“Happy Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

This year feels different, and maybe it’s because I’m writing this from an ocean away. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent the last year watching so many families make impossible decisions in order to keep their children safe. Maybe it’s because every day seems to bring another attack on trans people, immigrants, Black communities, reproductive rights, disabled people, and so many others who are being told they do not belong.

But if there is one thing I know, it is this: Pride has never been about belonging because someone gave us permission, but in spite of. It has always been about community. It has always been about people loving each other fiercely enough to imagine and build something better.

As the mother of a transgender son, Pride will always be deeply personal to me. It is about watching a child grow into himself. It is about witnessing joy, courage, friendship, first loves, graduations, and ordinary moments that so many people try to politicize. It is about knowing that our children deserve more than survival. They deserve full, beautiful lives.

And Pride is bigger than any one community. Our liberation has always been intertwined. The safety and well-being of trans youth are connected to the safety and well-being of Black communities, immigrant communities, Indigenous communities, disabled communities, and every community targeted by systems that rely on exclusion and fear. We rise together or not at all.

So this month, I am celebrating the trans youth who continue to show us what courage looks like. I am celebrating the parents who choose love over fear. I am celebrating the organizers, elders, advocates, artists, and community members who keep showing up even when they are tired.

Most of all, I am celebrating the possibility that another world is possible; one built on affirmation, belonging, and collective care.

Happy Pride, friends. Keep loving loudly. Keep showing up for one another. The way we love matters.” 🤎🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 – Lizette, Spain

What’s your Pride story? Let us know! Send an e-mail to charles@personalstoriesproject.org to share yours!

#PersonalStories #HappyPride #PrideMonth #TransYouth #ProtectTransKids #TransRightsAreHumanRights #Intersectionality #CommunityCare #ChosenFamily #TheMamiAdvocate #Pride2026