vox--2020-04-29--What will Pride mean this year?

What will Pride mean this year?

Last June , about 2.5 million revelers flocked to World Pride in New York City for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots , the rebellion against anti-queer policing that Pride is meant to commemorate .
The atmosphere was joyous , the parade most notable for its scale : a record 150,000 people marched down 5th Avenue , past the Stonewall National Monument , and through Manhattan .
Lady Gaga , Madonna , and Kim Petras were among the many performers who played in festivals throughout the week — all in celebration of the progress LGBTQ people and rights have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year ’ s Pride will look much , much different .
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic , there ’ s just no way to facilitate in-person festivals for the foreseeable future .
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that NYC Pride — along with every other mass gathering event in the city in June — will be canceled .
This follows a larger pattern of other cities around the world forgoing in-person Prides this year .
“ Over the last month , we ’ ve had now about 280 Prides globally that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” said Steve Taylor , board member of the European Pride Organizers Association ( EPOA ) .
Pride organizers say the show will go on , though — albeit in a much different format .
The EPOA and InterPride , a consortium of local Pride organizations in the US and internationally , are organizing a massive , worldwide Pride event to be held exclusively online .
The plan is to hold a rolling 24-hour online World Pride on June 27 , the anniversary of Stonewall , which will feature musical performances , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hour .
While it ’ s too early to say who exactly will be a part of the online World Pride — which InterPride organizes every two years in different cities — Taylor said that organizers have partnered with national Pride networks in the US , Canada , Germany , Sweden , and the UK , as well as organizations in Africa , Asia , South America , and the Oceania region .
The hope is to coordinate it so that local Prides — from Sydney to San Francisco — will have 15 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time zone .
“ We ’ re going to start from the East and obviously make our way to the West , ” said Julian Sanjivan co-president of InterPride .
“ It ’ s going to be a very interesting production .
We are looking at not just entertainment pieces but human rights components [ as well ] .
” But the over-the-top celebrations that have become synonymous with Pride are only one aspect of its mission .
Another huge part of Pride month is advocacy .
Smaller LGBTQ groups often depend on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their communities throughout the year .
And now amid the pandemic , many are afraid their efforts may get lost in a sea of online need this year .
“ Right now , nobody knows what to expect , ” said Mahdia Lynn , executive director of Masjid al-Rabia , a small Muslim community center in Chicago that was founded by and for trans , queer , and disabled Muslims .
Last year during Pride month , Masjid al-Rabia collected about $ 10,000 .
But this year , the organization won ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ events .
“ We have lowered the expectation of how much we ’ re going to raise , ” said Lynn .
“ Our original goal was to increase the fundraising that we had last year by at least half and ideally to double it , and now instead , our plan is to just aim to maintain what we raised last year.
” But while fundraising goals stay the same , need among the most vulnerable in the LGBTQ community will grow as the pandemic stretches on because the LGBTQ community was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , food insecurity , and lack of insurance before the pandemic .
Visibility — of not just celebration but for community support — will be more important than ever .
The importance of — and complications in — taking Pride online The folks behind this year ’ s online Pride felt it was important not to skip a year as Pride can be important to queer people who are attending for the first time .
“ Every Pride organizer that you talk to will have a story about someone that has come to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ changed by Pride , ” said Taylor .
“ It might be the first time in their life that they felt safe , that they felt part of the community , that they felt valued and loved or that they felt surrounded by people who are like them rather than feeling like an outsider .
It ’ s really critical for Pride organizers — because we believe passionately in our movement and its transformative effects on people — that we find a way to deliver that event in a safe way [ during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it won ’ t be the same as previous in-person celebrations , but they also hope that the online format will bring Pride to countries that are actively hostile to the existence of LGBTQ people , such as Poland or Saudi Arabia .
“ One of the really good things about Global Pride is that it will allow people in , for example , Subsaharan Africa or in the countries in the Middle East where being LGBT either is illegal or even attracts the death penalty , it will allow them to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Taylor .
Even in countries considered “ progressive ” or safe , LGBTQ rights has a way to go .
Last Friday , news broke that the Trump administration was finalizing an Affordable Care Act rule that would allow health care discrimination against LGBTQ people .
The community also waits for Supreme Court decisions on whether employers can , under federal civil rights law , legally fire people for being queer or trans .
In the UK , Women and Equalities Minister Liz Truss gave a speech to Parliament ’ s Women and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the country ’ s Equality Act could be revised to keep trans women out of women ’ s spaces and trans teens could be barred from accessing any gender-affirming health care .
The internet isn ’ t immune to homophobia and transphobia , and there are security concerns to consider when taking Pride online .
While plans are still in the early stages , organizers told Vox that they hope to partner with a larger platform , like Facebook , in order to facilitate Global Pride .
They envision the rolling entertainment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system that allows participants to send messages or photos .
But that opens the door to potential brigading from trolls .
Swarming a third-party online event is nothing new , but it has seen a resurgence during the pandemic .
Reports have emerged of “ Zoombombing , ” where uninvited trolls crash a video call in order to harass participants with racist , homophobic , or anti-Semitic hate speech .
World Pride organizers are trying to prepare for that possibility .
“ We ’ ll have people from the community moderating those comments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trolls posting transphobic or biphobic or homophobic comments , ” said Taylor .
“ Obviously , it ’ s slightly more difficult on social media , but certainly in terms of the livestream , that will definitely be moderated .
It will be a safe space as much as we can make it , the same as it was the same as any Pride would be.
” The first Pride march in 1970 was relatively small and community-based , and meant to commemorate the Stonewall Riots from the previous year .
Many of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than the annual rainbow extravaganzas seen now , advocating for the decriminalization of homo- and transsexuality .
But over the years , Pride has become a way for corporations to virtue-signal their support for LGBTQ people .
Last year ’ s World Pride celebration in New York City featured many official corporate sponsors ( T-Mobile , L ’ Oreal , and Hyatt Hotels ) , and Pride marches from Portland , Maine , to Seattle , Washington , are filled to the brim with corporate floats and cisgender heterosexual allies marching alongside .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Justice No Pride disrupted DC ’ s Capital Pride , an InterPride partner , in part because of the parade ’ s support for police marching in the parade , but also over its corporate focus .
“ When we targeted them , we were targeting a power structure and we were targeting the symbols that build up that power structure within Capital Pride , ” said Emmelia Talarico , director of No Justice No Pride .
Talarico said that Capital Pride feels the need to cater to corporate interests because organizers get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city , which benefits from the thousands of tourists Pride draws every year .
While specific sponsors haven ’ t yet been announced for World Pride , corporate interest is expected to follow the global move online .
“ These things have to be paid for ; it ’ s very difficult to pay for a Pride without corporate income , ” said Taylor .
“ Actually , it ’ s better that corporates pay for it than the people who attend Pride pay for it .
Even if it ’ s only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to pay to attend a Pride , it ’ s going to exclude people.
” Taylor said that corporate support for Pride gives multinational corporations a chance to show support for their LGBTQ employees , “ as long as it sits within an ethical framework.
” But therein lies the problem for protesters , who say that many of these companies do not operate ethically .
This is how you end up with Lockheed Martin Pride floats at Capital Pride in 2018 , supporting white and Western queers while profiting off the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Taylor hopes his online Pride will reach this year .
Meanwhile , T-Mobile , a presenting sponsor for NYC Pride in 2019 and 2020 , has been criticized by LGBTQ union rights group Pride at Work for its anti-union actions .
Moving in-person Pride online could result in a nonstop corporate lovefest and leave less room for the visibility of everyday queer people , advocates worry .
In years past , many protests have shut down or delayed Pride marches that had strayed too far from the original mission .
In Toronto in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the march for several hours to object to the presence of police at the parade .
But with strict online moderation , advocates wonder : How many queer voices of protest will be shut out this year ?
“ The people who protest against Pride , I think they missed the point , ” said Taylor .
