Happy Pride, ’Finders! For our Pride Contributor Blog this year, we’ve welcomed some of our queer staff and contributors to share their stories with us! The theme for this year’s Pride is “Queer Joy as Resistance,” a spotlight on how joy and hope are active protests against oppressive systems.

Happy Pride, ‘Finders!
Each year, the United States celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June in honor of the protests that took place at the Stonewall Inn, a queer club in NYC. The first Pride was a riot, and every Pride going forward is a protest. We’re here, we’re queer, we have always existed, and we will always exist.

Pride month is a time to celebrate queer joy, a time to be out and proud about our existence. Pride is a protest and always has been. For every victory, like the Respect for Marriage Act or the removal of the ban against gay men donating blood, there are just as many setbacks to equality. States like Florida and Texas pass law after law banning discussion of queer issues in schools and gender-affirming medical care, which whips the outrage machine into a frenzy and leads to Target employees being attacked over the yearly Pride collection. The LGBTQ+ community wonders every day what new attacks on our freedom, our right to simply exist, await us in the news.