How does one say goodbye to Pride Month?
It's more than rainbow colored capitalism. It always has been. It's more than Target pulling their items because people are ignorant and afraid (because there's no where else to buy these items). It's more than banning people because it might make their kids gay (because reading about princes/princesses will turn your child into royalty, obviously). It's more than a few weeks of being "allowed" space to march, to speak, to be.
Pride Month is a revolution. It's a fucking liberation. It's fighting for ones space to just simple exist. It's fighting for a small section of society to just be. It's fighting for something, anything. It's a fight, simple as that.
It's about rights. Never having them, getting a few, losing it all, gaining back some. A cis-het white man never lost his rights (even in prison, so many of these men still have more freedom then queer folx).
It's about trying to exist in a place where seemingly no one wants them to. It's about pushing through each and every day, trying to be proud of oneself, of one's life, of one's choices (not that queerness/gender/sexuality is a choice--it's not). It's living when society is telling you not to. It's about never giving up, no matter what. It's about surviving, even if it's on the streets. It's about living, even if it's with nothing. It's about finding safe spaces. It's about found fucking family.
Pride is about being. It's about marching, about finally given the space to be after so many years of hiding in closets and secret bars. It's about books for adults, for teens, for children who might be questioning themselves or who might have "nontraditional" families, all of whom never previously saw themselves in books, let alone movies, tv shows, or music videos. It's about stores, independently owned/small businesses and larger chain stores, selling these books, selling clothes and decor and more (items people previously had to hand-make to simply have) after never giving so many marginalized communities a space to be outside of where they were forced to hide.
Pride Month... is so much. It's so fucking much for so many people. I hope this past month was good to you, in at least the smallest of ways. I hope you found a place to be, a place to march, a book to read. I hope you made a new friend. I hope you learned something about pride (about gender or sexuality or queerness in general), about yourself. I hope you had at least one good night sleep, at least one hot meal, at least one safe hug.
If you need resources for safe spaces or simply for informing yourself, please refer back to my resources page from the beginning of the month. If you need a book to read to inform yourself on some of these queer communities, whether it's an informative one, a children's one, or a romance novel, please reach out to me (I have several recommendations for you).
If you're looking for a sign to hold on or to come out, this is it (stay strong, my friend--and if coming out to you is whispering in the mirror of who you are, that counts too; if you can't or don't want to shout it from the rooftops yet, hold on and stay strong). I love you; you are loved.
Maybe by next Pride Month, we'll have even more to celebrate (hopefully the world hasn't burned down by then). That's what get's us through though it all, it's it? Hope.
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