Kalamazoo Pride Will Be Virtual Again This Year
Here's why there will be no large in-person Kalamazoo Pride events on June 11th, 2021.
OutFront Kalamazoo made the announcement Tuesday afternoon that due to Covid-19 concerns Pride will be virtual for the second year in a row. The Executive Director of OutFront Kalamazoo, Amy Hunter, had this to say in a press release,
Despite the increase in the availability of vaccines, there are still many uncertainties that come with hosting a large-scale, in-person event. “We polled the community and reviewed guidance from health officials, and it was clear that June was simply too soon for an event as large as Kalamazoo Pride.
Michigan is the 7th most vaccinated state in the U.S. with nearly 1.4 million people fully inoculated as of March 23rd according to Becker's Hospital Review. However, that's only 14% of the state's population. Not to mention, the Mitten State has seen a dangerous spike of new Covid-19 cases. After dipping down in the 600's, Michigan is now seeing an average daily rate of new Covid-19 cases around 3,000 over the past 7 days. These are the most Covid-19 cases since January 7th of this year. We're clearly not out of the woods yet.
The virtual Kalamazoo Pride will have the #AlwaysOUTFront Awards broadcasting live on June 11th via facebook live. Click here to get more info or to submit a nomination. Then there's the Rally for Equality. This is an in-person gathering scheduled for Saturday, September, 18th, 2021.
While many of us miss the good times and unity of our annual Kalamazoo Pride weekend. June of 2022 will likely be huge.
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