In The Air...
When Pride + Protests Collide
This weekend, there are some heavy things in the air. And no, I’m not just talking about my allergies or June Gloom rolling over Los Angeles.
You can practically cut the tension with a knife.
Tomorrow in Washington, D.C., a military parade will wind through the capital’s streets, complete with roaring jets and meticulously choreographed fanfare. It's being billed as a display of strength, patriotism, and unity. Puh-leaze. It’s also Dick Tator Chump’s 79th birthday. Which I obviously won’t be celebrating.
Because let’s be real: this parade is just another authoritarian flex from a regime without brains or brawn. A parade “fit for a king” in a country without a throne. A performance of power—not a celebration of democracy.
Meanwhile, in cities across the country, demonstrators will gather under different banners. Some under the rainbow, honoring Pride Month and the generations of LGBTQ folks who’ve fought for visibility, dignity, and rights.
Others under signs that read simply, “NO KINGS.”
NO KINGS DAY PROTESTS
ON JUNE 14TH, WE RISE UP.
Find an event near you!
NO to banana republics and dick tators.
NO to silencing dissent and stealing rights.
NO to trashing the Constitution while humping the American flag.
Wherever you are this weekend, you’ll likely feel it: the clash between performance and purpose. Between government-sanctioned spectacle and grassroots resistance. Between selective patriotism and messy, lived democracy.
Some will wave American flags, which have been reclaimed and redefined. Others will raise rainbow flags in defiance and joy. Some will do both—because those freedoms, those identities, aren’t mutually exclusive. That’s the beauty of the First Amendment: we get to speak. We get to assemble. We get to protest. We get to be.
As for me, I’ll be watching from afar—grateful for the livestreams, the independent journalists, the organizers, and the brave souls showing up in the heat, under surveillance, in the face of possible crackdowns. Health-wise, I can’t be there physically. But spiritually? I’m all in.
So here’s to the people in the streets. To the queer kids who refuse to disappear. To the protest veterans and the first-timers trembling on their way to the rally. To the flags that represent survival, truth, and solidarity—not just White Christian Nationalism.
Because whatever you’re waving—Stars and Stripes, Progress Pride, or a handmade sign with duct tape and glitter—this weekend is shaping up to be one like no other.
Stay loud. Stay proud. Stay safe.
Clint 🌈✌️
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FYC = STORIES + SUBSTACKS
ON THIS DAY = JUNE 13
BIRTHDAYS
1865 = W. B. Yeats = Irish poet, playwright, and Nobel Prize laureate
1888 = Fernando Pessoa = Portuguese writer and philosopher 🌈
1892 = Basil Rathbone = South African-born British-American actor
1894 = Jacques Henri Lartigue = French photographer and painter
1913 = Ralph Edwards = American radio and tv host
1926 = Paul Lynde = American comedian and actor 🌈
1929 = Ralph McQuarrie = American illustrator
1935 = Christo = Bulgarian-French sculptor and painter
1935 = Jeanne-Claude = Moroccan sculptor and painter
1943 = Malcolm McDowell = English actor and producer
1948 = Joe Roth = American director and producer
1951 = Richard Thomas = American actor, director, and producer
1951 = Stellan Skarsgård = Swedish actor
1962 = Ally Sheedy = American actor and author
1974 = Steve-O = American stunt performer
1975 = Jeff Davis = American screenwriter and producer
1981 = Chris Evans = American actor and producer
1986 = Kat Dennings = American actor and comedian
1986 = Ashley Olsen = American child actor and fashion designer
1986 = Mary-Kate Olsen = American child actor and fashion designer
1990 = Aaron Taylor-Johnson = English actor
EVENTS
1855 = The twentieth opera of Giuseppe Verdi, Les vêpres siciliennes ("The Sicilian Vespers"), premieres in Paris.
1994 = Bill T. Jones and Adrienne Rich receive the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship for their creative bodies of work.
HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES
Pride Month (ongoing)
EPHEMERA + QUOTES OF THE DAY
“Politicians...talk in generalities and lies, and I think they've caused all our grief. They're so awful, they're really funny. I hate thinking this because my dad loved politics.”
Paul Lynde
“I'm Liberace without a piano.”
Paul Lynde
Thanks Clint for encourage everyone forward. Looking to join one of the protest in Orange County tomorrow.
Clint—oh how I love this song by Phil, always full volume here too—my pep talk, push-me, fire-me-on anthem.
And your whole piece? I feel every word, across the ocean.
From this side of the Atlantic, I am watching, cheering, standing with you. The lines you draw—performance vs purpose, spectacle vs lived democracy—they speak far beyond your borders. We know these forces here too. We know how vital resistance is, how vital voices are.
So here’s to the flags raised in courage, to NO KINGS shouted clear, to queer joy and presence that cannot be erased.
And here’s to you, sending out this fierce call. I’m not in your streets, yet I walk alongside you in spirit. Volume up, all the way.