San Francisco has cancelled its famed Pride parade this summer, which would have marked the event’s 50th anniversary, due to the coronavirus, organizers announced on Tuesday.
For the first time since it began, there will be no march along the city’s Market Street, no rainbow-clad revelers celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, no outdoor concerts or drag shows. The events had been scheduled for 27 and 28 June.
“This was not a decision we arrived at lightly – we are sincerely heartbroken”, Fred Lopez, the executive director, told the Guardian. “But what it came down to is that the wellbeing of our community is always going to be our top priority.”
San Francisco’s Pride parade is one of the largest in the world, and this year upward of 1 million people were expected to attend as part of its 50th anniversary.
The cancellation comes as other Pride events – including Boston and Toronto – have already been cancelled or moved online due to fears surrounding the pandemic.
New York City Pride, another historic celebration, has not yet announced whether it will cancel its festival due to the virus, which has now killed more than 10,000 people in the state.
San Francisco Pride said it will join a constellation of Pride organizations worldwide in a “Virtual Global Pride” on Saturday, 27 June and will announce digital events to be held in the coming weeks and months.
Rainbow flags will still be placed along Market street to celebrate Pride, even if the parade does not take place there, said Lopez. “We hope to still find ways to offer a sense of unity at this time of being separated physically,” he said.
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said on Tuesday it is unlikely mass gatherings of more than 100 people will be safe until after a vaccine is developed, which could be more than a year from now. Other research has suggested some level of social distancing may be required into 2022.
City officials praised organizers for making the difficult decision to cancel the event.
“Pride is one of my favorite times of the year in San Francisco, and no one wants to celebrate with the entire community more than I do,” London Breed, the San Francisco mayor, said. “However, we are in an unprecedented public-health emergency with an uncertain future, and we must do everything we can to protect our entire community and put public health first.”