And Pride Band Played On...

A Month Isn't Enough

Photo by John Cardamone on Unsplash

As June draws to a close, the rainbow flags start coming down. The corporate logos quietly return to grayscale. And the glitter, once joyfully scattered in celebration, is swept away until next year.

But for many of us—especially those of us who live this life, not just like the posts—Pride isn’t a 30-day sprint. It’s a 24/7/365 kind of truth. It’s in the way we love, live, grieve, resist, show up, and keep showing up—even when the world makes it hard.

Pride Month is beautiful. Powerful. Essential. But one month will never be enough to hold the complexity, history, heartache, and hope of this community.

So yes, the calendar flips—but the band plays on. The joy plays on. The fight plays on. The love plays on. And if you can dig it—and handle it—you’re always invited to party!

Keep calm and keep Pride going on!
Clint 🌈✌️

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FOR YOUR (SUBSTACK) CONSIDERATION

• The Greatest Male Actress Of All Time (

  Sam Staggs
  )

• Palangeau Park: Episode 14 (PalCinema, Television, & Music)

• Meditation: Somatic Healing For The Queer Community (Qstack)

• "Looking Through Patient Eyes," P.M. Dawn (1993) (

  The Lost Songs Project
  )

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ON THIS DAY = JUNE 30

BIRTHDAYS

• 1685 = John Gay = English poet and playwright

• 1852 = Reginald Brett = British historian and politician 🌈

• 1889 = Archibald Frazer-Nash = English car designer and Frazer Nash founder

• 1906 = Anthony Mann = American actor and director

• 1917 = Lena Horne = American actor, singer, and activist

• 1917 = Susan Hayward = American actor

• 1917 = Willa Kim = American costume designer

• 1919 = Ed Yost = American inventor of the modern hot air balloon

• 1934 = Harry Blackstone Jr. = American magician and author

• 1943 = Florence Ballard = American singer and Supremes founding member

• 1952 = David Garrison = American actor and singer

• 1956 = David Alan Grier = American actor, singer, and comedian

• 1956 = Paris Barclay = American director and producer 🌈

• 1957 = Ilene Chaiken = American producer, director, writer 🌈

• 1958 = Esa-Pekka Salonen = Finnish conductor and composer

• 1959 = Vincent D'Onofrio = American actor

• 1963 = Rupert Graves = English actor, director, and screenwriter

• 1966 = Alan Joyce = Australian business executive 🌈

• 1966 = Mike Tyson = American boxer and actor

• 1969 = Ben Patrick Johnson = American voice actor and author 🌈

• 1970 = Brian Bloom = American actor and screenwriter

• 1982 = Willam Belli = American drag queen, actor, singer-songwriter 🌈

• 1984 = Fantasia Barrino = American singer-songwriter and actor

EVENTS

• 1865 = Walt Whitman is fired from the US Department of the Interior when the Secretary of the Interior deems his poetry collection Leaves of Grass “offensive.”

• 1919 = Different from the Others is released in theaters.

• 1864 = U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation.”

• 1937 = The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London.

• 1952 = The Guiding Light premieres on CBS Television.

• 1953 = The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan.

• 1966 = The National Organization for Women, the United States' largest feminist organization, is founded.

• 1971 = Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is released in theaters.

• 1999 = South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is released in theaters.

HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES

• Pride Month (ending)

• Social Media Day

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PORTRAIT + QUOTES OF THE DAY

“Showing up is like 90 percent of the battle,
and just make sure your hair is really cute.”
Willam Belli

“Always tip a drag queen.
If they're good, they deserve it.
And if they're bad, at least they'll go away after that buck.”
Willam Belli

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