; speeches from activists and campaigners; and addresses from public figures.
Cathy Renna, communications director for the National LGBTQ Task Force and a Global Pride organizer, tells the Post that organizers plan to incorporate a relief fund into the event to benefit harder hit LGBTQ communities as a year without Pride could devastate smaller organizations.
NYC Pride and D.C.’s Capital Pride have indicated that they will be participating in Global Pride. Local Pride organizations including Come Out With Pride, Tampa Pride and St Pete Pride are expected to share additional details about if or how they will participate.
Visit GlobalPride2020.org to stay up-to-date on event announcements.
