Pride Month is over. The rainbows in store windows and on garish socks have been cleared. This year, like the others before it, there was a robust debate about the commercialization of Pride — whether it’s a parade or march or both — in fact, each year these tensions are the perfect kickoff to Pride. But I am interested in the time after Pride; what happens when our designated month is over. I am calling for the institution of Pride resolutions. Each year at the end of June, we should all make a pledge to our queerness, a pact with our community, and over the next 12 months in good faith intend to fulfill it. It may be challenging like all those things we promise ourselves on New Year’s — How many new gym memberships go unused by March? How many cigarettes still lit? — but one way to reclaim Pride from the commercialization and frivolity is to turn it toward good for our community and for ourselves.

By making a Pride resolution, we will be expanding and expending our pride beyond just the confines of June, and we will see and feel how much our queerness enhances our lives daily.

Since it is the inauguration of Pride resolutions, here are some examples to choose from or to help spark your own.

KEEP READING

With Love,

Richie Jackson

Buy Gay Like Me

Sign up for Richie’s newsletter here

Author(s)

  • Richie Jackson is the author of the book Gay Like Me published by HarperCollins, an opinion columnist for The Advocate, and an award-winning Broadway, television, and film producer who produced the Tony Award-nominated Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song on Broadway and executive produced Showtime’s Nurse Jackie (Emmy and Golden Globe nominee for “Best Comedy Series”) for seven seasons. As an alumnus of NYU, he endows a program at his alma mater to train the next generation of LGBTQ+ activists called the Richie Jackson LGBTQ+ Service Fellows. He and his husband, Jordan Roth, were honored with The Trevor Project’s Trevor Hero Award. They are the proud parents of two extraordinary sons.