“ Actually , it ’ s surely better to get behind Pride and celebrate what Pride offers and the human rights that we campaign for and the equality that we celebrate rather than , you know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ volunteers just trying to create an inclusive event for our community.
” While many major cities will be joining up with World Pride , some — like Denver , Colorado — are organizing their own local online Pride celebrations .
Others have just postponed their Pride parades , hoping the pandemic lockdowns will lift in time to host a celebration this year .
For Talarico , the move online gives her group an opportunity to organize its own space .
“ In my mind it ’ s like , okay , cool , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and we ’ ll make ours , ” she said about World Pride .
“ And then that way , ours can be way more focused on the different communities and people who really need this , and theirs can be focused on being white and mediocre.
” LGBTQ fundraising around Pride may take a hit this year Many LGBTQ organizations — from major movement funders like the Gil Foundation to local queer health clinics — coordinate their annual fundraising efforts around Pride month to hit their fundraising goals for the year .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a large percentage of LGBTQ funding is raised during the month of June , when most Pride marches and celebrations are held .
Organizations don ’ t necessarily fundraise directly at Pride festivals or marches , but often hold in-person fundraisers and funding campaigns throughout the month when visibility of LGBTQ people and concerns are at their strongest .
But the Covid-19 shutdown means those events won ’ t be happening this year and may look dramatically different next year .
Many organizations have already turned to online fundraising campaigns in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Trans Justice Funding Project , for example , pools smaller donations to make grants for community projects run by and generally benefiting the trans community .
In years past , the grant-making process was facilitated through in-person meetings , typically in New York City , where the organization ’ s grant-making fellows would decide who gets the grants .
This year , however , the organization has moved to online meetings to have those discussions .
“ As most people have had to pivot to try to figure out how to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experiencing that , ” said Foster .
But of bigger concern for Foster is how the economy will affect fundraising , rather than the medium the fundraising occurs through .
Over the last three weeks , 22 million people have filed initial claims for unemployment insurance .
While larger LGBTQ organizations may have institutional funders , smaller groups like the Trans Justice Funding Project generally do not .
“ I just really hope that people will support [ trans communities ] in any way possible beyond Pride , ” said Foster .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because this is going to be a long haul for us all .
And it has always been a long haul for trans communities trying to make magic out of very little , but this is what they have always done.
” Masjid al-Rabia typically raises a large portion of their annual budget in the months of May and June because they tend to coincide with Ramadan and Pride , according to Lynn .
This year , Covid-19 has doubled the fundraising pressure faced by the organization .
Last week , they launched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that directly funds the basic needs of queer and trans Muslims in the Chicago area who are struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic .
Within the first 24 hours , the program received enough requests to exhaust its $ 10,000 seed money .
“ We ’ re trying to get more rapid-response funding from foundations , social justice organizations , and trying to just get the money out , ” she said .
“ What is happening everywhere right now in response to the pandemic that we ’ re in is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are resources.
” Some larger LGBTQ organizations have seen this need and responded with immediate campaigns .
On Sunday night , queer media advocacy group GLAAD hosted an online event called “ Together in Pride , ” which raised money for local LGBTQ organizations and health care providers .
The event featured live performances from Barbra Streisand and Pose ’ s MJ Rodriguez , among many others , and a short message from former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg .
The online World Pride event will raise money for Interpride ’ s Solidarity Fund @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in locations around the world that are actively hostile or dangerous for LGBTQ people .
Meanwhile , groups like Masjid al-Rabia just hope they aren ’ t forgotten about when the rainbow ads , from the groups that can afford them , pop up in June .
“ The best way that you can trust that you ’ re serving your community and a community that doesn ’ t leave anyone behind — not just that gay world that serves wealthy white gays and lesbians — is to give it to small community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Last June, about 2.5 million revelers flocked to WorldPride in New York City for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the rebellion against anti-queer policing that Pride is meant to commemorate. The atmosphere was joyous, the parade most notable for its scale: a record 150,000 people marched down 5th Avenue, past the Stonewall National Monument, and through Manhattan. Lady Gaga, Madonna, and Kim Petras were among the many performers who played in festivals throughout the week — all in celebration of the progress LGBTQ people and rights have made over the last half-century.
But this year’s Pride will look much, much different. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s just no way to facilitate in-person festivals for the foreseeable future.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that NYC Pride — along with every other mass gathering event in the city in June — will be canceled. This follows a larger pattern of other cities around the world forgoing in-person Prides this year.
“Over the last month, we’ve had now about 280 Prides globally that have canceled or postponed because of Covid-19,” said Steve Taylor, board member of the European Pride Organizers Association (EPOA).
Pride organizers say the show will go on, though — albeit in a much different format. The EPOA and InterPride, a consortium of local Pride organizations in the US and internationally, are organizing a massive, worldwide Pride event to be held exclusively online.
BREAKING - NYC Pride, along with all other "non essential permitted events in June" -- CANCELED, Mayor DeBlasio announces. #abc7NY — Derick Waller (@wallerABC7) April 20, 2020
The plan is to hold a rolling 24-hour online Global Pride on June 27, the anniversary of Stonewall, which will feature musical performances, speeches, and other Pride-related content each hour. While it’s too early to say who exactly will be a part of the online Global Pride — InterPride also organizes a WorldPride every few years in different cities — Taylor said that organizers have partnered with national Pride networks in the US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and the UK, as well as organizations in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Oceania region. The hope is to coordinate it so that local Prides — from Sydney to San Francisco — will have 15 minutes of their own based on their time zone.
“We’re going to start from the East and obviously make our way to the West,” said Julian Sanjivan co-president of InterPride. “It’s going to be a very interesting production. We are looking at not just entertainment pieces but human rights components [as well].”
But the over-the-top celebrations that have become synonymous with Pride are only one aspect of its mission. Another huge part of Pride month is advocacy. Smaller LGBTQ groups often depend on fundraising from Pride-related events to help serve their communities throughout the year. And now amid the pandemic, many are afraid their efforts may get lost in a sea of online need this year.
“Right now, nobody knows what to expect,” said Mahdia Lynn, executive director of Masjid al-Rabia, a small Muslim community center in Chicago that was founded by and for trans, queer, and disabled Muslims. Last year during Pride month, Masjid al-Rabia collected about $10,000. But this year, the organization won’t be able to hold any in-person fundraising events.
“We have lowered the expectation of how much we’re going to raise,” said Lynn. “Our original goal was to increase the fundraising that we had last year by at least half and ideally to double it, and now instead, our plan is to just aim to maintain what we raised last year.”
But while fundraising goals stay the same, need among the most vulnerable in the LGBTQ community will grow as the pandemic stretches on because the LGBTQ community was already suffering from higher rates of unemployment, food insecurity, and lack of insurance before the pandemic. Visibility — of not just celebration but for community support — will be more important than ever.
The importance of — and complications in — taking Pride online
The folks behind this year’s online Pride felt it was important not to skip a year as Pride can be important to queer people who are attending for the first time.
“Every Pride organizer that you talk to will have a story about someone that has come to their Pride, whose life has been changed by Pride,” said Taylor. “It might be the first time in their life that they felt safe, that they felt part of the community, that they felt valued and loved or that they felt surrounded by people who are like them rather than feeling like an outsider. It’s really critical for Pride organizers — because we believe passionately in our movement and its transformative effects on people — that we find a way to deliver that event in a safe way [during the pandemic].”
Organizers admit that it won’t be the same as previous in-person celebrations, but they also hope that the online format will bring Pride to countries that are actively hostile to the existence of LGBTQ people, such as Poland or Saudi Arabia.
“One of the really good things about Global Pride is that it will allow people in, for example, Subsaharan Africa or in the countries in the Middle East where being LGBT either is illegal or even attracts the death penalty, it will allow them to take part in Pride,” said Taylor.
