The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) has launched virtual pride events set to take place over a three-week period in celebration of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) pride.
The “592 Virtual Pride” was launched last Wednesday and is expected to conclude on July 7th with 15 events set to be hosted virtually, inclusive of a church service, a film night and even the pride parade.
According to the Managing Director of SASOD Joel Simpson, the virtual pride celebrations were planned to serve as means to still celebrate pride even with the current restrictions in place due to COVID-19. The virtual celebrations also come on the heels of celebrations of SASOD’s 17th anniversary, which occurred earlier in June.
“We have a diverse range of online events, we really tried to make it as fun and as sociable as possible because we think the pandemic has been very stressful for a lot of people but in particular marginalised people,” Simpson said, while adding that a number of LGBTQ persons are now forced to stay within their home settings, including some who may even not have the best relationships within family and home settings.
The scheduled events for this weekend began with a virtual Bingo Night on Friday evening, a Diaspora party on Saturday night and a Father’s Day church service today, which is to be hosted by the first LGBTQ affirming church in Guyana, the Hope of Christ church. The Diaspora party, Simpson noted, is in being hosted via conference-calling-platform Zoom, in collaboration with the Caribbean Equality Project and will feature a number of LGBTQ artistes in the diaspora.
The Father’s day church service is a one-hour service that is to be broadcast on the church’s Facebook page, where a special message in celebration of Pride will be given. The Managing Director stated that the message will be for fathers and will emphasise fathers being accepting and loving towards their LGBTQ children.
A number of other events, in which SASOD has partnered with a number of other organisations, will take place in the following weeks.
