Some of us were taught from the beginning that hiding was safer.
Hide your softness.
Hide your joy.
Hide your difference.
Hide your love.
Hide your body, your truth, your self.
And so we learned—sometimes without words—that blending in was the only path to survival.
But then Pride came along.
And Pride said something dangerous.
Something sacred.
Something world-shaking:
“What if you didn’t have to hide anymore?”
“What if you could shine?”
🌪 The World Trains Us to Disappear
In many places, being queer is still seen as a threat. Not just your love, or your gender, or your clothes—but your existence. It doesn’t take harsh laws to make people hide; sometimes a disapproving glance or a parent’s silence is enough to whisper, you’re wrong.
We live in a world where conformity is rewarded and difference is punished.
A world where:
- Trans kids are treated like problems to fix.
- Queer couples are told to keep it “appropriate.”
- Nonbinary folks are met with confusion, ridicule, or erasure.
- Intersex bodies are operated on without consent to “normalize” them.
- Asexual people are ignored.
- Aromantic people are told they’re broken.
This isn’t just bigotry. It’s a machine of shame—so normalized that people don’t even recognize it as cruelty anymore.
And when you grow up inside that machine, you learn to fold in on yourself. You perform safety. You become a master of masking. You hide in plain sight.
But even when you hide, your truth doesn’t go away. It waits.
🌟 Pride Is a Spiritual Rebellion
Let’s be clear: Pride didn’t start as a party.
It started as a protest. A refusal. A riot led by Black and brown trans women and gender-nonconforming people who were told they didn’t belong in the world and decided to exist anyway.
Every rainbow flag is a resurrection.
Every queer kiss in public is a revolution.
Every pronoun claimed is holy ground reclaimed.
Pride is not about asking for permission to be who we are.
It’s about refusing to apologize.
It’s a sacred rebellion against the forces that told us we had to earn love by being someone else.
🌞 Shine Like You Were Never Meant to Dim
So what does it mean to shine?
It doesn’t have to be loud or showy. It doesn’t mean being on a float or in the spotlight (though it can).
Shining is about being visible in your truth, whatever that truth looks like.
It might mean:
- Wearing the clothes that feel like home.
- Correcting someone when they misgender you.
- Holding your partner’s hand, even when you’re afraid.
- Saying “I’m not ready to come out, but I’m still real.”
- Telling your inner child, “You deserved love all along.”
To shine is to stand in the light of your own being and say,
“I’m not going to shrink to make you comfortable.”
Because your joy is not a disruption.
Your gender is not a phase.
Your love is not a scandal.
Your body is not a mistake.
Your existence is not negotiable.
🧚♀️ The Blessing of Tinkerbell: Be Loud, Be Light, Be Loved
At The Church of Tinkerbell, we say:
Blessed be the loud.
Blessed be the shy.
Blessed be the messy, the magical, the becoming.
Blessed be the ones who glimmer quietly and the ones who glitter like a firework finale.
You were not made to disappear.
And when the world tries to erase you, Pride Month becomes your invitation back to life.
So this June, shine how you shine. Loud or soft. Alone or in community. With glitter or without. Whether you’re out to the world or only to yourself.
Every honest breath you take is resistance.
Every moment you choose joy is sacred.
Every part of you that was told to hide—let it shine.
We see you. We bless you.
And we’re so glad you’re here.
🧚♂️ Let there be light. Let it come from within. Let it blind the ones who said you shouldn’t exist.
✨ Happy Pride.
