Our Lives Magazine

As our statewide Editorial Board continues to evolve, we're building out regional reporting teams to ensure Our Lives coverage is balanced, representative, and reflective of everyone's story.

Meet Aaron Berth, who joins our Southeastern Wisconsin team representing Metro Milwaukee!

Aaron is a Milwaukee-based placemaker, storyteller, and neighborhood enthusiast who believes the most important stories are happening on the block right in front of you. He’s the founder of Dopamine Furnace Creative, a freelance creative and marketing studio specializing in identity architecture, narrative strategy, and brand storytelling — and the umbrella under which every project he loves enough to name currently lives.

Personal archivist, civic moderator, and Brady Street regular, Aaron is convinced q***r joy is a neighborhood planning tool. Aaron runs on coffee, kindness, and the infallible belief that we live the life we’re meant.

Welcome aboard, Aaron! 📰

Governor Evers' full Pride Proclamation:

WHEREAS, catalyzed in the early hours of June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Riots in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York, marked a pivotal turning point in the fight for le***an, gay, bisexual, transgender, and q***r (LGBTQ) rights in the United States, and led June to be recognized as LGBTQ Pride Month in Wisconsin and nationwide; and

WHEREAS, the Black Nite Brawl in Milwaukee, a fierce defense of an LGBTQ space led by gender non-conforming people of color, was the first known LGBTQ uprising in Wisconsin history, which occurred eight years before the historic Stonewall Riots in New York City; and

WHEREAS, for generations, members of the LGBTQ community in Wisconsin, across the nation, and around the world have collectively worked to overcome discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation, intersected by race, ability, and class, combating social stigma, demanding visibility and representation, and demonstrating incredible resilience; and

WHEREAS, over the past several decades, Wisconsin has taken critical steps toward achieving LGBTQ equity and equality, such as the passage of the nation’s first law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in 1982 and the election of LGBTQ individuals to public offices at all levels of government, including the first openly LGBTQ woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the U.S. Senate; and

WHEREAS, despite these historic victories, in the last several years, there has been a significant increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced in state legislatures across the country, including in Wisconsin, that have targeted LGBTQ kids and people and increased dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, as well as attacks on the rights of LGBTQ people and state and national efforts to erase LGBTQ history and stories; and

WHEREAS, as Wisconsin celebrates Pride Month, the state reaffirms its commitment to combatting hateful rhetoric and policies that target LGBTQ Wisconsinites—and LGBTQ kids, in particular—and to continue working to ensure that all LGBTQ people can access the support and resources they need to thrive and are treated equitably and with dignity under the law; and

WHEREAS, in June 2019, the Rainbow Pride Flag was raised above the Wisconsin State Capitol building for the first time in state history, and in the years since, the state has continued this annual tradition by flying the Progress Pride Flag, which was created to increase visibility and advocacy for marginalized communities within the LGBTQ community and includes additional stripes forming a chevron pattern that represent LGBTQ individuals of color and the transgender community, as well as those who are living with and who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS; and

WHEREAS, the state is proud and honored to continue this tradition each year because flying a Pride flag above the People’s House sends a clear and unequivocal message that the state of Wisconsin recognizes and celebrates LGBTQ Wisconsinites and that no matter who you are, who you love, or how you identify, you are welcome in Wisconsin; and

WHEREAS, this month, the state of Wisconsin joins in celebrating Pride Month, in recognizing the history and countless contributions of LGBTQ people and the greater LGBTQ community to the state, and reaffirms its commitment to striving to be a place where every LGBTQ kid, person, and family can stand boldly in their truth and be safe, treated with dignity and respect, and welcomed without fear of persecution, judgment, or discrimination;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Tony Evers, Governor of the State of Wisconsin, do hereby proclaim June 2026 as LGBTQ PRIDE MONTH throughout the State of Wisconsin, and I commend this observance to all our state’s residents.

Done at the Capitol in the City of Madison this 21st day of May 2026.

Tony Evers
Governor

See all 560+ photos of from Milwaukee Pride on Saturday in our gallery here: https://ourliveswisconsin.com/galleries/gallery/milwaukee-pridefest-2026-saturday-june-6/

See all 250+ photos of from Milwaukee Pride on Thursday in our gallery here: https://ourliveswisconsin.com/galleries/gallery/milwaukee-pridefest-2026-thursday-june-4

See all 350+ photos of the GSAFE Celebration of Leadership in our gallery here: https://ourliveswisconsin.com/galleries/gallery/gsafe-celebration-of-leadership-2026

As far as we know, Tommy Crow is the first person to undergo top surgery fully awake under nothing but local anesthesia. It seemed like a clean story about science and trans health care. But within minutes, it became clear that the surgery was only the most obvious expression of something much bigger.

READ MORE: https://ourliveswisconsin.com/article/awake-to-himself/