Here at the Portland Mercury we are proud all year long: of being queer, of being allies, of covering issues important to the city’s queer community. So our long-held tradition of a June Queer Guide, that drops the week of the Pride Parade, is a chance to draw from stories we’ve covered for years as well as dig deep on projects we think warrant a little extra time and bandwidth.
For instance, we celebrated House of Ada’s appearance on HBO’s Legendary as it happened, but Andrew Jankowski has four other local icons you should know about—all of whom strutted onto the TV screen this year and showed the world Portland’s best side: their best side.
Portland’s Pride Parade falls on Juneteenth this year, which might strike some as peculiar, inconvenient, inappropriate, and perhaps even offensive. Mx. Dahlia Belle spoke with two local icons—Kimber K. Shade and Isaiah Esquire—about how to celebrate the intersection of Black and queer identity.