Even in countries considered “progressive” or safe, LGBTQ rights has a way to go. Last Friday, news broke that the Trump administration was finalizing an Affordable Care Act rule that would allow health care discrimination against LGBTQ people. The community also waits for Supreme Court decisions on whether employers can, under federal civil rights law, legally fire people for being queer or trans.
In the UK, Women and Equalities Minister Liz Truss gave a speech to Parliament’s Women and Equalities Select Committee on April 22 indicating that the country’s Equality Act could be revised to keep trans women out of women’s spaces and trans teens could be barred from accessing any gender-affirming health care.
The internet isn’t immune to homophobia and transphobia, and there are security concerns to consider when taking Pride online. While plans are still in the early stages, organizers told Vox that they hope to partner with a larger platform, like Facebook, in order to facilitate Global Pride. They envision the rolling entertainment format alongside a chat box or comment system that allows participants to send messages or photos.
But that opens the door to potential brigading from trolls. Swarming a third-party online event is nothing new, but it has seen a resurgence during the pandemic. Reports have emerged of “Zoombombing,” where uninvited trolls crash a video call in order to harass participants with racist, homophobic, or anti-Semitic hate speech.
Global Pride organizers are trying to prepare for that possibility. “We’ll have people from the community moderating those comments so that we don’t get trolls posting transphobic or biphobic or homophobic comments,” said Taylor. “Obviously, it’s slightly more difficult on social media, but certainly in terms of the livestream, that will definitely be moderated. It will be a safe space as much as we can make it, the same as it was the same as any Pride would be.”
The corporatization of Pride versus protest
The first Pride march in 1970 was relatively small and community-based, and meant to commemorate the Stonewall Riots from the previous year. Many of the earliest Prides were more overtly political than the annual rainbow extravaganzas seen now, advocating for the decriminalization of homo- and transsexuality.
But over the years, Pride has become a way for corporations to virtue-signal their support for LGBTQ people. Last year’s WorldPride celebration in New York City featured many official corporate sponsors (T-Mobile, L’Oreal, and Hyatt Hotels), and Pride marches from Portland, Maine, to Seattle, Washington, are filled to the brim with corporate floats and cisgender heterosexual allies marching alongside.
In 2017, the protest group No Justice No Pride disrupted DC’s Capital Pride, an InterPride partner, in part because of the parade’s support for police marching in the parade, but also over its corporate focus.
“When we targeted them, we were targeting a power structure and we were targeting the symbols that build up that power structure within Capital Pride,” said Emmelia Talarico, director of No Justice No Pride. Talarico said that Capital Pride feels the need to cater to corporate interests because organizers get a raw deal on funding from the city, which benefits from the thousands of tourists Pride draws every year.
While specific sponsors haven’t yet been announced for Global Pride, corporate interest is expected to follow the move online. “These things have to be paid for; it’s very difficult to pay for a Pride without corporate income,” said Taylor. “Actually, it’s better that corporates pay for it than the people who attend Pride pay for it. Even if it’s only $10, as soon as you have to pay to attend a Pride, it’s going to exclude people.”
Taylor said that corporate support for Pride gives multinational corporations a chance to show support for their LGBTQ employees, “as long as it sits within an ethical framework.” But therein lies the problem for protesters, who say that many of these companies do not operate ethically. This is how you end up with Lockheed Martin Pride floats at Capital Pride in 2018, supporting white and Western queers while profiting off the bombing of the same Middle Eastern countries Taylor hopes his online Pride will reach this year. Meanwhile, T-Mobile, a presenting sponsor for NYC Pride in 2019 and 2020, has been criticized by LGBTQ union rights group Pride at Work for its anti-union actions.
Moving in-person Pride online could result in a nonstop corporate lovefest and leave less room for the visibility of everyday queer people, advocates worry. In years past, many protests have shut down or delayed Pride marches that had strayed too far from the original mission. In Toronto in 2016, Black Lives Matter protesters halted the march for several hours to object to the presence of police at the parade. But with strict online moderation, advocates wonder: How many queer voices of protest will be shut out this year?
“The people who protest against Pride, I think they missed the point,” said Taylor. “Actually, it’s surely better to get behind Pride and celebrate what Pride offers and the human rights that we campaign for and the equality that we celebrate rather than, you know, picking a fight with a few volunteers just trying to create an inclusive event for our community.”
While many major cities will be joining up with Global Pride, some — like Denver, Colorado — are organizing their own local online Pride celebrations. Others have just postponed their Pride parades, hoping the pandemic lockdowns will lift in time to host a celebration this year.
For Talarico, the move online gives her group an opportunity to organize its own space. “In my mind it’s like, okay, cool, let them have their own digital space and we’ll make ours,” she said about Global Pride. “And then that way, ours can be way more focused on the different communities and people who really need this, and theirs can be focused on being white and mediocre.”
LGBTQ fundraising around Pride may take a hit this year
Many LGBTQ organizations — from major movement funders like the Gil Foundation to local queer health clinics — coordinate their annual fundraising efforts around Pride month to hit their fundraising goals for the year. While exact numbers are difficult to calculate, a large percentage of LGBTQ funding is raised during the month of June, when most Pride marches and celebrations are held. Organizations don’t necessarily fundraise directly at Pride festivals or marches, but often hold in-person fundraisers and funding campaigns throughout the month when visibility of LGBTQ people and concerns are at their strongest.
But the Covid-19 shutdown means those events won’t be happening this year and may look dramatically different next year.
Many organizations have already turned to online fundraising campaigns in the hope of stop-gapping their budget holes. The Trans Justice Funding Project, for example, pools smaller donations to make grants for community projects run by and generally benefiting the trans community. In years past, the grant-making process was facilitated through in-person meetings, typically in New York City, where the organization’s grant-making fellows would decide who gets the grants.
This year, however, the organization has moved to online meetings to have those discussions. “As most people have had to pivot to try to figure out how to do things all virtually, we are also experiencing that,” said Foster. But of bigger concern for Foster is how the economy will affect fundraising, rather than the medium the fundraising occurs through. Over the last three weeks, 22 million people have filed initial claims for unemployment insurance. While larger LGBTQ organizations may have institutional funders, smaller groups like the Trans Justice Funding Project generally do not.
“I just really hope that people will support [trans communities] in any way possible beyond Pride,” said Foster. “Then also for the long term, because this is going to be a long haul for us all. And it has always been a long haul for trans communities trying to make magic out of very little, but this is what they have always done.”
Masjid al-Rabia typically raises a large portion of their annual budget in the months of May and June because they tend to coincide with Ramadan and Pride, according to Lynn. This year, Covid-19 has doubled the fundraising pressure faced by the organization.
Last week, they launched Radical Muslim Mutual Aid, a program that directly funds the basic needs of queer and trans Muslims in the Chicago area who are struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic. Within the first 24 hours, the program received enough requests to exhaust its $10,000 seed money.
“We’re trying to get more rapid-response funding from foundations, social justice organizations, and trying to just get the money out,” she said. “What is happening everywhere right now in response to the pandemic that we’re in is there is far more need than there are resources.”
Some larger LGBTQ organizations have seen this need and responded with immediate campaigns. On Sunday night, queer media advocacy group GLAAD hosted an online event called “Together in Pride,” which raised money for local LGBTQ organizations and health care providers. The event featured live performances from Barbra Streisand and Pose’s MJ Rodriguez, among many others, and a short message from former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
The online Global Pride event will raise money for InterPride’s Solidarity Fund, which goes toward building Pride events in locations around the world that are actively hostile or dangerous for LGBTQ people.
Meanwhile, groups like Masjid al-Rabia just hope they aren’t forgotten about when the rainbow ads, from the groups that can afford them, pop up in June. “The best way that you can trust that you’re serving your community and a community that doesn’t leave anyone behind — not just that gay world that serves wealthy white gays and lesbians — is to give it to small community organizations,” Lynn said.


