(CNN) Each year, in cities around the world, LGBTQ community members and their allies take to the streets to celebrate Pride -- uniting around the movement's message of self-acceptance and inclusion.
But this year, the coronavirus pandemic is keeping many celebrants around the world inside.
Since the first official marches, which took place in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco in June 1970, Pride has become a global movement. Last year, at least 150 official Pride festivals and events took place around the world.
Portraits of Pride: What Pride means to people around the world
Drag artist Nina West says her first Pride was a pivotal moment in her life. "I remember how overwhelmed I was," she says, "and how I had no idea that this rich, immense, beautiful community existed."
Comedian and activist Bob the Drag Queen remembers one person who approached her during Pride. "Someone told me they drove four hours to be there. They told me, 'This is the only place and the only time of year I can hold my partner's hand and kiss my partner on the streets.' That's what Pride is all about," she says.
Carlos Castaño Rodriguez, a member of the LGBT Spanish Federation, says there is a responsibility for the LGBTQ community to celebrate Pride, especially for those who don't get to enjoy that freedom. "We can use our privilege to be visible. So those that do not have that privilege may feel less alone and may feel seen," Rodriguez says.
The LGBTQ community's fight for equality is far from over. Jojó Majercsik, a spokesperson for Budapest Pride, says that transgender people are especially vulnerable, particularly in rural areas of Hungary.
Julio Moreira is the director of Grupo Arco-Iris, a LGBTQ organization in Brazil. He says poor and Black members of the community there face even more discrimination.
Chris Frederick was the executive director of New York City's Pride celebration in 2019. The event also marked 50 years since the
Stonewall Riots. "Pride is that one time of year where everyone comes together to raise up issues and amplify voices within our community," he says.
Bodhi Calagna is an international DJ who recently came out as trans non-binary. "Even though Prides are canceled all over the world, [and even] if we don't have a place to go and fly our flags, you get all of us online together," Calagna says. "Pride just radiates even more."
Activist Paulo Batista says his first Pride after his 2010 transition surgery was liberating. "I wanted to take my shirt off for the first time and not be scared. My scars were still kind of fresh," he remembers.
Mathieu Chantelois, the former executive director of Toronto Pride, says marking Pride virtually in 2020 is a unique opportunity. "We're not going to be thousands of people in the streets, but we're all going to be in front of our screens, and we will celebrate," he says. "We will be together. We are going to create a sense of belonging."
Sara Cunningham started "Free Mom Hugs," a group of parents that provides hugs, love, and support for LGBTQ youth. "It's a matter of life and death that we find a way to celebrate our children or we will suffer with them through self-harm, alienation, or worse," Cunningham says.
Miss Peppermint marches in the LA Pride Parade on June 9, 2019. "Finding and seeking out community in any way that you can is essential," she says. "It's lifesaving."
2019 saw the largest Pride celebration in history. According to Chris Frederick, former executive director of NYC Pride, an estimated five million people flocked to New York City to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the police raid on New York's Stonewall Inn, which sparked the beginning of the gay rights movement in the US. With more than 150,000 participants from six continents marching in the parade, it took more than 12 hours to complete the route, Frederick says.
"It was such an overwhelming experience," he says. "To see the world coming together for this one singular moment was awe-inspiring, life-changing."
As many Pride celebrations go virtual this year because of Covid-19 social distancing guidelines, organizers and activists say the core mission remains the same -- providing visibility and unity in safe and inclusive spaces.
"No matter what, there is a need to connect," says Frederick. "Whether it's virtually or it's in person, that's what Pride is all about."
In June 2019, millions of people celebrated World Pride in New York City, marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Miss Peppermint, an entertainer and transgender rights activist in New York, agrees. "Finding and seeking out community in any way that you can is essential," she says. "It's lifesaving."
On Saturday, over 300 million viewers are expected to tune in for a 24-hour live stream Global Pride celebration, event organizers say. It will feature musical and artistic performances, and speeches from activists and world leaders, including presumptive Democratic US presidential nominee Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The organizers claim it is the biggest of the many Pride events happening online this year.
Fighting for equality
LGBTQ rights campaigners say that Pride is so important because the community's push for equality is far from over. Being part of the LGBTQ community is still socially stigmatized in many parts of the world. According to ILGA, an international LGBTQ advocacy group, homosexuality remains illegal in more than 70 countries.
In Hungary, a new law has banned people from legally changing genders. Transgender lives, particularly in rural areas, are in constant danger, says Jojó Majercsik, a board member and spokesperson for Budapest Pride. "I'm very privileged living here in Budapest," she says. "I live with my girlfriend in the city center, but it's not the same for people who live outside of Budapest, especially for a transgender person. It's very difficult."
Jojó Majercsik, board member and spokesperson for Budapest Pride
Danger persists even in countries where same-sex marriage has been legalized. Brazil had 130 reported murders of trans and gender-diverse people between October 2018 and September 2019, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring project. "It's not easy to live as LGBTQ in Brazil," says Julio Moreira, a Pride parade coordinator in Rio De Janeiro. Members of the community face even more discrimination if they're Black or poor, he says.
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That's why it's imperative to keep celebrating Pride, even during a pandemic.
The first gay pride parades
People march into New York's Central Park during the nation's first gay pride parade on June 28, 1970. The event was held on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when members of the gay community clashed with police who had raided the
Stonewall Inn in Manhattan.
The parade was called Christopher Street Liberation Day. The Stonewall Inn is on Christopher Street. The riots at the gay bar and the protests that followed were a turning point for LGBT rights in the United States.
"At one point, I climbed onto the base of a light pole and looked back. I was astonished; we stretched out as far as I could see, thousands of us," one of the marchers, Fred Sargeant,
told the Village Voice decades later. "There were no floats, no music, no boys in briefs. The cops turned their backs on us to convey their disdain, but the masses of people kept carrying signs and banners, chanting and waving to surprised onlookers."
A couple kisses after the parade in Central Park.
Several other U.S. cities followed with their own pride parades. Here, people march down Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on June 29, 1970.
A crowd holds banners as they march in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston in 1970.
People march in the Boston gay pride parade.
"Whenever the LGBTQ community is faced with a challenge or adversity, that's when we have a chance to shine and create something new," says Bodhi Calagna, a 43-year-old DJ and artist who grew up in Dubai and now lives in Denver, Colorado. Calagna, who prefers the pronoun 'they,' said it would have been their first Pride as openly trans non-binary, but they don't see this as a lost opportunity. In fact, "Pride just radiates even more," Calagna says.
Carlos Castaño Rodriguez, a member of the LGBT Spanish Federation, says Pride gives members of the community who have a platform the opportunity to reach those who are facing challenges or are less visible. That way "those who do not have that privilege, may feel less alone," he says.