KENTUCKY — This week we’re discussing pride month which is currently underway across the country and right here in the bluegrass state.

Keturah Herron (D) is an activist and former long-time social justice advocate at the ACLU of Kentucky. And earlier this year, she won a special election for a Louisville-area seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives.

With her win, Rep. Herron became the first openly LGBTQ Kentuckian elected to the state House. During this In Focus Kentucky segment, Herron explains what pride month means to her.

“Pride is protest. We need to be seen, we need to be heard. And it’s a celebration. But, it’s also a protest of saying, here we are and you are not going to forget about us,” explains Herron.

Also during this conversation, state Rep. Keturah Herron explains details her plan to re-file legislation to create the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and fund it with $6 million over its first two years.

“We cannot talk about gun violence just through mass shootings like those in Uvalde, Texas, Buffalo, New York, and a dozen more places over the Memorial Day weekend alone,” said Rep. Herron of Louisville.  “If we’re ever going to slow this carnage down, we have to have facts in hand and a willingness to take steps that make a difference.  I filed this bill early this year, when I was first elected, and I will be sponsoring it again so that we can begin the dialogue we must have when the legislature reconvenes in January.  I am open to any suggestions from anyone, because we are all at risk until we get this issue under control.”

Under Rep. Herron’s proposal, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention would be created within the state’s Department for Public Health, which she called “the best location, because what we’re experiencing now is a different kind of pandemic that is very much deadly in its own right.”

You can watch the full In Focus segment in the player above.