vox--2020-04-29--The birth control wars return to the Supreme Court. And this time, conservatives have the votes.

Next Wednesday , the Supreme Court will hear a pair of cases , Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Trump v. Pennsylvania , which could write the final chapter in a multi-year struggle over whether employers with religious objections to birth control may deny insurance coverage of contraceptives to their employees .
With two Trump appointees occupying seats on the Supreme Court , the Court is now far more conservative than it was four years ago , when a similar birth control case reached the justices .
It is likely , in other words , that religious conservatives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Pennsylvania cases — one that would mean many individuals could be left without birth control coverage .
The question of whether people with a religious objection to a particular law must follow that law is now a mainstay of the Supreme Court ’ s docket .
The Court will hear another case in its next term presenting the question of whether people with anti-LGBTQ religious beliefs may discriminate against same-sex couples , and it last took up a case involving religious objections to contraception in Zubik v. Burwell ( 2016 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after Justice Antonin Scalia ’ s death left the Court divided 4-4 on which side should prevail .
Now , however , the Supreme Court has five solidly conservative Republicans , so there will likely be a majority ready to grant expansive legal exemptions to religious conservatives .
The specific legal issue at stake in the Pennsylvania cases is slightly different from the one at issue in Zubik , largely because the current administration is extraordinarily sympathetic to religious conservatives .
Past Supreme Court cases asked whether religious objectors may defy federal regulations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their employees — or , at the very least , to participate in some minimal way in a government program that provides birth control coverage to workers .
The Pennsylvania cases , by contrast , involve challenges to Trump administration regulations giving many employers broad exemptions from the general rule that employee health plans must cover contraception .
Under these regulations , employers that are not publicly traded may refuse to provide birth control coverage if they object to birth control , either on religious grounds or due to a “ sincerely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there is a fairly high chance that the Supreme Court will rule that broad exemptions for religious objectors are mandatory , regardless of whether the incumbent administration supports those exemptions .
It is less clear , however , whether the exemption for “ moral ” objections will be upheld .
What ’ s happened in the legal fight over religion and birth control so far Until about six years ago , religious objectors stood on very weak ground if they sought to deny a right to their employees .
As the Supreme Court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1982 ) , “ when followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice , the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity.
” Thus , an employer generally could not impose its religious views on third parties that do not share those views .
The turning point came in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby ( 2014 ) , after regulations promulgated under the Affordable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cover contraception .
Hobby Lobby held that the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act ( RFRA ) allows many employers that object to birth control on religious grounds to exclude contraceptive coverage from their employees ’ health plans .
Hobby Lobby was hugely significant as a matter of legal doctrine , as it effectively eradicated the old rule that religious objectors many not undercut the rights of third parties .
But the Court ’ s opinion in that case appeared to be fairly limited in scope .
Justice Samuel Alito ’ s opinion for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , rather than requiring all employers to provide birth control coverage directly to employees , the Obama administration could have achieved the same goal more indirectly .
Under this indirect approach , an employer could “ self-certify that it opposes providing coverage for particular contraceptive services.
” Once that happened , the government could make a separate arrangement with the insurer that runs the employer ’ s health plan , which would ensure that the employer ’ s workers receive coverage for birth control .
After the Obama administration took up the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use this more indirect method of providing contraceptive care , some religious employers objected to the process the Supreme Court appeared to endorse in Hobby Lobby .
The result was a second round of litigation , which culminated in the Zubik decision .
Yet with the Court apparently split 4-4 on the proper outcome in Zubik , that decision did little more than punt the case back to the lower courts .
The broader question of whether employers can wield their religious objections to deny birth control coverage to their employees remains unresolved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases want the Supreme Court to decide vastly different questions The striking thing about the briefs in the Pennsylvania cases is that the two sides want the justices to resolve very different issues .
The states challenging the Trump administration ’ s regulations push for a narrow , highly technical decision tossing out those regulations because the administration did not jump through some required procedural hoops .
Meanwhile , both the Trump administration and an order of nuns that hope to preserve the administration ’ s broad exemption for religious objectors ask the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ religious conservatives sought in Zubik .
( The order of nuns , known as the Little Sisters of the Poor , are not an original party to this lawsuit , but a federal appeals court permitted them to “ intervene ” in the case , thus giving them many of the same rights to litigate the case as an actual party . )
As a general rule , federal agencies must go through a process known as “ notice and comment ” before a new regulation can take effect .
Under this process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is made public so that anyone can comment on it , and the administration normally must respond to these comments before the new rule can take effect .
But the Trump administration bypassed notice and comment when it created the strong exemptions for religious and moral objectors at the heart of the Pennsylvania case , although it did retroactively put the exemptions through notice and comment after they were already in effect .
According to a federal appeals court that struck down the exemptions , this backward process is not allowed .
Though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ notice and comment because of “ the urgent need to alleviate harm to those with religious objections to the current regulations , ” the lower court rejected this argument .
“ All regulations are directed toward reducing harm in some manner , ” Judge Patty Shwartz explained for the lower court .
So if harm reduction were sufficient reason to bypass notice and comment , that process wouldn ’ t need to exist .
If the states convince the Supreme Court to embrace a similar rationale , that will delay resolution of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but it probably won ’ t do so for long .
The Trump administration could always reinstate broad exemptions by going through a proper notice and comment period .
And even if Trump leaves office before this process is complete , religious objectors could still file a new lawsuit claiming they have a statutory or constitutional right to deny contraceptive coverage to their employees .
Meanwhile , both the Trump administration and the nuns argue that the broad exemptions supported by the administration are mandated by law .
As the nuns claim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not only permits , but affirmatively requires , the Final Rule.
” Indeed , the Trump administration argues that the very same self-certification process that the Court appeared to endorse in Hobby Lobby does not provide enough protection to religious objectors .
“ As became clear in litigation following Hobby Lobby , ” the administration claims , “ some employers hold the sincere religious belief that participating in a process by which their employees receive contraceptive coverage ‘ makes them complicit in providing [ that ] coverage , ’ even if the coverage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” And so , the administration claims , these religious employers have an absolute right to refuse to participate in any way in a regime that helps provide contraceptive coverage to others , even if it means than many individuals will be denied access to birth control coverage .
The Court might rule that the administration ’ s “ moral ” exemption goes too far Given the Supreme Court ’ s Republican majority , and the way the two parties have polarized on the question of religious exemptions for conservative Christians , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pennsylvania cases will be resolved .
Though there is an off chance that the Supreme Court will agree that the Trump administration didn ’ t follow the proper notice and comment procedure , it is very likely that five justices will back a broad exemption for religious objectors .
That said , it is unclear where the Trump administration derives the power to create a freestanding exemption for people with “ sincerely held moral ” objections to birth control .
Shwartz ’ s opinion leaves open the possibility that the RFRA may permit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provided that it jumps through the appropriate procedural hoops first .
But the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act .
It ’ s not the Moral Freedom Restoration Act .
Alternatively , the administration argues that the power to create a moral exemption flows from the Affordable Care Act , which allows a federal agency to provide “ comprehensive guidelines ” regarding which forms of women ’ s preventive care shall be made available in employer health plans .
But the purpose of the Affordable Care Act is to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal government the power to deny coverage to certain workers .
And the Court ’ s Republican majority is often wary of arguments that would give a federal agency broad power to set national policy without sufficient guidance from Congress on what that policy should be .
So while there are likely to be five votes in favor of a broad religious exemption , the fate of the Trump administration ’ s novel “ moral ” exemption is less certain .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Next Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a pair of cases, Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Trump v. Pennsylvania, which could write the final chapter in a multi-year struggle over whether employers with religious objections to birth control may deny insurance coverage of contraceptives to their employees.
With two Trump appointees occupying seats on the Supreme Court, the Court is now far more conservative than it was four years ago, when a similar birth control case reached the justices. It is likely, in other words, that religious conservatives can look forward to a big win in the Pennsylvania cases — one that would mean many individuals could be left without birth control coverage.
