Pride 2020: taking the protest online

Here’s how you can learn more and take action in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and two-spirit rights while practicing social distancing.

Check out what’s happening in your community

With public events being cancelled around the world, most Pride organizing committees are cancelling in-person activities, but many are taking the protest for equality and LGBTQ2S liberation online!

Join Amnesty International in marking Pride 2020 by attending an online protest or organizing a watch party or your own online protest for your community. Find or register an event in your community >>> 

Check out the website or Facebook page for your local Pride organizing committee to see if they are moving any of their activities online.

Fierte Pride Canada, CUPE, and the Dignity Network Canada (Amnesty International is on Dignity’s Board) are organizing a series of panel discussions with LGBTI rights activists from around the world and local Pride Committees. Here are the links to the online events being held throughout July.

Take an intersectional approach

Queer liberation cannot be separated from the liberation of Black, Indigenous and other people of colour. Wondering what has Pride got to do with police violence and racism? Learn more in this blog!

Take action

Watch TV

While you’re social distancing at home, and if you have time (recognizing that not everyone has time to watch TV right now!), check out some documentaries, TV shows, and movies to support LGBTI content and deepen your learning.

Check out the free preview of the new HBO documentary Welcome to Chechnya and the recorded webinar with the filmmaker and subjects of the documentary.

If you have access to Netflix, search for “LGBT” and check out documentaries such as Disclosure, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, Breaking Free, or Laerte-se. Not into documentaries? One of my favorite shows on Netflix is The Fosters, and I’m currently watching Feel Good. There’s some really great LGBTI content on Netflix and other streaming services!

Read a book

The July/August selection for the Amnesty International Book Club is “All We Knew But Couldn’t Say” by Joanne Vannicola. Download the discussion guide.

LGBTQ2S rights in the time of COVID-19

Global pandemics impact different people and communities in different ways. Amnesty International has been clear with governments that human rights must be at the heart of the COVID-19 response. A human rights response to COVID-19 must include an intersectional approach which recognizes the specific impacts of the pandemic on LBGTQ2S people in Canada, and the need for specific actions to ensure that the pandemic response doesn’t lead to discrimination and further inequalities. Check out our blog on LGBTI rights and COVID-19, which includes a link to our public statment on protecting the human rights of LGBTI people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amnesty International is working to monitor human rights violations around the world related to the pandemic, including LGBTI people being specifically targeted by social distancing policies. As a member of Dignity Network Canada, Amnesty International is working to ensure that Canada’s international response to COVID-19, is responsive to the urgent needs of LGBTI communities.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter where we regularly post information about the pandemic and LGBTI rights. We will post Amnesty-specific news and actions on our webpage throughout Pride season.

All throughout Pride season we will post LGBTI human rights actions to make sure that the pandemic doesn’t put a damper on our critical activism to make the world a safer, more just, and more inclusive place for everyone. Happy (virtual) Pride!

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