Weekend Reads: Finding Pride

Pride Month is pretty self-explanatory. Though pride isn’t limited to just these thirty days, June gives those who identify as queer and/or a member of the LGBT+ community a time to celebrate how far they’ve come with their rights, work towards a better future for themselves, and just have fun being who they are.

More often than not, the discussion surrounding LGBT+ issues, particularly for LGBT+ youth, can be bleak, with higher rates of negative mental health issues specifically. That’s why Pride Month is so important, sending a message that though things can be really difficult, there are others just like you and your identity is something to celebrate.

To remind members of the LGBT+ community, allies, and those who are still learning about the significance of pride about the power of the positivity occurring this month, we’ve pulled a couple of lists and articles featuring  queer youth pride:

Several teen-centric online publications such as Seventeen and Teen Vogue have features where they interviewed teenagers and young adults at previous pride festivals and asked them what the word means to them. At a time where figuring out who your are and what your identity is almost always in question (and can potentially put your safety in jeopardy), attending your first Pride can provide both comfort and reassurance, and of course, some fun, as these teens describe in these articles.

Brightly – an organization that provides resources and lists to make finding children and YA books a bit easier – has a thorough list of fictional LGBT+ YA novels. These are novels that don’t just have queer protagonists, but have their own stories that go beyond just navigating their identity and beyond having their identity define them. Vulture also has a list of LGBT+ YA novels, but includes older novels as well, even ones dating back to the 80s.

It can feel like a cliche, but ultimately, now is the time to remember that it gets better.

Do you identify as queer? How do you feel about Pride Month?