The question of whether people with a religious objection to a particular law must follow that law is now a mainstay of the Supreme Court’s docket. The Court will hear another case in its next term presenting the question of whether people with anti-LGBTQ religious beliefs may discriminate against same-sex couples, and it last took up a case involving religious objections to contraception in Zubik v. Burwell (2016).
But the Zubik case largely fizzled after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the Court divided 4-4 on which side should prevail. Now, however, the Supreme Court has five solidly conservative Republicans, so there will likely be a majority ready to grant expansive legal exemptions to religious conservatives.
The specific legal issue at stake in the Pennsylvania cases is slightly different from the one at issue in Zubik, largely because the current administration is extraordinarily sympathetic to religious conservatives. Past Supreme Court cases asked whether religious objectors may defy federal regulations requiring most employers to provide contraceptive coverage to their employees — or, at the very least, to participate in some minimal way in a government program that provides birth control coverage to workers.
The Pennsylvania cases, by contrast, involve challenges to Trump administration regulations giving many employers broad exemptions from the general rule that employee health plans must cover contraception. Under these regulations, employers that are not publicly traded may refuse to provide birth control coverage if they object to birth control, either on religious grounds or due to a “sincerely held moral” conviction.
Nevertheless, there is a fairly high chance that the Supreme Court will rule that broad exemptions for religious objectors are mandatory, regardless of whether the incumbent administration supports those exemptions. It is less clear, however, whether the exemption for “moral” objections will be upheld.
What’s happened in the legal fight over religion and birth control so far
Until about six years ago, religious objectors stood on very weak ground if they sought to deny a right to their employees. As the Supreme Court held in United States v. Lee (1982), “when followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice, the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity.”
Thus, an employer generally could not impose its religious views on third parties that do not share those views.
The turning point came in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), after regulations promulgated under the Affordable Care Act began requiring insurance plans to cover contraception. Hobby Lobby held that the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows many employers that object to birth control on religious grounds to exclude contraceptive coverage from their employees’ health plans.
Hobby Lobby was hugely significant as a matter of legal doctrine, as it effectively eradicated the old rule that religious objectors many not undercut the rights of third parties. But the Court’s opinion in that case appeared to be fairly limited in scope. Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion for the Court leaned hard into the fact that, rather than requiring all employers to provide birth control coverage directly to employees, the Obama administration could have achieved the same goal more indirectly.
Under this indirect approach, an employer could “self-certify that it opposes providing coverage for particular contraceptive services.” Once that happened, the government could make a separate arrangement with the insurer that runs the employer’s health plan, which would ensure that the employer’s workers receive coverage for birth control.
After the Obama administration took up the Supreme Court on its suggestion that it use this more indirect method of providing contraceptive care, some religious employers objected to the process the Supreme Court appeared to endorse in Hobby Lobby. The result was a second round of litigation, which culminated in the Zubik decision.
Yet with the Court apparently split 4-4 on the proper outcome in Zubik, that decision did little more than punt the case back to the lower courts. The broader question of whether employers can wield their religious objections to deny birth control coverage to their employees remains unresolved.
The two sides in the Pennsylvania cases want the Supreme Court to decide vastly different questions
The striking thing about the briefs in the Pennsylvania cases is that the two sides want the justices to resolve very different issues. The states challenging the Trump administration’s regulations push for a narrow, highly technical decision tossing out those regulations because the administration did not jump through some required procedural hoops.
Meanwhile, both the Trump administration and an order of nuns that hope to preserve the administration’s broad exemption for religious objectors ask the Court for the same sweeping victory that religious conservatives sought in Zubik. (The order of nuns, known as the Little Sisters of the Poor, are not an original party to this lawsuit, but a federal appeals court permitted them to “intervene” in the case, thus giving them many of the same rights to litigate the case as an actual party.)
As a general rule, federal agencies must go through a process known as “notice and comment” before a new regulation can take effect. Under this process, the text of a proposed regulation is made public so that anyone can comment on it, and the administration normally must respond to these comments before the new rule can take effect.
But the Trump administration bypassed notice and comment when it created the strong exemptions for religious and moral objectors at the heart of the Pennsylvania case, although it did retroactively put the exemptions through notice and comment after they were already in effect.
According to a federal appeals court that struck down the exemptions, this backward process is not allowed. Though the administration argued that it could bypass notice and comment because of “the urgent need to alleviate harm to those with religious objections to the current regulations,” the lower court rejected this argument.
“All regulations are directed toward reducing harm in some manner,” Judge Patty Shwartz explained for the lower court. So if harm reduction were sufficient reason to bypass notice and comment, that process wouldn’t need to exist.
If the states convince the Supreme Court to embrace a similar rationale, that will delay resolution of the larger issues presented in the Pennsylvania cases, but it probably won’t do so for long. The Trump administration could always reinstate broad exemptions by going through a proper notice and comment period. And even if Trump leaves office before this process is complete, religious objectors could still file a new lawsuit claiming they have a statutory or constitutional right to deny contraceptive coverage to their employees.
Meanwhile, both the Trump administration and the nuns argue that the broad exemptions supported by the administration are mandated by law. As the nuns claim in their brief, the RFRA “not only permits, but affirmatively requires, the Final Rule.”
Indeed, the Trump administration argues that the very same self-certification process that the Court appeared to endorse in Hobby Lobby does not provide enough protection to religious objectors. “As became clear in litigation following Hobby Lobby,” the administration claims, “some employers hold the sincere religious belief that participating in a process by which their employees receive contraceptive coverage ‘makes them complicit in providing [that] coverage,’ even if the coverage is actually paid for by other parties.”
And so, the administration claims, these religious employers have an absolute right to refuse to participate in any way in a regime that helps provide contraceptive coverage to others, even if it means than many individuals will be denied access to birth control coverage.
The Court might rule that the administration’s “moral” exemption goes too far
Given the Supreme Court’s Republican majority, and the way the two parties have polarized on the question of religious exemptions for conservative Christians, there isn’t much doubt how the Pennsylvania cases will be resolved. Though there is an off chance that the Supreme Court will agree that the Trump administration didn’t follow the proper notice and comment procedure, it is very likely that five justices will back a broad exemption for religious objectors.
That said, it is unclear where the Trump administration derives the power to create a freestanding exemption for people with “sincerely held moral” objections to birth control. Shwartz’s opinion leaves open the possibility that the RFRA may permit the administration to create religious exemptions — provided that it jumps through the appropriate procedural hoops first. But the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It’s not the Moral Freedom Restoration Act.
Alternatively, the administration argues that the power to create a moral exemption flows from the Affordable Care Act, which allows a federal agency to provide “comprehensive guidelines” regarding which forms of women’s preventive care shall be made available in employer health plans.
But the purpose of the Affordable Care Act is to expand coverage, not to give the federal government the power to deny coverage to certain workers. And the Court’s Republican majority is often wary of arguments that would give a federal agency broad power to set national policy without sufficient guidance from Congress on what that policy should be.
So while there are likely to be five votes in favor of a broad religious exemption, the fate of the Trump administration’s novel “moral” exemption is less certain.


vox--2020-04-29--When the cherry trees bloom for no one

When the cherry trees bloom for no one

This story is being published in partnership with Epic Magazine .
On the afternoon of March 11 , 2011 , an hour after a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific seabed 43 miles off the coast of Japan , a colossal ocean wave crashed ashore .
The resulting tsunami killed more than 15,000 people — washing away entire cities and surging over sea-walls , including those around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant .
With several employees drowned and the surrounding areas evacuated , the plant suffered three meltdowns , and hundreds of workers remained behind to stave off further @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fukushima 50 , ” these men — still largely unidentified to the public — slept on floors , cooling reactors with seawater while subsisting on starvation rations , unable to spare even enough potable water to heat up an instant ramen bowl .
