Happy Pride Month!

Zoë Ariel Dunning
Jun 8, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Nov 11, 2024

This is what I wore to Pride Fest and a gay bar last night! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

And it’s my motherfucking 25th birthday today!!! 🥳 I hope you can tell that my blush is in the bisexual colors lol. The first thing I ever came out as! 🩷💜💙

I’m a PROUD

PANSEXUAL

TRANSGENDER

NON-BINARY

POLYAMOROUS

PAGAN person!!!

🏳️‍🌈♾️🏳️‍⚧️⚧️🌎

I date people of all genders and sexualities and as many of them as I want. I don’t place limits on my love. I finally love myself! I value my friendships just as much as romantic partnerships. I exist outside of every binary I possibly can and refuse to conform.

I was a dutiful church kid who grew up quiet, insecure, and suppressed. I tried everything I could to conform and was shut down every time I attempted authenticity.

A preacher yelled at me with a mega phone while I was crossing the street dressed like this, so I flipped him off and then blew a kiss lol. He yelled,

“This an example of walking around with shame and in sin. You’re going to confuse children! They’re going to see you and think they can be homosexual! How dare you walk in front of a school bus like that!!”

I said back, “Good!” I hope that queer kids see safe, happy, older queer people and see that they’re not alone. They can be who they are and love who they love!

Pride is considered one of the seven deadly sins by many Christians. The opposite of religious-ingrained shame and false “humility” is Pride. In a world that reminds us every day in every possible way that we don’t belong and condemns us, we still say, “NO! This is who I am and I refuse to live in fear or shame.”

THAT is why we celebrate. Leave behind the shackles of shame! And you know what? I am perfectly and wonderfully made (even though I don’t believe in God anymore).

Not only do I get to dance in my own sexy skin at Pride fests and gay bars with confidence and wild abandon, but I get to live in community, work, and grow old with other queer people. Today and every day!

I will always be loudly Proud year-round of being queer, trans, and still being here despite the hell I’ve been through just to be myself.

Happy Pride!!! The first one was a riot and still a protest! ✊🏻✊🏼✊✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