Pride Month (#1): Queer is Beautiful

June is pride month. June is chosen as the LGBTQ+ pride month to commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York in 1969 (which started on June 28). The Stonewall riots are generally accepted as the birth of the LGBTQ+ liberation movement. This doesn't mean we should igore Magnus Hirschfeld, Gale Chester Wittington, Leo Lawrance, Bayard Rustin or any of the early gay rights pioneers predating the Stonewall uprising.

June is the month we are allowed to show our (yes, OUR) pride, our equality, to show our true colours. During the month of June we invite everyone to invite a rainbow into their hearts.

I wrote this poem shortly after the pride march in Brussels (Belgium) a few weeks ago. It's titled 'Queer is Beautiful'.

Cheery dancers get rid of your sandals

Stand on your naked feet

Turn your dance into a war

And show them your skin.

Let’s move a little closer

And teach them without teacher

They have never seen the clouds

For I could be “they”.

And every silence kills the day

No haunting songs will change our identity

Beneath my feet the land isn’t mine

And I can’t breathe this air.

Close your eyes and hear

Without detaching your sight

We rise together and circle around

Not asking the sky to come down.