Pride Parade canceled

MIDDLETOWN — The city of Middletown, the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, and Wesleyan University have announced that Middletown Pride 2020 is canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Middletown Pride is a celebration of the history, lives and contributions of Middletown’s LGBTQIA residents. This year’s event was expected to once again include a parade, entertainment, vendors, and an uplifting celebration of a vibrant and inclusive community. However, the safety of everyone involved is paramount, and the difficult decision has been made to cancel this year’s event. Middletown Pride looks forward to coming back stronger than ever on June 19, 2021.

Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said, “This was both a hard and an easy decision for us — hard in the sense that we hate to cancel an event that so many people have been looking forward to and working on, but easy in the sense that it was clearly the right call from a public health standpoint—and the Pride committee never wavered in their commitment to put our community’s safety first. Even though we can’t gather in person this year, Middletown is still a city that is proud of our diversity and of the unique contributions of our LGBTQIA residents past and present. We will still celebrate and uplift them all the same this June, and look forward to an even bigger, better Pride event in the summer of 2021.”

The City of Middletown’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee and the Middletown Pride Planning Committee will be celebrating Pride Month this June through virtual means. For more information, please visit www.middletownpride.org, and follow Middletown Pride on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Any questions or concerns can be directed to Haley Stafford at the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce at 860-347-6924 or Info@MiddletownPride.org.