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
Meditation: Somatic Healing For The Queer Community (Qstack)
"Looking Through Patient Eyes," P.M. Dawn (1993) (The Lost Songs Project)
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)
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
It really isn't enough, Clint. It really isn't.
This year, it is more important than ever to keep the spirit of Pride strong all year long.