The queer community is, and has always been, a community of joy. Not simply in spite of our suffering, but often because of it. In the face of rejection, we have created chosen families. In the face of criminalization, we have danced in the streets with zeal and bricks. In the face of death, we have thrown celebrations for the living and toasted our fallen. Joy has never been separate from our resistance. It rises from the deep knowing that we are still here, still loving, still capable of beauty that defies what was meant to break us.

This kind of joy is not naive. It is forged. It is prophetic. It refuses to surrender to despair or bitterness, even when both are justified. Our art, our music, our fashion, our rituals, our laughter are not frivolous things. They are how we sanctify our survival. They say to the powers that be, “You will not steal the tenderness from our touch or the colour from our world!” They say, “We will not let your hatred define the meaning of our lives!” Celebration is no distraction. It is a sacred practice of reclamation.

So today, let joy be visible. Share something that makes your spirit lift: a song, a poem, a photograph, a moment that reminded you of who you are. Let it honour the resilience that brought us here and the imagination that keeps moving us forward.

Pride is not only a protest against what harms us. It is the vibrant embodiment of that which could be. It does not erase the struggle. It holds it, and transforms it, and dares to sing anyway.