Pride at Multnomah County Library is a special time to celebrate our local LGBTQIA2S+ community. Join us for fun family-friendly events, crafts, storytimes, and much more!
There’s a lot of Pride events to get excited about this year. To kick it all off, on May 30, Northwest Library will throw a Pride party for the whole family! Patrons can have fun with special guest LadyBerri Matthews, strike a pose at a photo booth, play games with Queer Kin Collective, make frames for your photos with Family Friend, and more.
From June through July, stop by your local library to enjoy events like:
- Rainbow Family Storytimes featuring LadyBerri Matthews and Poison Waters.
- Queer authors sharing their work at Incite: Queer Writers Read.
- Stories about queer love and connection from authors of Our Bold Voices’ new anthology.
- Zine-making for teens with Outlet PDX at the weekly Queer Youth Club.
- Pride crafting sessions at Capitol Hill and Midland Library, plus a special bilingual Piñata crafting session at Central Library.
- And much more!
“Always a riotous fun event, Pride celebrates the riot that helped kick start the civil rights movement we are still fighting,” says Youth Services Librarian Aley Ungerman, who helped plan this year’s Family Pride Celebration. “It's a great time for our community to come together, make connections, and learn from each other.“
The library is also thrilled to return to the Portland Pride Waterfront Festival on July 18 and 19 this year. Stop by our table to say hi to library staff, grab a free book, and take a selfie with our giant rainbow library card!
The first Pride marches took place on June 28, 1970, one year after the Stonewall Uprising. Pride gatherings have continued annually since. Oregon’s first Pride celebration was an indoor dance in 1971 that was organized by The Second Foundation of Oregon. The state’s first outdoor Pride celebration, the Gay Pride Fair, was in 1975 at the South Park Blocks.
Oregon’s first Pride parade took place in 1976, with a route going through downtown Portland that ended at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park. It was organized by civil rights activist (and former Multnomah County employee) Kathleen Saadat. In 2018, Multnomah County announced the Kathleen Saadat Award, given to a local 2SLGBTQIA+ person who advocates for marginalized communities as Saadat has.
For many years, Portland’s Pride was on the third weekend of June to avoid overlap with larger West Coast cities. This resulted in local scheduling conflicts with celebrations like the Delta Park Powwow and Juneteenth. In 2023, the organizers moved the parade and festival to July. Across the state there have been many different Pride celebrations, including in Astoria, Beaverton, Eugene, Hillsboro, Newport, Salem and more. In Multnomah County, Gresham hosted a Pride festival in October 2022, which has not repeated since. This year, Portland is celebrating the weekend of July 18 and 19.
“Multnomah County Library knows it is extra important that institutions stand up and show their support for marginalized people when they are facing bigotry,” Ungerman added. “As always, all are welcome at the library!”
Join the library at different locations May through July to celebrate Pride in person, or honor the season wherever you are by reading queer books this summer!
Reading lists
Queer Joy, for all ages
In celebration of Pride and LGBTQIA voices, check out these selected titles that celebrate queer joy, for readers of all ages.
Queer Resistance, for all ages
In celebration of Pride and LGBTQIA+ voices, here are select titles focused on the topic of queer activism and resistance.
Queer Self-expression from Indigenous and QTBIPOC voices, for all ages
In celebration of Pride, check out these titles about self-expression from Indigenous/BIPOC voices.
