What Pride Means To You
Kerryn BrownsonShare
I recently ran a give away of our ceramic bearings on Instagram.. It was pride month and I ask entrants to write what pride means to them. Reading the responses brought tears to my eyes, they were all so beautiful and powerful and I didnt want them to get lost in a social media post so I thought I would collate them here.
In no particular order.
Pride is an emotion or aspect of yourself that you really like to be or feel regardless of judgement.
we were just talking about how cute these are! Plus we went to queer prom together 8 years ago 😂 🏳️🌈 pride = a safe place to just be yourself
Pride is equality, liberation and freedom to be whoever you are and embrace the true meaning of love! 🌈💖💜
pride was a riot so is a movement to fight for equity and to acknowledge those who we lost in the fight such as the lost aids generation of lgbtq+ folks
Inclusivity and understanding
Pride is earned. We had to fight to be who we are, whether it is at work, with family, or even just in our own minds. Im not proud simply because I was born this way. I'm proud I fought to stay true to myself and though it wasn't easy, I'm still here. I'm proud of those who came before me, for all the battles they fought hard to win. And I'm proud of the next generation, because I see many carrying their own burdens along with carrying the torch to make the future better and brighter.
Pride means fighting for equality and not having to hide.
Pride is supporting, accepting, loving, celebrating (and protecting) every beautiful person a part of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s finding a home and being each other’s family in a way many of our genetic families can’t be. It’s healing through acceptance, love and embracing. It’s the one place we know we can own who we are without fear or rejection and be surrounded by love & joy. It’s celebrating all of who we are and being able to be proud of that & anyone beside us. It’s a safe space. It’s a time dedicated to remembering the fight that’s still going for the rights of gay, trans, pansexual, bisexual, aesexual, lesbian, queer and those who aren’t out or who are questioning everywhere. It’s educating, listening, asking questions, growth, mentoring, learning. It’s welcoming our family home. It’s creating safe spaces where everyone is celebrated. It’s intersectionality. It’s healing. For me, it’s been seeking safe spaces to ask my questions, working through my fears of coming out, recognizing and accepting who I am with clarity, love, and honoring my truth. It’s giving myself the grace for the time it took. It’s laughter knowing I always knew I just didn’t have the words or family to help me. It’s understanding myself in a deeper level and peeling away the opinions of others that kept me afraid of being free & owning my sexuality. It’s the way I want to protect every lgbtq+ friend I’ve ever met because I want everyone to feel safe. It’s being grateful for every person who’s loved me, created a safe space for me, and encouraged me I belong. 🌈 💗💜💙 + 💚🤍💜
pride is declaration of our communities strength and a celebration of our love and identities 🏳️🌈 💓🤍💙 (my phone doesn't have the trans flag sadly)
Pride is a safe place where differences can communally be celebrated rather than shamed. 😊🏳️🌈
Pride is a movement to gain equality and rights for all LGBTQ+ people and it’s also a reminder that we’re a loving community who have each other’s backs ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Pride is celebrating myself and my friends space and remembering the struggle to get it!! Learning about others and teaching acceptance and compassion 🌈
Aw man, what pride means to me-? My sister and my best friend are both lesbians, they helped me come out as pansexual. We all went to the pride parade the in 2018 and it was the best day of my life. Everyone was so friendly and supportive and there is no hate within the community. I finally found a place where people are supportive and hold up each other’s backs
Pride means loving oneself and others for being who they are. Supporting your friends/family no matter what.
Pride for me is a time to celebrate all that I am and to be grateful for the ability to be able to question that for myself 🌈🌈🌈
Pride is celebrating my own, my friends’ and all of the lgbtq+ community’s sexuality, advocating for respect/acceptance, and fighting for equality 🌈❤️
To me pride means being proud of my bisexuality and no longer being too scared to be open about it 🏳️🌈💖
To me Pride is a celebration of love. We share our love with others and help them love themselves no matter who they are ❤️
to me, pride is about liberation and self expression after being told by the western world and our bigoted counterparts that we can't be ourselves.
