Minnesota Made PRIDE
Twin Cities Pride
June is Pride Month, and we’re all in. As a Minneapolis-based business, we stand in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ friends. This month and always, we embrace our community as a whole. We continue to work on our abilities to facilitate welcoming craft market environments, both online and in person (eventually, we hope!). Minnesota has an extensive history of prejudices baked into our “Minnesota Nice” facade, but the activism of our community continues to break through these barriers. We will continue to participate in the revolution.
Proudly Featuring LGBTQ Minnesota Makers
We are ecstatic to have recently launched our online marketplace, featuring hundreds of goods for sale by our local makers on one easy shopping platform. And this past month, we developed a page to find goods specifically crafted by our LGBTQ makers. Show your pride with unique, custom, and handmade goods by LGBTQ designers and makers of the North.
For the month of June, Minneapolis Craft Market will be donating 100% of our commission on products by our LGBTQ makers and all Pride-themed goods to RECLAIM, to increase access to mental health support so that queer and trans youth ages 12-26 may reclaim their lives from oppression in all its forms.
A brief history of LGBTQ rights in Minnesota
Source: Twin Cities Pride
1967: Bi Alliance began at the University of Minnesota, first national group
1970: First same-sex marriage lawsuit in America filed by Minneapolis couple
1970: First LGBT national gathering held in Minneapolis
1971: First gay student body president in the country at the University of Minnesota
1972: First local GLBT march held in 1972, at Loring Park in Minneapolis
1974: Allen Spear, first openly gay man to serve in the state legislature
1975: Minneapolis is the first city in the country to pass a non-discrimination ordinance
1980: Rep. Karen Clark was elected into the House of Representatives and is currently the longest serving openly lesbian representative
1988: Minneapolis hosted the International Gathering of GLBT Natives
1991: Minneapolis created Minnesota’s first municipal domestic-partner registration ordinance
2005: Minneapolis hired the first lesbian fire chief of a major city, Bonnie Bleskachek
2010: Former Minneapolis Assistant Police Chief, Sharon Lubinski became the first openly gay U.S. Marshal for the District of Minnesota
2011: Minneapolis named Gayest U.S. City by The Advocate
2013: Same sex-marriage becomes legal in Minnesota. Held at city hall, then Mayor R.T. Rybak married two couples at midnight. He then took his Marry Me In Minneapolis campaign to other states in the Midwest who had not legalized same-sex marriage at that time. The story made national news
2014: MN State High School League (MSHSL) passed a transgender student athlete policy
2015: 400,000 people attended the Twin Cities pride parade. Minneapolis has the largest free pride event in the nation
2016: Minneapolis given a perfect rating by LGBTQ Nation in 2016 for most LGBT-friendly city in the United States
2017: Minneapolis establishes a Transgender Equity Council to advise City Council, and Park Board
2017: Two transgender candidates run for the Minneapolis City Council
2018: Transgender candidates, Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham, were sworn onto the Minneapolis City Council, marking the first such victories for transgender people in a major American city council race. Jenkins serves Ward 8, which covers neighborhoods in south Minneapolis. Cunningham won in Ward 4 in north Minneapolis after a stunning victory over longtime incumbent and City Council president Barb Johnson
2018: Minnesota allows an "X" sex descriptor on driver's licenses and identity documents
2020: Supreme Court rules that federal law protects LGBTQ workers from discrimination
Source: minneapolis.org