Happy Pride all. I've been a little busy this month.

I've been helping with graphics for the Pride Month Reading Event that's being run on social media and there are cool activities such as a Pride Bingo, Pride recommendations, and e-book giveaways! I highly suggest checking out and following the PMRE Twitter account for all the updates (link in the description below). You might recognize authors such as Beau Van Dalen and Nezkovsou who are participating and helping out with the event as well, so have a peek and maybe you'll find some new fun reads along the way!

Now that has been mentioned and is out of the way, let me tell you how my pride is going.

I'm broke. 

I went to so many queer events with my friends and bought so much stuff from queer-owned businesses. I bought many pairs of clip-on earrings. So many. I never had comfortable clip-on earrings before and the ones I bought are hella comfortable. Ears cuffs, a fidget necklace, and a headband/crown thing too. I don't know how this happened, it just happened. I also got many stickers and a few pins (one of them being a genderfluid flag pin). And food. So much good food. I would say I'm not spending more money for a long while after this but that's a lie. A huge lie.

I never celebrated pride outside of the internet before. I've only recently come about my sexuality only three or four years ago and my gender identity only a year-ish ago? Even then, some parts of that identity journey have been bumpy since the ace spectrum came and slapped me in the face along the way. Luckily, I had friends to make fun of me in a loving way to push me into being comfortable with myself. Joking about things just normalizes it and makes the uncomfortable, comfortable.

So, it's a big deal that I decided to celebrate pride outside of the internet. This means I actually went outside to touch some grass instead of staying indoors 24/7 and letting my mind melt from my computer screen.

For a while quite honestly, I didn't know what I wanted to do when I celebrated pride outside for the first time. Being out and proud is scary for a lot of people, and not safe in a lot of areas too. My family doesn't ask if I'm queer so I don't tell, I understand that fear. Especially with all the bullshit that has been going on in trans kingdom and terf island (aka America and the UK). It's absolutely terrifying and being out is not only a privilege but also an act of courage at the same time. You don't know what kind of people would hurt you if you're out and proud but you also meet so many new supportive people when you are too. It's a very complicated area because there's no such thing as being 100% out to everybody unless you're waving your gay/pride flag everywhere and every day.

Pride is a protest and a celebration. It's not just one or another. There are people that think that pride should only be a protest too, but the thing is...  small acts of celebration is still a protest. When you support a queer person, you're helping normalize queer people in society. When you put your pronouns on your profile, even if you're cis, you're normalizing that gender shouldn't be assumed. If every single one of us does this and support each other as a community, we're telling the queerphobic people in society that their opinions are less important than people's rights and well-being. Human lives are more important than following what should be considered "normal." If people get mad about others being happy then let them stay mad.

The fight for rights is a long road. You don't have to be like me and be out to the extent that I am. I'm so lucky and privileged that my queerness is accepted at my work and my bosses are super supportive about it. I feel safe, most of the time. If you're limited in what you can do, as you can only do stuff in online spaces or you aren't comfortable and you're just consuming queer media online, you're not any less queer. You're still part of the queer community. The queer community is accepting and there is endless amounts of love for those that need a place to belong. 

Nobody exists in a vacuum, we're all on the same planet after all.