Pride to me is skating down the road beside a pride parade float, feeling beautiful and OUT while decked out head to toe in flowers. Pride is hearing someone in the crowd yell “OMG she’s bi! I LOVE YOU!” and turning to face them and share a moment of bubbly smiles and unconditional love. It’s the feeling of knowing that this celebration started as riot, acknowledging the depth of the grief and the rage that the community had to survive so we could experience these moments today. Pride is the knowledge of the immense strength of my community and myself, the knowledge that we can get through anything without having to sacrifice who we are. we’re getting sappy on a Tuesday morning 😅
acceptance and love. teaching children who may be lost that there is a way forward. helping adults who have struggled their whole lives to feel understood. Pride is life ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Pride means feeling like my true genuine self and breaking down mental barriers from growing up in the Bible belt.
pride is a result of a long struggle that we are still fighting. It is our month to be more than ever as we are and be proud of it ❤️
Pride to me means that when I came out at the age of 13, my mum accepted me fully.. her words being "I love you for you Laura" and those words made me who I am today! A very proud pansexual who loves everything and everyone!! Aslong as I hold my mummy's words close to me, nothing can stop me 🏳️🌈🌈
(avec un peu de chance) Pride month is something essential to make people aware of all the rejection of lgbtqi+ people
Power. Diversity. Acceptance. Love. History. Education. Living. Culture.... Oh and, Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent ✨🌈
Pride shows the progress the world is making and allows for queer kids to see that they are not alone.
Pride means it’s ok to be yourself and love who you want because there is a whole world who believes in you 💛💙💜💚🧡🖤♥️
Pride to me is simply celebrating love in the brightest way possible 🌈🌈🌈💕❤️💕❤️
It means inclusion for all
Pride is celebrating who we are, and remembering who paved the way for us, made it possible for us to live as ourselves.
Pride is a protest! A celebration of how far we have come but a reminder of how far we still have to go because until all of us are free to exist, live our best lives & feel safety doing so, none of us are. 🖤❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Pride means showing up as my full self and being accepted for it... especially when I'm not in the room.
Pride to me is being able to marry my wife last year and being able to be who I want to be! 🌈
Pride to me means equal rights for all and loving whoever we love - no questions- no judgement. ❤️
Pride means accepting everyone for who they are and loving yourself for who you are 🏳️🌈
Pride means loving every part of yourself unapologetically and always feeling free to be fearlessly you ❤️
for me pride is a time to remember, a time to celebrate our history and mourn those we have lost.
Pride = equality to me. Same rights are everyone and it also means love to me, because now I finally get to feel it and mean it ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Pride means being able to be authentically and unapologetically myself, and showing kindness, love, and acceptance to everyone.
Pride is being unapologetically oneself in the face of the status quo, fighting for and raising the voices of our most marginalised lgbtiqa+ family 🔥🔥🔥
Pride was a riot. Pride is hope. Pride is to claim that love can never be wrong and that love will win 🧡💛💚💙💜
Pride means celebrating who I am with people like me. Pride means being able to live my life freely and openly. Pride means acceptance to everyone.
#pride to me is celebrating my friends just as they are, and supporting them in living their best, authentic lives 💕
Pride to me means being unapologetically you no matter what anyone thinks or says!Choosing kindness and love over hate and negativity and accepting all for who they are! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍
Pride means to not only accept myself but show it off to everyone who needs some fierce @memelle.tz
Pride is the celebration of all the diversity and wonderful people in the world. Not being afraid to be ourselves. Be loud Be PROUD
Pride means never forgetting the people who risked their lives so we can live ours freely. It’s still political and still a march.
pride is for acknowledging those who fought for our rights, and celebrating being unapologetically you! 🌈
Pride is standing in who you are unapologetically with understanding, compassion, love and acceptance 💜🖤
Pride is a visibility, to say i survived, we're still here, we're all here together and thriving,
Pride has been a symbol of love and acceptance 💕 that we are all able to stand in the light and be our authentic selves!
Pride is not letting anyone stop you from living your best true life, claiming your time in the sun and thriving!
Absolutely stunning colours the lilac would go with my new moxi lilac lolly’s that im getting. pride is a celebration of who we are 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 xxxxxx
To me Pride means supporting my friends so they can be themselves. And also if someone's parents aren't accepting of their identity, I'm their mom now! 💖☺️
Pride is celebrating ur uniqueness and ur journey.... no matter the struggle, no matter how imperfect, no matter how ugly. ❤️
Prides means that I can openly try to find friends that understand the struggle of being different in our society.
Pride is accepting everyone for who they are. If your parents don’t support you… I’m your mom now!
