To be queer is to be continually becoming. Pride this year is a celebration of my own becoming and self-exploration over the last year. I have heard it said that many queer people spend so much of their youth masking their true self, that many folks experience a “second puberty” or a season of rediscovery. Much of my masking was due to bad theology from the church, and is one of the reasons I am pursuing a theological education. It has been so joyful to get to know myself more fully and I am grateful to celebrate Pride this month.
During the month of June, we celebrate and recognize that Pride was a riot against police brutality used against the LGBTQIA+ community, recognizing that Black trans women and trans women of color were at the forefront of the movement for gay liberation. Pride brings marginalized folks together to celebrate our innate belovedness and queerness and the divine that resides in us all. It is an annual reminder that “we get free together.”
What I love about the queer community is that we fiercely care about those experiencing oppression. We work against powers and empires that insist on annihilation. Solidarity is the backbone of queer existence and this year the queer community is fiercely in solidarity with Palestinians. There is no Pride in Genocide. “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.” -Marsha P. Johnson