White River Junction in Vermont celebrated its first-ever Pride parade despite the COVID-19 pandemic that’s forced so many other Prides, from big cities to smaller communities, to go off-road and online.
And White River Junction Pride did it all from the socially distanced safety of an all-mobile “Queer Caravan” of decorated vehicles rolling through downtown to the beat of LGBTQ+ performing artists playing over radio 93.9 The River.
Anna Guenther, chair and founder of the town’s Pride planning committee, told Valley News, “One of the key things motivating me to move forward is it’s not just about this year. It’s about the next five years and the next 10 years. White River Junction is my home and I want us to have a Pride celebration and I think other people want us to have it too. I think a lot of us just passionately love our town and it’s a town that already loves parades.”
Reports Vally News:
Volunteers were in the process of organizing an in-person Pride parade and other activities when the COVID-19 pandemic came to the area, and they began to discuss ways that they could still host the event.
“We were talking about all-virtual events,” Guenther said.
After watching Hartford educators participate in a similar event, the WRJ Pride Planning Committee began thinking they could do the same: The car caravan is contactless, but it still allows people to be in the same place at the same time.
The Black Lives Matter movement has also influenced WRJ Pride.
“When meeting virtually post-pandemic to determine what kind of event, if any, we could move forward with, there was a strong consensus to using our existing organizational resources to support the BLM movement,” Guenther wrote in an email. “The planning committee decided to make a commitment to directing funds raised to paying performers of color and donating any surplus to The Root Social Justice Center’s Mutual Aid fund for QTBIPOC Vermonters, so that money raised will provide direct aid to queer Vermonters.”
For more on WRJ Pride, go to their website.
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