Healing Aurora With Pride

At this point, it’s a cliché to say that 2020 has been a year. We all know it; we all feel it. Everyone who has tried to address current issues or throw events dealt with issues they’ve never dealt with before, and Aurora Pride was no exception.

First of all, of course, we had a lot of debate about whether or not an in-person event was appropriate for 2020. The more events started to unfold, the less sure we were, and we eventually landed on not doing a full event. More announcements on some kind of gathering may still roll out, but there’s no big party to announce at this time.

Then, there’s the elephant in the room: less than a month after last year’s Aurora Pride, Elijah McClain died at the hands of Aurora police. The Aurora PD has always been a part of Aurora Pride, since events in Aurora cannot legally happen without a police presence. That event made us rethink our connection to Aurora, their police department, and our event.

There was talk of not doing an Aurora issue at all. After all, there’s no official event to speak of thanks to COVID-19, and police reform is putting the city in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. But, I would argue, all these reasons are exactly why we need an Aurora-specific issue.

This issue is all about healing Aurora. The city is undergoing reform, and activists are speaking out about police reform, the ICE detention center in Aurora, and all the problems that need to be addressed. We are also celebrating the local businesses in Aurora that have been impacted by the COVID pandemic.

During this trying time, our neighbors to the east need our love and support even more. This is not the time to stay silent; this is the time to write our future.