Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Pride.
Feel Better, Thanks to Season Two
Season one of Channel 4 and Netflix’s coproduction Feel Good did not make me want to watch a second season. But it wasn't all bad. Mae Martin’s charisma as her auto-fictional character Mae was undeniable. As was their chemistry with the label-less, but often referred to as “straight”, closeted George (Charlotte Ritchie). The first season of the show painted their dynamic as a queer approach at a thirty-minute comedy about the growing pains of a relationship between two people in their late twenties/early thirties.
By Elizabeth Burch-Hudson5 years ago in Pride
Black Indigenous People Of Color
There are two things in life that I find I am passionate about, Writing and Representation. For years I’ve intertwined them, making sure that what I wrote represented all walks of life, and that as a woman of color, I reached people who could relate to me over people who would buy.
By Blue Dymond5 years ago in Pride
Why Are There So Many Different Pride Flags?
I’m just 1 person who loves how many different pride flags exist. Most everyone is familiar with the rainbow pride flag, which serves as a central symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. But there are dozens more representing different genders, sexualities, and subcommunities. There have also been a number of different versions of the rainbow flag over the years. Why are there so many? The short answer is: because we want everyone to feel seen and represented. But there’s more to it than that. Every flag the LGBTQ+ community uses has meaning.
By Kate McDevitt5 years ago in Pride
3 Free Documentaries to Watch for Pride Month
I’m just 1 person who doesn’t usually watch a lot of documentaries. Unlike my sister, I prefer fiction to nonfiction when it comes to movies, shows, and books. But I recently watched some short, quality LGBTQ+ documentaries I wanted to recommend you check out during Pride month. The best part is that all three of these are amazing. But the second best thing is that they are all free and available on YouTube. Watch and share them with others!
By Kate McDevitt5 years ago in Pride
My 2019 Rainbow Reading List
I’m just 1 person who read a lot of LGBTQ+ books during Pride Month in 2019. Honestly, I read a lot of LGBTQ+ books throughout the year, but I decided it would be fun to see how many I could get through in just a month. Pride Month was the perfect excuse for me to read so many wonderful books. I even found myself waking up a little earlier than needed some mornings to get some reading in before work.
By Kate McDevitt5 years ago in Pride
My 2020 Rainbow Reading List
I’m just 1 person who read a lot of LGBTQ+ books by people of color during Pride Month in 2020. Given the #BlackLivesMatter protests and the state of the world, I used my Pride Month reading project to read mostly books with Black and Brown characters and by Black and Brown authors.
By Kate McDevitt5 years ago in Pride
Sunshine under the Rainbow
Being "gay" was grounds for damnation in the community and church that I grew up in as a little boy. The thought of the word would mentally transport you to a deep dark place of fire and brimstone or gloom and doom with a final resting place in the pits of hell. My parents were never vocal on the issue directly as right, wrong or indifferent, however, I can remember the preacher in the pulpit quoting the scriptures of abomination against God and the kids in the neighborhood being outright hateful towards anyone that was “that way”. By the time I was a teenage boy, I fit well in the category of homophobic and there was nothing you could do to change my views or convince me to want to have anything to do with this “those people”.
By Michael C Burrow5 years ago in Pride
I was a Child
I was a child, introduced to cartoon fiction characters at the age of 5. I recalled watching a show like, what we call nowadays Transformers. Well, there was a show by the name, (Kikaida) in Japan. In this show there was a character, named Heart Woman, whom when turned into her character, would have heart breast shoot out! I found this to be quite interesting. I, at an early age of 5, seemed to find that the woman in the character was very interesting, beautiful. I believe at that time I was having feelings of the same sex. I believed that the emotions I was feeling was an attraction to the same sex. I had seen male figures, but I had no interest in the feelings that I seemed to have for the females. It seemed as if I connected to the female side, but I did not know what these feelings were. I tried to fight these feelings towards the female gender, but as years progressed, I found it quite difficult to shake the feelings of attraction towards the female species. As the years passed, I had encountered a huge catastrophe in my life. I was molested by a family member, whom was the son of a pastor. This took a brutal hit to my whole entire being. I then found myself, not at ease around male figures. Instead of telling, I hid it and was living with massive shame for something I had no control over. The robbing of my innocence had left me in complete need of a mother’s love and guidance. This haunted me throughout my life. I was then again molested, raped by several different men who had made their way into our lives. My parents trusting friends and their own damn siblings. Never even uttered a word of the horror that took place in my life. I still proceeded to try and fit in with our society of trying to fit in and be with opposite sex. Although all these feelings of attractions to female was running through my mind. I suddenly could not take the agony of hiding who I truly was. I then came across a female, in the seventh grade and had my first experience with a female, same gender. We seem to have been