9 ways to celebrate Pride

June is Pride Month! Every year, this month-long ride on the rainbow train is an opportunity to celebrate the gorgeously human spectrum of gender and sexuality, as well as the long and ongoing fight for widespread equality and justice in the LGBTQIA+ community.

This year, in the face of nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in state legislatures across the country, the queer community (particularly trans and gender-nonconforming youth and people of color), have a huge need to celebrate, grieve, and come together safely.

Consider the following 9 ways to celebrate Pride this year:

1. Attend a Pride parade or event

To find a list of pride events in your city, check out this incredibly useful global event directory, or this one. Get your flags in order, get your playlist on, get your outfit right (complete with glitter if applicable), and celebrate your truest self—with colorful kindred spirits—in large and boisterous numbers! No matter what the haters say, there is power in numbers: there’s nothing quite like a diverse sea of people flowing down a street with a common, unifying interest. Love, baby, one love.

2. Celebrate the good things

While it can be hard to find good news in the fight for true equality, there is so much good happening. When we fill our heads with reminders of this, it helps us feel more genuine hope for the future—and also helps us to want to help create that future. Do everything possible to make sure you’re exposed to good news on the regular. You might check out LGBTQ Nation, for starters. Finally, when you’ve found good news, be sure to share it!

3. Brush up on your history

Celebrating Pride has a lot more meaning when you acknowledge its origin story. Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, which acted as a powerful tipping point for the gay liberation movement in the US: police raided a gay bar in New York City, not expecting that its patrons would decide they’d had enough and were ready to fight back. Of course, LGBTQ+ history didn't start with Stonewall, but dates all the way back in 2900 BC.

4. Volunteer your time

The Trevor Project works to prevent suicide and support the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth, and volunteers work to help these youth through some pretty tough times. Meanwhile Trans Lifeline is a trans-led organization connecting trans people to the resources they need to thrive. If you can’t afford to donate money to an organization that means a whole lot to you, consider donating your time. Check out a crowd-sourced directory of LGBTQ+ organizations, or search for LGBTQ+ community centers in your area to get your volunteer on.

5. Come out

Only if you feel ready and you want to, and you’ve been wanting to. No one should ever coerce or convince you to take a step like this. This is your life, and your sense of safety. All that being said, if/when you’re really ready to share your truth, you’re ready. It can be a massive flash mob style announcement, a quiet whisper to a close friend, or a dramatic shedding of extra weight with family present—whatever you feel is called for. You got this.

6. Buy some new sex toys

Guess what? Masturbation is fantastic for mental health, and so is Pride! Coincidence? Think of the Blush Avant Pride collection as your baby tonight if you’re on the market for a revamped pleasure routine that strokes all the shades of your soul’s inner rainbow, nam sayin’? The Blush Avant Pride P1, dipped in the Rainbow flag colors, is a modern and stylish g and p-spot dildo crafted with mega love and self-empowerment while the Blush Avant Pride P9 Bear, dipped in the colors of the Bear flag, boasts plenty of girth and mirth alike. The collection has several other models to offer too, including a dildo dipped in the colors of the Trans flag.

7. Read some erotica

Celebrate your queer joy by reading erotic stories featuring nakedly queer, sensual joy. This selection of erotic fiction stories are written by some extremely talented LGBTQ+ erotic writers. Teeming with romance, humanity, first times, second chances, consent-forward stolen moments, yearning both unadulterated and unabridged in its sheer depth—and of course, exquisitely steamy romps in the proverbial hay. In sum, there’s nothing like a little erotica to get your filthy imagination churning with delight.

8. Wear your kink on your sleeve

Pride means parades and parties celebrating queer freedom, and this includes sexual freedom. While some members of the LGBTQIA+ community have expressed disapproval of displays of kink at Pride, deeming it inappropriate for children, for the most part, the representations of kink at Pride are embodied in playful outfits (with a leather vest here and there). It’s also worth remembering that “protecting children” is the same argument used to attack LGBTQIA+ people who hold hands or kiss in public. Boo.

9. Be an ally

If you don’t identify as LGBTQIA+, but you still wish to show your support by celebrating Pride, there are indeed many ways to be good ally. Perhaps most importantly, being a strong ally doesn't mean just wearing rainbow glitter one day a year—it means consistently and humbly learning about and supporting issues in the community all year long. As well, if you witness any harassment at Pride (or anywhere else), use your straight privilege to call that shit out so people in a more vulnerable position than you don’t have to. Also, never assume anyone’s identity or sexuality—oh, and don’t take up space that’s meant for the LGBTQIA+ community. If you celebrate Pride, think of yourself as a strong, silent, ’n loving partner who follows rather than leads.

Happy Pride to all y’all! <3