June is Pride Month

  • June 01, 2023
Be proud at your library

June is Pride Month

Pride month is celebrated each year during the month of June in cities large and small across the country and beyond. June was selected as the month to celebrate Pride to honor the Stonewall uprising that occurred in June of 1969 in Greenwich Village in New York City. The uprising energized the gay rights movement, ultimately becoming a broad fight for LGBTQIA+ rights that continues to this day.

Events and Programs

Author Talk: Queer Voices
Join at Minneapolis Central Library on Saturday, June 10 to mark the 30th anniversary of the Queer Voices series! Enjoy readings from Sun Yung Shin, Erin Sharkey, Roy Guzman, Marlin M. Jenkins, and Junauda Petrus as well as book sales for Queer Voices authors, community gathering time, and a celebration of past program leaders.

Golden Valley Pride Festival
Visit the library’s booth at Brookview Park in Golden Valley on Saturday, June 10, 12-6pm.

Hopkins Pride Festival
Visit the library’s booth in downtown Hopkins on Saturday, June 17, 11am-6pm.

Twin Cities Pride Festival
Visit the library’s booth at the annual Twin Cities Pride Festival, held at Loring Park in Minneapolis from June 23-25.

Stories Together: Pride
For children of all ages and their caregivers. Celebrate family and self-expression during Pride month through books, stories, rhymes, music, and movement. These events occur throughout June at several locations.

Online Film Screening: Leitis in Waiting and Lady Eva
Leitis in Waiting  (72 minutes) is the story of Joey Mataele and the Tonga leitis, an intrepid group of native transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance in their South Pacific Kingdom.

Set in the last remaining monarchy in the Pacific, Lady Eva  (11 minutes) explores the clash between traditional culture and modern religious zealotry through a raw yet tender portrait of a determined Tonga leiti.

Leitis in Waiting and Lady Eva are available through on-demand streaming until June 30.

Online Film Screening: Kumu Hina
Kumu Hina  (77 minutes) is a powerful film about the struggle to maintain Pacific Islander culture and values within the Westernized society of modern day Hawaiʻi. It is told through the lens of an extraordinary Native Hawaiian who is both a proud and confident māhū, or transgender woman, and an honored and respected kumu, or teacher, cultural practitioner, and community leader.

Kumu Hina is available through on-demand streaming until June 30.

Party for Pride
Visit the library's booth at Staring Lake Amphitheater in Eden Prairie, 8:30 a.m.-noon, Saturday, June 24.

Book lists

Hennepin County Library’s Pride team offers many Pride book lists organized around specific themes and identities.

MNspin spotlight

The Library’s streaming music service, MNspin, features albums from many LGBTQIA+ Minnesota musicians, including:

Be sure to check out the MNspin team’s 2023 Pride Playlist!