It is largely thanks to their efforts that , despite the decades of nuclear clean-up ahead , some semblance of life would again return to Fukushima .
And it did : Last spring , for the first time since the disaster , locals returned to a forbidden zone of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cherry trees .
Only a year later , however , a very different disaster is now keeping people away once more .
At the moment , on the other side of the ocean , even the changing of the seasons largely feels like a theoretical event .
Looking through my front window , spring has sprung in my garden and down the street , but I only brush against it on quick walks or on a furtive trip to the grocery store .
I am one of the lucky ones ; for many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the outdoors will be en route to a doctor ’ s office or even the emergency room .
In the grand scheme of things , the worst misfortune I ’ ve faced has been trifling — our global lockdown coming as it did on the cusp of something I ’ d never seen but always wanted to : the bloom of those cherry blossoms .
The sakura , the cherry tree in bloom , holds a singular place in the cultural tradition of Japan not merely as a national metonym like the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and spiritual symbol of deep power .
The Buddhist-inflected concept of mono no aware — a bittersweet pathos born from the recognition that all things are impermanent , all beauty fleeting — is most memorably exemplified in those few days of springtime when cherry trees reach full bloom .
Hanami , or flower-viewing , becomes a social event .
While peach , plum , and pear trees may also sprout beautiful flowers for us to marvel at , it ’ s the cherry blossoms whose petals fall within days , their transience making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So what happens when the cherry trees bloom for no one ?
With shelter-in-place orders confining so many of us at home , our living rooms , kitchens , and bedrooms have become the unlikely battlefield where the spread of the coronavirus is to be halted .
To combat a threat we can not see , touch , or taste , most of us have to stay indoors , forgoing the things we ’ d most love to see , touch , or taste .
The result this spring — at least , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meant forgoing the long-awaited cherry blossoms .
Unless , of course , I could beat the clock and find a blooming cherry tree somewhere in Los Angeles , one I wouldn ’ t have to scale a fence or vault over a wall to see .
After just a week or so of sheltering in place , I needed to get out of my apartment and out of my head .
Even a frenzied grocery store sounded like a compelling destination , despite the confusing welter of mixed messaging and clashing information about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only ventured outdoors for short evening walks , I realized that I needed a longer stretch of time away from home , in a way that wouldn ’ t endanger myself or others .
Like a thirsty plant , I needed to store nutrients — memories , images , scents — for the many dull weeks yet to come .
Like a thirsty plant , I needed to store nutrients — memories , images , scents — for the many dull weeks yet to come Weeks on , as ICUs grow crowded , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and impoverishment spreads , there are much graver concerns than flower-spotting .
When still just socially distanced for a week , I reviewed a list published in the Los Angeles Times of gardens in Southern California where a full bloom could be seen .
If I was going to see the sakura in person , I ’ d have to move fast .
It was already mid-March , the bloom was peaking , and while the rest of society had shut down , parks and outdoor recreational facilities around LA County were still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was an unprecedented question .
The close confines of restaurants , bars , and museums were obvious vectors for the transmission of the virus .
But would outdoor attractions , like Griffith Park ’ s hiking trails , be too dangerous to keep open ?
The La Brea Tar Pits ?
The ocean overlook at Point Dume ?
After an initially agnostic view toward the shutdown of such natural spaces , Los Angeles ended up doing precisely that .
Following a weekend in which people had dangerously overcrowded the beaches and trails , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on social media and from friends , that these “ irresponsible few ” had ruined things for everybody .
I don ’ t know about that , but thinking of blossom-gazing , I could understand the temptation to think so .
In a time dominated by perfectly curated and aesthetically pleasing Instagram grids , so many activities today have become just another mean , fast , cheap kind of accumulation .
That has often come at the expense of the experience .
Gardens are trampled , paths choked , petals prodded .
Of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since that Times list ’ s publication on March 12 .
Pasadena ’ s Huntington Library , home to a stately Japanese garden rife with Pink Cloud cherry trees , first closed its indoor exhibits , then all its gardens soon after .
Descanso Gardens , in La Cañada Flintridge , began broadcasting its Pink Star and Yoshino Cherry trees flowering on its lovely online “ bloom tracker , ” but it will be closed to in-person visitors for the duration of the show .
The annual cherry blossom festivals held in West @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — cities with some of the largest populations of Japanese Americans in the country — were delayed until late spring or canceled altogether .
This was no local trend , of course .
Washington , DC , officials felt it necessary to actively discourage tourism , pleading with gawkers to avoid visiting the magnificent cherry trees ringing the Tidal Basin there .
While the Melania Trump urged visitors to satisfy themselves with the National Park Service ’ s “ BloomCam , ” overseas sakura-gazing took an even bigger hit .
Currently , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , can be most safely viewed via drone , and Japan is missing a massive influx of international tourists eager to see the country at its most beautiful .
Foreign tourism numbers dropped 50 percent this year for Japan , right at the time they should be tracking upward .
This , combined with the news that the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics would be pushed back a year , was surely a devastating blow not only to Japan , but to its long-serving , ultranationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe , who ’ d @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to his efforts rejuvenating the nation ’ s economy .
Sitting here on the other side of the Pacific , wondering where all the flowers had gone , the economic situation didn ’ t ( and doesn ’ t ) feel so rosy , either .
With some experts estimating the US unemployment rate could reach 30 percent — exceeding the worst joblessness of the Great Depression — the other obvious contagion most of us seem to be facing right now is fear .
As the philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from man ’ s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
” I suspect , for those still working or facing incipient financial ruin or simply going stir-crazy trying to homeschool their kids , that sitting alone in a room sounds pretty idyllic right now .
Still , deprived of all of the normal routines of life and all of the diversions and responsibilities we find in the world outside our homes , I ’ ve certainly found myself encountering a similar question : How are we to live in such strange @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do , shut up in our rooms , solitary or not , until this passes ?
After all , I was lucky enough that boredom was my main problem .
With no children at home or elderly relatives in the house — still employed , living in a space of my own — I had the luxury of simply going outside .
After eating all the perishable food I could hoard and playing video games till I had two black eyes , a change of scenery was sorely needed , if only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ questions I kept thinking up in solitude .
What if things did not return to the way they were before the pandemic ?
What if some of the restaurants or movie theaters or bookstores I love didn ’ t reopen in a couple of months , if ever ?
What if all of those working-class institutions — the ones that give communities actual character and personality — are pushed into the dustbin in the ceaseless effort to make every city , every neighborhood , equally mediocre and overpriced ?
It had never occurred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to not just kill our neighbors , but to also change the landscape forever .
I had to bank some credit , and there was one last garden in Los Angeles still open to the public where some cherry trees might still be blooming .
But if I waited much longer , perhaps even a day , it , too , could be shut down .
It was already mid-afternoon , and I ’ d wanted so much to see the cherry blossoms this year .
Putting on a belt for the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gloves for the first time ever in California , I started my car and pulled onto an unnaturally placid freeway .
Driving for the first time in weeks , I again thought about sacrifice .
Despite the bitterness some Japanese felt toward the Fukushima Daiichi workers , employed as they were by a corporation guilty of wanton negligence , it felt hard not to concede their crisis efforts had not embodied the Japanese ethos known as wa — a notion of mutual aid and communal concern .
This had kept these men working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most needed , on behalf of their neighbors and communities .
How were Americans now stepping up and doing the same ?
I thought about our nurses , some of them my relatives , working tirelessly , entering wards full of people struggling for breath , as we all isolate .
Our neighbors — bus drivers , postal workers , nursing home caretakers , gardeners , social workers , grocery stockers — are keeping society together , even if their aim is just to make rent .
Yet I couldn ’ t help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ masses had been quintessentially American .
Our first response had been : We must buy ourselves out of the problem .
But for the first time in my life , even after all the previous economic calamities I ’ d lived through , the shelves had gone bare .
