All the straight people/allies can tell us queer people to “be careful” all we want. The whole point of pride celebrations is to not hide knowing the risks. The risks are taken so younger generations can have at least a little bravery to understand and love themselves, even if they live with families and societies that put more energy into molding them into who they are not. For America, we’re overrun by traditions obsessed with control and conversion with an incredibly low tolerance for diversity. Pride doesn’t exist to fight fire with fire, as in trying to force people to convert others to blindly support LGBTQ+ people. Pride, to me at least, is just a loud reminder that we’re human, a reminder for ourselves and for them.

They can debate whether being who we are is a choice or not, but we can all agree that hatred and prejudice are choices with self-destructive results. None of us should have to “be careful”, but those people made their choices and we can only accept that by accepting ourselves first. For me, I’d like to be told to be proud. Being careful is beyond my control.

This needed to exist during pride month!!! Lmao oh well still love it...might order it lol idk #pride #cake #barnescafe https://www.instagram.com/p/B1hQLWCHVke/?igshid=1mdvh37vkfcnz

All of you who have been celebrating pride, speaking out, and bravely telling your stories...

I’ve been so focused on the novel, I almost forgot to celebrate #pride month. #loveislove #pridemonth2019 https://www.instagram.com/p/BzBj7cFnx9c/?igshid=1fyd55pnfq3zp