talking and then the young lady reached over and kissed me and that’s the beginning of my lesbian life. During this time, I was sure if anyone were to find out that I had kissed a girl, then they would not take to it at all. So, I ended up fighting to keep the fact that I was a lesbian. I knew that I had strong attractions to the female gender, but I had to keep it a secret knowing that my family were deep rooted into the church. During my junior years in mid school, I had gotten into so much trouble, I had gotten arrested on school campus, caught with a bag of marijuana on me! There were eight of us girls, but seven of us got house arrest. My parents did not take to kind to any of my friends during this time. I found my life spiraling down, and I could not control the outcome, eagerly wanting to be me! I was living a mass lie, not being able to tell anyone that I was into the female gender. Which made me a lesbian. Struggling daily to try and come to the realization of who I really was. I then made a promise to myself, that as soon as I hit 18, I would leave, so that I can live my own life. During the times in high school still not completely out of the closet. I struggle with the knowledge of knowing that I had strong emotions for the female gender, and found myself turning to all areas, in which I thought would be helpful to me in coping with my emotions, of having feelings towards the same sex. I then began to drink at an early age, as well as started to smoke marijuana. This was clearly an outcry for help, but I did not know what was going on. I felt so puzzled, confused, and nervous of how to go about letting those I loved, know who I was. There was no one to confide in, since back in the 80’s, there was no talk of that type of behavior whatsoever. Now mind you, during these times there no open-minded individuals flaunting that there is support for an individual with those issues, that have strong feelings towards their own gender. There is a name for these individuals today. That is gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgenders. Although, I was hoping to be accepted and struggling with what I had to deal with and try not to lose my mind. It seemed as if I were just seeking any type of support but found help in all the wrong places. I continued my journey as a young lady and finally at the age of 18years, which was the year 1985. I decided it would probably be best for me to leave and try and go live my life away from my parents, so that they would not have to deal with this issue of their daughter being a lesbian. That move that I made literally broke my mother’s heart. Allow me to fast forward, 31years later, I met my wife, and between us both we have four beautiful children. It was my wife, who told me to start writing again, and during this CO-VID19, I decided to try to write again in April of 2020. In six days, I had completed my first poem book. “Rainbow Prince” (Into the mind of A Lighted Being), which my wife, helped edit and self-published. I believe all that I write, comes strictly, from the loving hand of God! For he embraces all, regardless our color, sex orientation, and our sins. This book of poems is dedicated to all that our struggling with whom they are and what gender that they feel completes them. Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgenders, be at peace with who you really are to be. Embrace who you are, for God made us all very uniquely and handle your lives with finesse. I hope this book brings comfort to you in accepting whom you are truly to be.
By Barbara Falo5 years ago in Pride
Sarah's Journey out of the box
I’m Sarah, I was born a male, and for the first part of my life, nothing was amiss. However, fast forward to my teenage years, and being socially awkward, add having a life-threatening peanut allergy at a time when it was not common, and parents who were learning how to act because any camp or sleepover could be fatal to their only son. Were they loving? Yes. Were they supportive? Yes. But, being a loaner, I spent a lot of time either with them or by myself. On one of one those days, I started to ask myself questions. I was 13 at the time. I was being naughty and started to snoop through my parent's drawers to see what I could find. Finding clothing from my mom that she never wore, it was a bodysuit, halter top, and panties. I tried them on, and it felt amazing, weird for a boy to be wearing something girly, but it felt right, wasn't sexual in any way.
By Sarah Gravel5 years ago in Pride
Trans-gressing in the World of Men
Before I transitioned, before I even knew I was trans, I found male spaces a real challenge to navigate. I have never understood the ins and outs, the appeals, the hooks of being ‘one of the boys.’ Something about the very phrase sends shivers through my spine. Indeed, it makes me cringe to think that I was ever even close to those circles. Hopefully, few, if any, people have ever really thought of me in those terms – I never was a ‘man’s man’ anyway and my list of close male friends can probably be counted on one hand (two at a stretch – sorry gents!) – but I’ll come back to that in a moment.
By Aisla Houghton-Foster5 years ago in Pride
The sun rose and I flew to the birds. Top Story - June 2021.
When I was first craving words to describe my queer identity, I was obsessed with birds. The birds didn't need words and I didn't want them either. I was working in the engine room onboard a research ship, and we wouldn't return to land for thirty to fifty days at a time. As I struggled to break from the ideas of myself as man that I had adopted over the course of my young life I fell down Google holes trying to find a way to present my body to the world. I longed to dissolve into salt-entrained air with the albatrosses.
By Joe Nasta | Seattle foodie poet5 years ago in Pride
