State College’s first LGBTQ Pride parade was canceled — but an online festival is taking its place
Organizer Tamar London was disappointed to see State College’s first LGBTQ Pride parade and festival officially canceled Monday ahead of its June 13 date — but her group now has another plan to take that festival’s place.
London, co-chair of the Centre LGBTQA Support Network, told the Centre Daily Times that her group is in the early planning stages of hosting an online LGBTQ Film Festival in June instead. That event, in partnership with Centre Film and Penn State professor Pearl Gluck, will likely take place via the online Zoom platform and will be free to those who attend virtually, although donations will be accepted.
London said the decision to hold the film festival was finalized Tuesday once the group secured a sponsorship from First Commonwealth Bank. More details will be upcoming.
“It will be focused locally, and our advertising/promotion would be local,” London said, referring to the film festival. “But it would be open to everyone. It’s kind of one of the cool things about what’s happening; in many ways, the world has shrunk and we’re getting to do things with people far and wide.”
London said she realized several weeks ago the original idea for a parade/festival wouldn’t be able to go on amid the global pandemic. She notified the borough her group was planning on canceling the event, and the State College borough council announced Monday it was officially canceling all events planned on, or prior to, June 30 due to concerns surrounding COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Other events that won’t go on include the Happy Valley Music Festival, JAM Fest, Penn State Marines Association 5K and Centre Foundation Centre Gives’ outdoor component to its 36-hour online giving event. (Those interested can still donate online at CentreGives.org starting May 12.) The “Summers on Allen” pedestrian mall, which was set to run until July 5, was already canceled by organizers. First Friday, which runs through December, was also canceled through June 30.
“We feel, as we’ve discussed before, there’s not much choice,” councilman Evan Myers said Monday. “This means a lot of festivals, a lot of activities that our communities have planned, will have to be postponed, canceled and put on hold — perhaps even until next year. ... It’s not an easy thing for any of us to do.”
According to London, the plan is for the Pride parade and festival to take place next summer in June 2021.
Although members of the local LGBTQ community celebrate Campus Pride Month in April, her group felt it was important to continue having a presence in June, the month when most of the nation celebrates Pride Month. (The Stonewall riots in June 1969 are widely regarded as a watershed moment for the LGBTQ movement.)
The borough approved the original Pride parade and festival in early February, and London acknowledged her group has had to learn a lot on the fly when it comes to organizing such an event. But she praised organizers from the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts for their help and also thanked the borough, saying it’s been “100% supportive.”
She’s hoping that means next year’s event will be even better. But, for now, she’s scrambling to organize June’s film festival.
Her group has been in conversations about the film festival for weeks but, with the idea only being finalized Tuesday, a lot of details remain unknown. London said she hopes to have more updates in the coming weeks.
“We still wanted to have some kind of Pride offering,” London added, “and this adheres to social distancing.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
