It could be wiping out whole communities and we don’t know” in reference to the lack of attention being paid to the direct impact on the LGBTQ community. In this article published by, Drexel University’s Randall Sell, an expert in LGBTQ+ demographic study emphasized “You can’t address a problem you can’t see. The degree that individuals within the LGBTQ community’s safety, health, and well-being is affected by the current health crisis is not only immense, but many believe it has also been severely neglected. The celebration has only grown yearly ever since.įast forward to this year- the annual Charlotte Pride Parade as well as all Charlotte Black Pride Festivities have been cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while cancelled plans and events are a consequence almost everyone around our globe is facing, the LGBTQ community is a vulnerable group when it comes to the implications the pandemic has had on daily life. However, it was not until 25 years later in 1994 that the first NC Pride Festival and Parade was held here in Charlotte, seeing just under 4,000 attendees coming out to show support by 2017, more than 150,000 people from across the country would make their way to Charlotte to join in the various programs, festival activities, and Sunday parade that Charlotte Pride had become famous for ( PFLAG Charlotte).
While the organized pursuit of gay rights in the United States reaches back to at least 1924 and the founding of the Society of Human Rights, the event that catalyzed the gay rights movement came in June 1969 in New York City’s Greenwich Village, at the Stonewall Inn (Read more here). We would like to leverage this nationally recognized month to acknowledge the unique struggles that this underrepresented and underserved community faces, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which is impacting the LGBTQ community at a disproportionate rate. Each year, June is nationally recognized as LGBTQ Pride Month and while it serves as a time of celebration for continued acceptance and the accomplishments of the LGBTQ community, it also serves to commemorate years of struggle for civil rights and the ongoing pursuit of equal justice under the law for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community.