Celebrating Pride 2021
June is globally recognized as Pride Month to celebrate self-affirmation, equality, and visibility of LGBTQ2S+ communities. And it is a protest as much as it is a celebration - the past year has been challenging for many of us in the LGBTQ2S+ community, and we see continuing discrimination and violence, especially against the trans community and many racialized and religous groups. So while we celebrate Pride and all the colours of the flag, we must remember why we continue to fight for every member of our community, to stand against hate and support each other every single day of the year.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Pride in Toronto in remembrance of the February 1981 police raids, Operation Soap, and the first official “Pride Day” later that year on Sunday, June 28th, in Grange Park. We’re celebrating this milestone by shining a spotlight on Queer artists on YouTube and bringing the best Pride parties around the world to Canadian YouTube viewers.
Giving local artists a platform
We are honoured to collaborate with Queer Collective, whose mission is to provide accurate representation for every subgroup of the LGBTQ2S+ community with a focus on uplifting local Queer artists in Canada. For this year’s Pride, we are supporting OUT LOUD, Queer Collective’s digital concert series created in collaboration with Conscious Economics. Designed to get Queer artists performing, connecting, growing, and getting paid again - the 2021 OUT LOUD featured artists are Makayla Walker Louboutin, Tafari Anthony, and Your Hunni. Their videos are all live now on Queer Collective’s YouTube channel - check out their performances and show your support. We’ve also created a Pride playlist to elevate Queer voices, hosted on our YouTube Canada channel.
Celebrating together, from anywhere
We will be celebrating Pride Toronto with a livestream of all the festivities on YouTube. You can join in on June 27 at 2pm ET / 11am PT - all the details and so much more are on Pride Toronto’s website.
And globally, YouTube Originals is bringing Pride parties to homes around the world with “YouTube Pride 2021,” a multi-hour, star-studded livestream event celebrating the LGBTQ2S+ community through musical performances, giving challenges, special guests, live moments and much more. Join celebrity emcees Elton John and David Furnish, Demi Lovato, Olly Alexander with Mawaan Rizwan, Trixie Mattel, and Daniel Howell who will each host their Pride party from their respective YouTube channels and encourage viewers to help the LGBTQ2S+ community by raising funds for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, The Trevor Project and akt. You can watch the official trailer here and the virtual celebration premieres June 25 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.
