If you’ve pledged allegiance to the drag, Mama Ru is asking you to take one important step for your health and well-being: Stay home.
On Tuesday, news broke that this year’s RuPaul’s DragCon L.A.—the premier West Coast event for all things Drag Race—has been canceled amid widespread concern about the international outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19).
An update on DragCon LA and Coronavirus is available here: https://t.co/koBRpvlhsh
— RuPaul's DragCon (@RuPaulsDragCon) March 10, 2020
In a statement announcing the decision on the event’s website, DragCon organizers cited the “rapidly changing” nature of the epidemic in California and beyond:
DragCon’s first priority is always the health and safety of everyone involved and we’ve been actively tracking the situation around the coronavirus. … Unfortunately, there’s no way for anyone to know what the situation will be like in May. Due to that uncertainty, and out of an abundance of caution, we’ve decided that it’s in the best interest of the talent, staff, and attendees to cancel RuPaul’s DragCon LA 2020.
Die-hard Drag Race stans know that a New York City edition of RuPaul’s DragCon takes place each year in the fall, but organizers haven’t announced whether DragCon NYC will succumb to the COVID-19 outbreak, too.
DragCon L.A. isn’t the first LGBTQ/LGBTQ-adjacent event to be canceled or postponed as a precautionary measure amid the coronavirus panic. This year’s Lesbians Who Tech Summit in San Francisco, originally scheduled to run from April 23 to April 25, was postponed until August for the same reason.
Squad,
We have been monitoring the news of coronavirus carefully. After many discussions with our partners, community members, and local health officials, we have decided to postpone our San Francisco Summit to August 5-8, 2020.
— Lesbians Who Tech & Allies (@lesbiantech) March 4, 2020
Meanwhile, the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which regularly sees medical researchers unveil new developments in the fight against HIV/AIDS, has opted for virtual meetings for its 2020 gathering later this month.
Tech, film, and music junkies hoping to attend South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, are also out of luck: The annual festival, which drives thousands of out-of-towners to the city, was canceled due to health concerns for the first time in its 34-year history late last week.