Amid all the miscommunication , bad info , and the near-collapse of supply chains under the strain , scared consumers rushed to get not just what we need but everything we could get .
Stopping by four supermarkets near Palos Verdes , most lacked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had any paper goods left at all .
How long could everyone still working to keep society functioning go on this way , I wondered ?
Would life ever resume its normal tenor ?
Should it ?
And are there any cherry trees in bloom at this garden ?
Would life ever resume its normal tenor ?
Should it ?
And are there any cherry trees in bloom at this garden ?
This last one I asked out loud , to the ticket vendor at South Coast Botanic Garden .
She wore thick @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pm .
A sign exhorted visitors to keep distance from others .
She explained the heavy rains from the previous days might have knocked all the blossoms off the cherry trees around the koi pond .
I should try the Sakura Meadow , which she circled on the map .
I walked along the path to the meadow , under the shade of a heavy banyan grove .
The roots of the vast trees twisted under the asphalt , powerful enough to bunch up and crack the paving .
Reentering the afternoon sunlight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clutching a twig in their beaks .
And then , in front of me , the Sakura Meadow .
Standing a foot away from the tree , it was the color , the pale pink color , which popped out at me , these fine little flowers in a constellation .
The few other visitors had strolled away .
As I stood there , before the tree , a hummingbird , with a green velvety breast , flitted to the tree .
For the next two minutes , he buzzed from flower to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a threading needle , my jaw slack .
Gazing into the petals of the cherry tree , an impossible number of blossoms crowding each branch , all I could think was how last admission was at 4:30 pm .
The park would close at 5 ; knowing the way things were trending , who knew when it might reopen .
It didn ’ t seem possible these trees could be walled off , kept away from people .
I felt greedy , seeing so few people around me in the park — more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only figure this time thing out .
But perhaps I ’ d missed something important .
As eager as I ’ d been to see the cherry blossoms , I realized they were just one delicate , beautiful symbol of a truth I could have received anywhere : There is precious little on Earth I have control over beyond how I choose to live my life .
I may not be able to kick the door in on the storage units where price gougers have squirreled much-needed supplies — though I daydream about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what I need , when I need it , and maybe even go without at times .
The cherry blossoms will fall , whether I want them to or not , whether my timing is fair or poor , whether I visit or am confined to home .
Their beauty may bud for nobody at all , but even without an audience of day-trippers and Instagrammers , they will bud all the same — if not for a human audience , then at least for all the young rabbits and hummingbirds I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one last look at the cherry trees in bloom , the sun now beginning to set , another rabbit hopped out of a bush and through a flowerbed .
Many people , outside the walls of this garden , were already sick and did not know it .
Many more , in the coming weeks and months , would fall sick and die .
As painful as it might be to forgo the springtime this year , I know that slowing down life is nothing short of a godsend for humanity if it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
How right Matsuo Bashō was .
The 17th-century haiku master often wrote of “ our cherry blossom nature , ” that mindset sought through meditation , when a person is one with the Earth .
You never arrive at that point permanently .
At best , you rouse yourself back to attention and realize you ’ d been there for a minute or two .
I can ’ t know what exactly was in that hermit poet ’ s heart , centuries ago , as he trudged the roads of Edo-era Japan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in front of those pink blossoms , the wind taking some of the petals with each gust , that I was feeling the same things he felt .
It was unshakable , this feeling — that 300 years later , that same emotion , that awe , that wistfulness , was gripping me as it had gripped him .
In this garden , reclaimed from an old pit mine and LA County landfill .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vox today .

This story was published in partnership with Epic Magazine.
On the afternoon of March 11, 2011, an hour after a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific seabed 43 miles off the coast of Japan, a colossal ocean wave crashed ashore.
The resulting tsunami killed more than 15,000 people — washing away entire cities and surging over sea-walls, including those around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. With several employees drowned and the surrounding areas evacuated, the plant suffered three meltdowns, and hundreds of workers remained behind to stave off further damage. Later known as the “Fukushima 50,” these men — still largely unidentified to the public — slept on floors, cooling reactors with seawater while subsisting on starvation rations, unable to spare even enough potable water to heat up an instant ramen bowl.
It is largely thanks to their efforts that, despite the decades of nuclear clean-up ahead, some semblance of life would again return to Fukushima. And it did: Last spring, for the first time since the disaster, locals returned to a forbidden zone of the prefecture to witness the bloom of 420 cherry trees. Only a year later, however, a very different disaster is now keeping people away once more.
At the moment, on the other side of the ocean, even the changing of the seasons largely feels like a theoretical event. Looking through my front window, spring has sprung in my garden and down the street, but I only brush against it on quick walks or on a furtive trip to the grocery store.
I am one of the lucky ones; for many people, the most they will commune with the outdoors will be en route to a doctor’s office or even the emergency room. In the grand scheme of things, the worst misfortune I’ve faced has been trifling — our global lockdown coming as it did on the cusp of something I’d never seen but always wanted to: the bloom of those cherry blossoms.
The sakura, the cherry tree in bloom, holds a singular place in the cultural tradition of Japan not merely as a national metonym like the rising sun, but as an aesthetic and spiritual symbol of deep power. The Buddhist-inflected concept of mono no aware — a bittersweet pathos born from the recognition that all things are impermanent, all beauty fleeting — is most memorably exemplified in those few days of springtime when cherry trees reach full bloom. Hanami, or flower-viewing, becomes a social event. While peach, plum, and pear trees may also sprout beautiful flowers for us to marvel at, it’s the cherry blossoms whose petals fall within days, their transience making the sight all the more precious.
So what happens when the cherry trees bloom for no one? With shelter-in-place orders confining so many of us at home, our living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms have become the unlikely battlefield where the spread of the coronavirus is to be halted. To combat a threat we cannot see, touch, or taste, most of us have to stay indoors, forgoing the things we’d most love to see, touch, or taste. The result this spring — at least, for eager viewers like myself — has meant forgoing the long-awaited cherry blossoms.
Unless, of course, I could beat the clock and find a blooming cherry tree somewhere in Los Angeles, one I wouldn’t have to scale a fence or vault over a wall to see. After just a week or so of sheltering in place, I needed to get out of my apartment and out of my head. Even a frenzied grocery store sounded like a compelling destination, despite the confusing welter of mixed messaging and clashing information about how best to socially distance. Having only ventured outdoors for short evening walks, I realized that I needed a longer stretch of time away from home, in a way that wouldn’t endanger myself or others. Like a thirsty plant, I needed to store nutrients — memories, images, scents — for the many dull weeks yet to come.
Like a thirsty plant, I needed to store nutrients — memories, images, scents — for the many dull weeks yet to come
Weeks on, as ICUs grow crowded, memorial services are held via Zoom, and impoverishment spreads, there are much graver concerns than flower-spotting. When still just socially distanced for a week, I reviewed a list published in the Los Angeles Times of gardens in Southern California where a full bloom could be seen. If I was going to see the sakura in person, I’d have to move fast. It was already mid-March, the bloom was peaking, and while the rest of society had shut down, parks and outdoor recreational facilities around LA County were still wrestling with how to respond.
It was an unprecedented question. The close confines of restaurants, bars, and museums were obvious vectors for the transmission of the virus. But would outdoor attractions, like Griffith Park’s hiking trails, be too dangerous to keep open? The La Brea Tar Pits? The ocean overlook at Point Dume?
After an initially agnostic view toward the shutdown of such natural spaces, Los Angeles ended up doing precisely that. Following a weekend in which people had dangerously overcrowded the beaches and trails, I heard a lot of frustration, on social media and from friends, that these “irresponsible few” had ruined things for everybody. I don’t know about that, but thinking of blossom-gazing, I could understand the temptation to think so. In a time dominated by perfectly curated and aesthetically pleasing Instagram grids, so many activities today have become just another mean, fast, cheap kind of accumulation. That has often come at the expense of the experience. Gardens are trampled, paths choked, petals prodded.
