For the second year in a row, the LA Pride parade, one of the nation’s oldest and largest LGBTQ celebrations, will not take place this summer amid ongoing concerns about the coronavirus, organizers said this week.
The decision comes amid a steep decline in new infections and hospitalizations in California. But planning large-scale events takes time, organizers said, and it is still unclear what the situation will be come summertime.
“Safety was our No. 1 priority,” said Sharon-Franklin Brown, board president of Christopher Street West, the nonprofit organization that produces LA Pride. “It takes time to put on a parade, [and] we were not sure we were going to be where we’re at now, which is this amazing space where everything is opening up.”
The massive street parade, which draws hundreds of thousands of spectators, takes place each June during LGBTQ Pride Month. This year, it would have taken place two days before June 15, which is when California officials plan to fully reopen the state’s economy and eliminate the color-coded tier system that dictated pandemic closures in each county.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.