Remembering those that fought to pave the way so I could be safer to live as myself
Pride also means supporting your tribe thru all their life changes
Pride is love and equal rights 💖
pride means to me love and acceptance 🌈
Pride is acepting who you are no matter what other people say
Love is love 💕
Pride to me is highlighting the fight is still ongoing. Remembering those that fought and died for us to live best lives in our truest form. Pride is celebrating love and acceptance of all lgbtqi+ and letting others know they aren't alone.
Pride means to be your authentic self and let others be their authentic self. No apologies no regrets!!!
Pride is love is love is love. 😍
Pride is freedom
Pride is acceptance
literally so adorable~ Pride is a time were you can be yourself and (even unintentionally) inspire others! Be true to your heart and spread the love! Celebrate life and help others celebrate it too. We are all one huge family so let's celebrate, encourage, and love eachother! Happy pride month everybody! ❤️❤️❤️ stay safe ❤️❤️❤️
Pride means complete freedom to be my authentic self. This is my first pride out as non binary and I’m glad I’ve surrounded myself with a good support system
Pride is the freedom to live your life as your truest self :)
Pride is being who you are in a safe space 💜🏳️🌈
pride is celebrating your identity and those who came before us in the fight for acceptance + equal rights 🌈
Pride is about celebrating who you are, loving who you love and supporting each other to have the same capacity
Pride is freedom and learning
To me, pride means celebration of love and diversity🌼 xoxoxoxo
Pride to me is freedom for all to be who they are and celebrate it. It’s looking out for my queer family and skate mates and ensuring they feel safe in the spaces we skate in rainbow 🌈
Pride is about inclusion. It’s about being proud of exactly who you are and not allowing others to dictate what that is.
A day to love every human just as they are 💕
Pride is being accepted for who you are & understanding that you are the most perfect you that you can be 🖤
Pride is an opportunity to celebrate the experiences that have set me free, creating safe spaces for my fellow gaybies, while learning and recognizing the long standing history of those who came before us to make it all possible 💓
Pride is about acceptance
Pride means to accept and love others as they are!
Pride is a symbol of self expression and acceptance.
Pride is community, home, a connection.
Pride for me is to be proud of who I am for all facets of who I am, regardless of what others think or want of me. It took me forever to find myself and to come out, and that's still something I'm proud of even if people give me shit for taking so long to figure it out. We're all only human!
In some parts of the world, we’re privileged to have the ability to live free and openly as queer identifying people. To me, Pride means using that privilege to empower those whose voices aren’t heard as loudly, and ensure that people of all genders and orientations feel that they can celebrate who they are without fear.
Pride means love and safety ❤️🧡💛💚
Pride means proud, proud of who you are ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Pride is love
Pride is a month we’re u can try and find people like you
Pride means being comfortable in your own skin
Pride means getting to be authentically myself. It's a fight to make sure that my peers get the rights they deserve.
pride to me is a platform that motivates people to express themselves, or understand who they are while receiving positive feedback from the community.
Wow, well what can I say. #pridemonth to me gives me more empowerment to take hate crime. This week I was victimised for being the only gay at the park... its been ages since its happened. But now, I feel alive, I want rainbows in the sky, in my eyes and in your eyes. Lets shine bright together! 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
Pride is being yourself and that self also being kind towards everyone else being themselves
pride is loving your friends when they’re exploring their sexuality
pride is seeing strong bad ass skaters stand up for themselves and their identity
Pride to me means giving everyone the chance to be who they want to be without judgement or suppression. It means freedom and equity amongst everyone and most of all radiates happiness and joy throughout the world. To be proud of who you are and what you believe in and to be able to show it is a feeling like no other 🏳️🌈❤️🌏
🙌🙌👏 pride for me is a about celebrating people for being people and trying to figure out definitions, rules and boxes for that person first. We all just wanna be accepted 😍 so we can move on to the fun stuff
Pride means my friends and family can feel comfortable with who they are, we can educate and understand different genders and sexuality’s to future generations to have a much more understanding compassionate future.
Pride means no judgement of how others want to live their life. All love is celebrated. In all ways.
pride is learning to practice the right pronouns even when you mess up and continue to learn
Pride is love! Pride is inclusive! Pride is freedom and acceptance of personal choice!
Pride is knowing I’m gay and finding the right spaces and places that I feel safe to express that despite having a Hetero partner
Pride for me means justice and freedom
Being who I am
Pride month means resistance and visibility ❤️
Equality
Pride is freedom of expression and being youself
Pride is not prejudice!
Pride is equality and freedom of expression.
Everyone is love!
Pride means being my truest self and feeling good about it!!