An out-queer news anchor has marked their Emmy win with an inspiring message to their followers on Instagram.

Jana Shortal has worked for Minneapolis’ NBC affiliate, KARE 11 for the past two decades. On Sunday, Shortal, who uses they/them pronouns, won a Regional Emmy for Best Anchor (Upper Midwest).

Shortal posted a photo of themselves with their statuette on social media and said, “I work in an industry that doesn’t place people who look like, dress like, identify like me at the anchor desk. Until a spot opened up on a show whose identity is – to do it differently.

“To be honored again with an Emmy for being best Anchor means, people like us belong here. I hope everyone shoots their shot, especially when you are the only one. We need you.

Shortal, 47, grew up in the small town of Jerseyville, Illinois. A love of sports drew them to reporting.

“I really enjoyed sports. I was good at them and I loved watching them. I’d watch ‘SportsCenter’ while I had my breakfast. The anchors talked about sports in a different way, it was clever and funny. I realized I wanted to do that and I didn’t want to do anything else,” they told TwinCities.com in 2021.

Shortal went to the University of Missouri to study journalism and switched from sports to news reporting.

While there, via a crush on their female roommate, Shortal began to accept the fact they were queer but says they did nothing about it at the time.

“I was the textbook slow roll when it came to coming out.”

After graduating, Shortal got a job at a station in Jefferson City, Mo. Their appearance was what was expected of female news anchors at the time. Shortal then relocated for a job in Kansas City and discovered the local gay scene.

“I would be gay at night and straight during the day,” Shortal said. “I hated myself. But I played the part. I always played the part up until the point it was going to kill me.”

Then Shortal landed a job at KARE 11. After about a year, aged 26, Shortal began to inform people they were gay.

“I started my authentic life in Minnesota,” Shortal told Explore Minnesota. “And Minnesota saved my life…. My introduction to the LGBTQ+ community was here. And it was awesome. It was then, and remains to this day, a very large and diverse queer community.”

Shortal married partner Laura Zebuhr and the couple have a young son, Isaac (“Zeke for short”), born shortly after their wedding in late 2021. This weekend’s Emmy success was Shortal’s eighth Emmy win.

Shortal wasn’t the only queer member of the KARE 11 team celebrating wins at the Regional Emmys on Sunday. Morning news anchor Jason Hackett made headlines earlier this year when he came out as gay to viewers during a live news segment.

On Sunday, Hackett’s show, Sunrise, won the Upper Midwest regional Emmy for best daytime newscast. he and his colleagues all collected statuettes.

Hackett also took to Instagram to celebrate the first Emmy win of his career.

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