Twin Cities Pride launches quarterly magazine
by Joe Siegel
Twin Cities Pride Magazine is now serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul LGBTQ population on a quarterly basis.
The magazine was first published in 2018 by the city’s pride organization in conjunction with Gray Duck Media as a Pride Guide, with the intent of only publishing annually.
But according to John Garland, creative director of Gray Duck Media, the time was perfect for Twin Cities Pride to launch its own magazine.
“The first line of Twin Cities Pride’s mission statement concerns ‘documenting their diverse heritage,’” said Garland. “They were wrestling with the fact that most people only know them from the two days of Pride Weekend, and yet they’re a year-round organization that hosts and sponsors all kinds of events that strive to reach and represent an incredibly diverse and vibrant community.”A few years ago, Twin Cities Pride was considering the idea of printing their Pride Guide materials — stage schedules, performer directory, event calendar, guide to the park and the parade — on their own, Garland said. The organization then approached Gray Duck Media about the feasibility of such a publication. (Gray Duck Media has been publishing The Growler, a mainstream lifestyle monthly, since 2012.)
“We offered the suggestion that there would be a great opportunity to go beyond the two-day utility of a Pride Guide and publish something that helps further their organizational mission,” Garland noted.
Garland believes the new publication will possess its own identity while competing with rival Lavender Magazine: “Lavender has been a great publication in the Twin Cities for many years, and we see our missions as very much complimentary. As Lavender has evolved, their content is now geared toward a more established community.”
Garland believes Twin Cities Pride Magazine will reach a demographic which has been overlooked by most LGBTQ media outlets. “Our stories are about folks struggling with questions of identity and giving voice to the struggle, and organizations working to solve the unique issues faced by LGBTQ+ people in new and innovative ways,” Garland said. “We also believe that media in general does a poor job of representing people of color and trans voices, among many other marginalized communities, and we hope Twin Cities Pride Magazine can be one small step toward a more inclusive media landscape.”
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