What Does Celebrating Pride Look Like in 2022?

How to celebrate Pride Month in 2022

When you think of Pride Month, you might conjure up images of colorful balloons and confetti, large, boisterous crowds, and creative, captivating rainbow-themed floats. Since 1970, every June has marked a month-long celebration of the LGBTQ+ community filled with parades, parties, and more. Now that vaccines are widely available and a large percentage of the population has been vaccinated against Covid-19, most social events are being held full scale and in person again, which hasn’t happened since 2019.

Large celebrations are back…but expect some virtual options, too

Many cities across the United States plan on celebrating Pride in person this year with large parades and festivals for the first time in three years. Last year, Pride consisted of a mix of socially distanced in-person and virtual events to balance Covid-19 safety concerns. After two years of global upheaval, Pride organizers are shifting their focus to making events more inclusive — they have added more people of color and trans people to their leadership ranks and have made participation more accessible for disabled and low-income people through free, ADA accessible, and online events. Pride organizers also plan to highlight threats to LGBTQ civil rights and empower the community and allies to fight back. A few events have even decided to ban police and corporations from attending based on behaviors that are harmful to the LGBTQ community.

Latinx, Black, and trans leaders are now leading Pride organizations in large cities such as New York, Houston, and Los Angeles:

• The NYC Pride March is scheduled to take place on Sunday, June 26. Other festivities include NYC Pride’s annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ Womxn, PrideFest street fair, and more.
• The Houston Pride LGBTQ+ Celebration will take place on Saturday, June 25, and will feature both a parade and a festival.
• The LA Pride Parade & Festival is set for Sunday, June 12, and will boast over 130 contingents of marchers, performers, nonprofits, celebrities, and businesses that support the LGBTQ+ community.

Most big cities plan on featuring Pride events throughout the month of June, including virtual events, in-person meetups, and more.

This year’s celebrations embrace inclusivity

After a three-year hiatus, Pride Month is back, bigger and louder than ever before! Regardless of how you plan on celebrating Pride this year, expect that a wider representation of LGBTQ+ identities will be seen and for virtual options to still remain with the goal of being as inclusive as possible. Most celebrations also plan to speak out against anti-LGBTQ legislation and give folks resources to contact state legislators to overturn some of these bills, such as Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill (known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill). For a complete listing of LGBTQ events in 2022, visit IGLTA’S website.

References

1. “Pride 101: Big Cities ‘Playing The Safe Card’ With Small Gatherings, Virtual Events,” NBC News, May 22, 2021
2. “Pride is Back in 2021! Here’s How to Celebrate With Parades, In-Person and Online Events,” USA Today, May 28, 2021.
3. “Pride Month Events Return with New Mission to Uplift People of Color, Trans Civil Rights,” USA Today, April 19, 2022.