PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Recognized every year in June, Pride Month is a time for communities around the country to celebrate and uplift the LGBTQ+ community and marks the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.
KOIN 6 News and Portland’s CW are digging deeper into local LGBTQ stories with Beyond Pride – a station initiative to dive into the issues affecting the queer community year-round.
KOIN 6 News Reporter Brandon Thompson, who has been telling many of these stories explained, “When I got here last year, I remember during the month of June, KOIN changed our logo to the rainbow and all those things that a lot of companies do to show that they’re allies, and I thought that was really cool. But I thought it was also really important to make sure that these stories go beyond just the month of June because while Pride Month is a great time to highlight and celebrate and look at some of the issues that affects the queer and trans community, really, these are issues that affect us year-round.”
Thompson added, “I thought it was important for us to dive into that and lean into us being the pride station, being able to dive into those issues of why queer and trans people are marginalized, what are the issues that create that marginalization and what can we do to fix it and find some solution?”
“It’s giving these stories a space to live and to breath and to keep the presence of these issues on people’s minds all the time,” Thompson said. “I think back to last year when a Supreme Court ruling came down and it was talked about that marriage equality might be next on the docket for the Supreme Court. It was a reminder that the battle is always happening. There’s always a fight for equal rights and basic rights.”
Tune into KOIN 6 News’ hour-long Beyond Pride special on June 14.