June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate, honor, and show up for our LGBTQ2SIA+ communities.
Happy Pride Month from New Seasons Market! We're honored to come together with our LGBTQ2SIA+ communities to celebrate and recognize the historic and continuing impact of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and asexual individuals locally, nationally, and internationally. We also take this time to recognize and support the ongoing fight for equal rights for these communities.
Pride is celebrated in June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, a riot that began on June 28, 1969, following a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City. The uprising would end up becoming the catalyst for the gay rights movement.
The first Gay Pride Liberation march took place in Manhattan in 1970 to memorialize the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Thirty years later, Pride Month became official in a 1999 proclamation from former president Bill Clinton. But the battle for LGBTQ2SIA+ rights is far from over.
Portland has celebrated Pride since 1976, and in 1994, Pride Northwest organized the first annual Portland Pride Waterfront Festival and Parade—a landmark moment for the city's LGBTQ2SIA+ communities.
Pride Northwest is a community-based nonprofit with a mission to elevate, celebrate, and educate the LGBTQ+ community in Oregon and SW Washington. The festival remains the single largest visibility avenue for our region's LGBTQ2SIA+ communities, organizations, and businesses.
We've been proud supporters of Pride Northwest and the festival for years, and as we gear up for another celebration, we caught up with Debra Porta, executive director at Pride Northwest, to talk partnership and impact.
NSM: What does your long-standing partnership with New Seasons mean to Pride Northwest?
DP: Our relationship with New Seasons has been particularly meaningful over the years because it has never been simply transactional. On top of financial support, New Seasons has, on multiple occasions, been open to difficult conversations and has approached them from a perspective of how they can support Pride Northwest, regardless of the circumstance. As a Pride organization actively responsible to our community, that level of openness and transparency is incredibly important to us.
NSM: What are some meaningful ways your work has impacted local LGBTQ2SIA+ communities?
DP: While there are many ways we have seen the impact of Pride Northwest's work in our community, one of the most significant in recent years is our role in shining a spotlight on the incredible food and housing insecurity that LGBTQIA2S+ people face. Before our engagement in this area, LGBTQIA2S+ perspectives and voices were not common in policy and/or service provision conversations. That has shifted, although it is an ongoing effort.
Join us in celebrating Pride Month and Pride Northwest. We'll see you at the parade, July 18 – 19!
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