LGBTQ Pride at 50: Focus shifts amid pandemic, racial unrest
By JEFF McMILLAN, Associated Press
Published: June 27, 2020, 1:32pm
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FILE - In this June 30, 2019, file photo, marchers participate in the Queer Liberation March in New York. This year's Pride events were supposed to be a blowout as LGBTQ people the world over marked the 50th anniversary of the first parade to celebrate what were then the initial small steps in their ability to live openly, and to advocate for bigger victories. Now, Pride is largely taking a backseat, having been driven to the internet by the coronavirus pandemic and now by calls for racial equality that were renewed by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)Photo Gallery
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — LGBTQ Pride is turning 50 this year a little short on its signature fanfare, after the coronavirus pandemic drove it to the internet and after calls for racial equality sparked by the killing of George Floyd further overtook it.
Activists and organizers are using the intersection of holiday and history in the making — including the Supreme Court’s decision giving LGBT people workplace protections — to uplift the people of color already among them and by making Black Lives Matter the centerpiece of Global Pride events Saturday.
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