GLAAD hosts COVID-19 event featuring Billy Porter, Mj Rodriguez, and many more

Tonight, GLAAD hosted “Together in Pride: You are Not Alone,” a livestream event highlighting the LGBTQ response to COVID-19. The event, hosted by Billy Eichner & Lilly Singh, featured special guests including Barbra Streisand, Billy Porter, Mayor Pete & Chasten Buttigieg, Rosie O’Donnell, Matt Bomer, Wilson Cruz, Bebe Rexha, August Getty, Gigi Gorgeous & Nats Getty, Sean Hayes, Adam Lambert, Dan Levy, Brian Michael Smith, and more. There were also several musical performances from talent including Kesha, Melissa Etheridge, Mj Rodriguez & George Salazar, Alex Newell, and the cast of Broadway’s “Jagged Little Pill.”

The event raised over $225,000 for CenterLink, a coalition of more than 250 LGBTQ community centers from 45 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, as well as Canada, China, Mexico, and Australia. During the epidemic, LGBTQ community centers are still providing critical services such as medical care, shelter for homeless LGBTQ youth, mental health counseling, filling prescriptions, providing hot meals and check-in phone calls for older adults, and hosting virtual support groups to decrease social isolation. LGBTQ community centers could be forced to shrink their services, meaning two million LGBTQ people who use the centers each year could go without care and community.