Pride 2025 = Reading + Writing
Remembering + Sharing OUR Stories
As Pride 2025 begins, I feel a sense of reluctant celebration in the air—joy tempered by something heavier. Beneath the parades and playlists, there seems to be a deeper calling to remember…and to resist.
At a time when books continue being banned, queer and trans people being erased from history, and our lives being treated as political fodder—our stories matter more now than ever.
For far too long, LGBTQ lives have been marginalized, if not left out entirely.
For generations, our histories weren’t taught—they had to be discovered. We’ve had to find them for ourselves. We’ve had to pass them down in whispers, zines, mixtapes, kitchen-table conversations, and late-night phone calls.
Our survival has always depended on storytelling. So reading and writing are truly revolutionary. They are how we claim space, how we learn who we come from, and how we ensure we’re not forgotten.
WHY READING (STILL) MATTERS
Every queer and trans person deserves to see themselves as main characters in a book. Not as side characters or subtext, but as full, complex human beings.
We deserve to know that we are not the first and only people to live and love the way we do. We deserve to know that we come from a rich, resilient lineage of people who refused to be nice and remain in the closet.
Reading LGBTQ books connects me to those who came before. The ones who were brave enough to live out loud—some loudly, some quietly—even when the world told them not to. Especially when the world told them not to.
Our stories remind us that we’re not alone. They remind us that we belong.
And reading is resistance. When politicians try to erase us from history, we write our memoirs. When schools ban our books, we share more of our stories, refusing to be silenced.
WHY WRITING (STILL) MATTERS
Writing is how we name and tell our truth. Whether it's in a blog, a book, a journal, a poem, or a social post, every story we tell chips away at the idea that we’re supposed to be invisible.
Write about your first Pride. Write about your heartbreak. Write about the friend who saved your life. Write about your dreams, your joys, your loves, your rage. Write about living in a world where we’re still not free from bigotry, hate, and ignorance.
Even if you think no one’s listening, someone is.
Your story might light the way for countless others.
PRIDE 2025 = LIBRARIES + LOVE LETTERS
What if we made Pride not just a time to party, but a time to read and write more?
Let’s make it a month of libraries and love letters, of reading circles and writing workshops. Let’s gather the stories that have been silenced and tell the ones only we can tell. Let’s fill journals and notebooks, record our stories, and share our archives so no one can delete us or deny our existence.
Our stories are our inheritance.
Our stories are our resistance.
Our stories are our superpowers.
So as you celebrate Pride this June, read something that makes you feel alive. Write something that might help someone else survive. Speak the names that history keeps trying to forget. Pass the book, pass the mic, pass the story.
Because if we don’t remember and tell our stories, who will?
Keep calm and PRIDE ON!
Clint 🌈✌️
PRIDE 2025 SALES
SHOP = 25% Off Everything
SUBSCRIBE = 25% Annual Subscriptions
COLLIDE PRESS is a reader-supported publication.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber or patron.
Thank you. Yes, YOU, boo!
FYC = PRIDE 2025 NEW RELEASES
OUT TODAY = Scents of Lavender: Queer Love Through The Ages 🌈
Written By =
Available On = AmazonOUT TUESDAY = Lamb: A Novel In Snapshots 🌈
Written By =
Available On = Amazon + Barnes & Noble + BookshopOUT TUESDAY = Potluck Desserts: Joyful Recipes to Share with Pride 🌈
Written By =
Photography By = Brian Samuels
Available On = Amazon + Barnes & Noble + Bookshop + More
ON THIS DAY = JUNE 1
BIRTHDAYS
1926 = Andy Griffith = American actor, singer, producer, and screenwriter
1926 = Marilyn Monroe = American model and actor 🌈
1934 = Pat Boone = American singer-songwriter and actor
1937 = Morgan Freeman = American actor and producer
1939 = Cleavon Little = American actor and comedian 🌈
1946 = Brian Cox = Scottish actor
1947 = Jonathan Pryce = Welsh actor and singer
1947 = Ronnie Wood = English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1950 = Charlene = American singer-songwriter
1950 = Michael McDowell = American author and screenwriter 🌈
1952 = Ferron = Canadian singer-songwriter 🌈
1961 = Mark Curry = American actor
1969 = Teri Polo = American actor
1973 = Adam Garcia = Australian actor
1973 = Heidi Klum = German-American model, fashion designer, and tv host
1974 = Alanis Morissette = Canadian-American singer-songwriter and actor
1977 = Danielle Harris = American actor
1981 = Brandi Carlile = American singer-songwriter 🌈
1984 = Nikki Glaser = American comedian
1996 = Tom Holland = English actor
1999 = Technoblade = American YouTuber and streamer
EVENTS
1732 = The term lesbian is first used by William King in his book The Toast. The word lesbian literally means resident of the Greek Isle of Lesbos. The term came to describe women who love women after the island’s most famous resident, the poet Sappho.
1975 = The American magazine Drummer debuts, aimed at the growing BDSM and leather communities.
1980 = Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
1991 = The first “Gay Days” event is organized in Walt Disney World in Orlando. About 3,000 gays and lesbians gather, wearing red for visibility. It’s become one of the largest LGBTQ events in the world.
2016 = POTUS Barack Obama declares June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month:
HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES
Pride Month (begins)
PORTRAIT + QUOTES OF THE DAY
“I am a commercial writer and I'm proud of that. I am writing things to be put in the bookstore next month. I think it is a mistake to try to write for the ages.”
Michael McDowell
“There’s no point in advertising a circus when everybody hates the clown.”
Michael McDowell, The Elementals
Please add a rainbow icon to Cleavon Little's name. Thank you, Clint.
Thank you for the mention, Clint. I very much appreciate your support.