Tacoma Pride will go on, only it will be online because of COVID-19
After canceling the street festival set for July 11 over COVID-19 concerns, the annual Tacoma Pride celebration of the LGBTQ community will be commemorated through a series of virtual events throughout the month of July.
Troy Christensen, executive director of The Rainbow Center, said having the show go on in some form was important.
“It’s important to our community that we take a moment to celebrate in a way that brings us together and celebrates the joy of who we are as the LGBTQ community,” Christensen said. “While we have to make some concessions to do things differently this year, and maybe even going forward, it’s important that we still make sure that we make time for this in a way that recognizes everyone as their full and authentic selves.”
If you are interested in more information of what this will look like or have questions, you can visit the event website at http://tacomapride.org.
Rebecca Rossi, director of development at The Rainbow Center, said the changes have been a long time coming.
“It became clear a couple months ago that we needed to adjust our scenario for Tacoma Pride this year,” Rossi said. “Historically we’ve gathered about 15,000 people on the streets and in the parks in downtown Tacoma. That’s not going to be a safe thing to do for quite some time.”
Organizers said they also intend to highlight current protests over police brutality against Black people.
“We’re going to have a Virtual Parade which will have short videos interspersed with some live content,” Rossi said. “We’ll be weaving in conversation about that intersection of police brutality against marginalized communities. The queer community has also experienced that, especially queer people of color have experienced violence.”
One event that will not be going on is the annual block party which has customarily been held at The Mix, a local bar and nightclub.
Courtney Moore, co-owner of The Mix, expressed sorrow the party couldn’t go on.
“It would have been The Mix’s twelfth block party,” Moore said. “I took ownership in September with one of my peers. We both worked there for quite some time, so it was going to be our first big one where we were in charge. It’s a little weird not doing it.”
In addition to the virtual parade, there will be an online party hosted by the Tacoma Art Museum (TAM). The “partygoers” will, among other activities including crafts and drink making, get a look into the TAM galleries as drag queens Indika Haze and Patsy De Cline provide a video tour.
The current schedule, which can be found at tacomapride.org, is as follows:
July 10
Pride Flag Raising & Rainbow City Awards (Virtual), 4:30–6 p.m.
July 11
Virtual Stride with Pride, 12 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Virtual Pride Parade 11 a.m. to noon
Points of Pride, noon to 6 p.m.
Drive Through HIV Testing, 3–7 p.m.
July 13
OL Reign Pride Match, 9:30-11:30 a.m.
July 16
Virtual Pride Party at the Tacoma Art Museum
July 18
Circle Up Productions Virtual Pride
Big Hat Virtual Brunch, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
July 19
Becoming Whole: A live, virtual service of songs, stories, and spirituality, 7–8 p.m.
July 22
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 11:00 AM.
