What to Watch on WTTW for Pride Month

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and you can enjoy a diverse slate of WTTW programming of stories of identity, acceptance, struggle, and art throughout the month. Check the schedule links for additional air times.

Miriam & Alan: Lost in Scotland

Sunday June 1 through 9 on WTTW and WTTW Prime
Miriam Margolyes (Call The Midwife; Harry Potter) and Alan Cumming (Masterpiece Mystery; The Good Wife) get cozy traveling in a mobile home, mixing wit and memories as they return to their Scottish roots. Miriam & Alan: Lost in Scotland is part rediscovery, part revelation, and a total laugh riot, as the two beloved actors embark on a mission to uncover the country of their youth.

Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution

Sundays starting June 8 at 7:00 pm on WTTW Prime
From the basement bars of ’70s New York to the peak of the global charts, discover the story of disco: its rise, fall, and legacy. Reveling in iconic tracks and remarkable footage, this is a powerful, revisionist history of the disco age.

Chicago Stories: The Outrage of Danny Sotomayor

Monday, June 9 at 9:00 pm on WTTW
Fiery openly gay AIDS activist and political cartoonist Danny Sotomayor used civil disobedience to wage war on city officials who marginalized the LGBTQ+ community and ignored the AIDS crisis, while fighting a losing battle with the disease himself. This program chronicles his courageous fight for equality. Stream the show here and explore the website.

American Masters – Little Richard: The King and Queen of Rock and Roll

Sunday, June 15 at 8:00 pm on WTTW Prime
Little Richard is a legend from the golden era of rock. Richard is the cultural lightning rod who influenced some of rock music's most distinguished icons who validate Richard’s unquestionable role in rock history: Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen. As Richard boastfully claims, “I am The King and Queen of Rock and Roll.”

Prideland

Sunday, June 15 at 11:00 pm on WTTW Prime
Follow queer actor Dyllon Burnside on a journey across the South to meet diverse members of the LGBTQ+ community. From a lesbian rodeo champ in Texas to an African American mayor ally in Alabama, he discovers how LGBTQ+ Americans are finding ways to live authentically and with pride in the modern South.

American Masters – Janis Ian: Breaking Silence

Friday, June 20 at 9:00 pm on WTTW 
At just 15, Janis Ian shook the world with her hit, “Society’s Child,” a song about an interracial relationship that not only launched her career but sparked controversy. She also had to cope with early success, homophobia, record industry misogyny, and a life-threatening illness, all while creating an indelible body of work.

Stonewall Uprising: American Experience

Sunday, June 22 at 8:00 pm on WTTW Prime
This documentary explores the dramatic event that launched a worldwide rights movement. Told by those who took part, from drag queens and street hustlers to police detectives, journalists, and a former mayor of New York, and featuring a rich trove of archival footage, this film revisits a time when homosexual acts were illegal throughout America, and homosexuality itself was seen as a form of mental illness. 

Art and Pep

Monday, June 23 at 9:00 pm on WTTW 
Art Johnston and Pepe Peña are civil rights leaders whose life and love is a force behind LGBTQ+ equality in the heart of the country. Their iconic gay bar, Sidetrack, has helped fuel movements and create community for decades in Chicago’s queer enclave. But behind the business and their historic activism exists a love unlike any other. Read our interview with the director.

Chicago Stories: House Music: A Cultural Revolution

Monday, June 30 at 9:00 pm on WTTW 
Chicago has long been known for nurturing diverse music genres and also, infamously, as a place where one of them died – disco. But another musical form rose from its ashes: house music. Celebrate the innovative and catchy electronic dance music that still inspires prominent artists today including Charli XCX, Peggy Gou, Beyonce, and Fisher, its origins in Chicago’s underground Black and gay clubs, and house music producers and DJs such as Frankie Knuckles who welcomed the marginalized into these safe spaces. Stream the show here and explore the website.

POV: Break the Game 

Monday, June 30 at 10:00 pm on WTTW Prime
After coming out as a trans woman, world-record-holding gamer Narcissa Wright loses her massive fanbase. To win them back, she attempts to set a new record in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, live-streaming every minute of her quest. Break the Game is a moving exploration of gamer culture, the realities of online harassment, and the mental health implications of living a digital life.