Of course, the ground has shifted underfoot since that Times list’s publication on March 12. Pasadena’s Huntington Library, home to a stately Japanese garden rife with Pink Cloud cherry trees, first closed its indoor exhibits, then all its gardens soon after. Descanso Gardens, in La Cañada Flintridge, began broadcasting its Pink Star and Yoshino Cherry trees flowering on its lovely online “bloom tracker,” but it will be closed to in-person visitors for the duration of the show. The annual cherry blossom festivals held in West Covina, Torrance, and Monterey Park — cities with some of the largest populations of Japanese Americans in the country — were delayed until late spring or canceled altogether.
This was no local trend, of course. Washington, DC, officials felt it necessary to actively discourage tourism, pleading with gawkers to avoid visiting the magnificent cherry trees ringing the Tidal Basin there. While the Melania Trump urged visitors to satisfy themselves with the National Park Service’s “BloomCam,” overseas sakura-gazing took an even bigger hit. Currently, the cherry blossoms of locked-down Wuhan, China, can be most safely viewed via drone, and Japan is missing a massive influx of international tourists eager to see the country at its most beautiful. Foreign tourism numbers dropped 50 percent this year for Japan, right at the time they should be tracking upward. This, combined with the news that the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics would be pushed back a year, was surely a devastating blow not only to Japan, but to its long-serving, ultranationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who’d looked to the Games as a capstone to his efforts rejuvenating the nation’s economy.
Sitting here on the other side of the Pacific, wondering where all the flowers had gone, the economic situation didn’t (and doesn’t) feel so rosy, either. With some experts estimating the US unemployment rate could reach 30 percent — exceeding the worst joblessness of the Great Depression — the other obvious contagion most of us seem to be facing right now is fear. As the philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” I suspect, for those still working or facing incipient financial ruin or simply going stir-crazy trying to homeschool their kids, that sitting alone in a room sounds pretty idyllic right now.
Still, deprived of all of the normal routines of life and all of the diversions and responsibilities we find in the world outside our homes, I’ve certainly found myself encountering a similar question: How are we to live in such strange, frightening times? What are we to do, shut up in our rooms, solitary or not, until this passes? After all, I was lucky enough that boredom was my main problem. With no children at home or elderly relatives in the house — still employed, living in a space of my own — I had the luxury of simply going outside.
After eating all the perishable food I could hoard and playing video games till I had two black eyes, a change of scenery was sorely needed, if only to stop dwelling on all the new questions I kept thinking up in solitude. What if things did not return to the way they were before the pandemic? What if some of the restaurants or movie theaters or bookstores I love didn’t reopen in a couple of months, if ever? What if all of those working-class institutions — the ones that give communities actual character and personality — are pushed into the dustbin in the ceaseless effort to make every city, every neighborhood, equally mediocre and overpriced? It had never occurred to me that a plague might descend to not just kill our neighbors, but to also change the landscape forever.
I had to bank some credit, and there was one last garden in Los Angeles still open to the public where some cherry trees might still be blooming. But if I waited much longer, perhaps even a day, it, too, could be shut down. It was already mid-afternoon, and I’d wanted so much to see the cherry blossoms this year. Putting on a belt for the first time in 10 days, along with gloves for the first time ever in California, I started my car and pulled onto an unnaturally placid freeway.
Driving for the first time in weeks, I again thought about sacrifice. Despite the bitterness some Japanese felt toward the Fukushima Daiichi workers, employed as they were by a corporation guilty of wanton negligence, it felt hard not to concede their crisis efforts had not embodied the Japanese ethos known as wa — a notion of mutual aid and communal concern. This had kept these men working, at a time when it was most needed, on behalf of their neighbors and communities. How were Americans now stepping up and doing the same?
I thought about our nurses, some of them my relatives, working tirelessly, entering wards full of people struggling for breath, as we all isolate. Our neighbors — bus drivers, postal workers, nursing home caretakers, gardeners, social workers, grocery stockers — are keeping society together, even if their aim is just to make rent. Yet I couldn’t help feeling that the initial reaction from the masses had been quintessentially American. Our first response had been: We must buy ourselves out of the problem.
But for the first time in my life, even after all the previous economic calamities I’d lived through, the shelves had gone bare. Amid all the miscommunication, bad info, and the near-collapse of supply chains under the strain, scared consumers rushed to get not just what we need but everything we could get. Stopping by four supermarkets near Palos Verdes, most lacked bread on the shelves, and none had any paper goods left at all. How long could everyone still working to keep society functioning go on this way, I wondered? Would life ever resume its normal tenor? Should it? And are there any cherry trees in bloom at this garden?
Would life ever resume its normal tenor? Should it? And are there any cherry trees in bloom at this garden?
This last one I asked out loud, to the ticket vendor at South Coast Botanic Garden. She wore thick rubber gloves. It was about 3 pm. A sign exhorted visitors to keep distance from others. She explained the heavy rains from the previous days might have knocked all the blossoms off the cherry trees around the koi pond. I should try the Sakura Meadow, which she circled on the map.
I walked along the path to the meadow, under the shade of a heavy banyan grove. The roots of the vast trees twisted under the asphalt, powerful enough to bunch up and crack the paving. Reentering the afternoon sunlight, two crows flew overhead, each clutching a twig in their beaks. And then, in front of me, the Sakura Meadow.
Standing a foot away from the tree, it was the color, the pale pink color, which popped out at me, these fine little flowers in a constellation. The few other visitors had strolled away. As I stood there, before the tree, a hummingbird, with a green velvety breast, flitted to the tree. For the next two minutes, he buzzed from flower to flower, his little beak moving like a threading needle, my jaw slack.
Gazing into the petals of the cherry tree, an impossible number of blossoms crowding each branch, all I could think was how last admission was at 4:30 pm. The park would close at 5; knowing the way things were trending, who knew when it might reopen. It didn’t seem possible these trees could be walled off, kept away from people. I felt greedy, seeing so few people around me in the park — more hanami for me, if I could only figure this time thing out.
But perhaps I’d missed something important.
As eager as I’d been to see the cherry blossoms, I realized they were just one delicate, beautiful symbol of a truth I could have received anywhere: There is precious little on Earth I have control over beyond how I choose to live my life. I may not be able to kick the door in on the storage units where price gougers have squirreled much-needed supplies — though I daydream about it — but I can buy only what I need, when I need it, and maybe even go without at times. The cherry blossoms will fall, whether I want them to or not, whether my timing is fair or poor, whether I visit or am confined to home. Their beauty may bud for nobody at all, but even without an audience of day-trippers and Instagrammers, they will bud all the same — if not for a human audience, then at least for all the young rabbits and hummingbirds I’d seen in the park.
Taking one last look at the cherry trees in bloom, the sun now beginning to set, another rabbit hopped out of a bush and through a flowerbed. Many people, outside the walls of this garden, were already sick and did not know it. Many more, in the coming weeks and months, would fall sick and die. As painful as it might be to forgo the springtime this year, I know that slowing down life is nothing short of a godsend for humanity if it prevents or at least slows this devastation.
How many, many things They call to mind These cherry-blossoms!
How right Matsuo Bashō was. The 17th-century haiku master often wrote of “our cherry blossom nature,” that mindset sought through meditation, when a person is one with the Earth. You never arrive at that point permanently. At best, you rouse yourself back to attention and realize you’d been there for a minute or two. I can’t know what exactly was in that hermit poet’s heart, centuries ago, as he trudged the roads of Edo-era Japan, but I felt sure, standing in front of those pink blossoms, the wind taking some of the petals with each gust, that I was feeling the same things he felt. It was unshakable, this feeling — that 300 years later, that same emotion, that awe, that wistfulness, was gripping me as it had gripped him. In this garden, reclaimed from an old pit mine and LA County landfill.