By: Shay Nowak
Pride month to me isn’t just a celebration; it is resistance. Being trans, being gay—it’s not something I soften to make anyone else comfortable. I stand in rooms where people argue my right to exist and take up space anyway—unapologetically, aggressively, fully. I speak when it would be safer to stay quiet, and I fight even when I’m drained because I know the cost if I don’t. Pride is a revolution, turning struggle into fight and fight into something that cannot be contained. It’s standing in a world that hesitates around me and refusing to waver back, still shouting: I’m here. I’m not moving. I’m not yours to erase.
I used to think I was alone in the fight to breathe comfortably, love freely, and exist rightfully—but I was wrong. Through years of struggling, fighting, and surviving, I learned there are voices yelling with me, harmonizing, even if I can’t hear them all. That perspective shifted again recently when I faced discrimination at my college and watched students, staff, and educators rally behind me while the administration stood against me. I started to believe my voice was losing power, that taking up space loudly was becoming useless, that my existence itself was rejection. But they showed up. They learned, listened, and used their privilege to create space for me—to create space for all of us. There are allies everywhere. Even when we don’t see them, they see us.
Not everyone will have the capacity to understand you—and that doesn’t make you less valid. Your experiences, your identity, your feelings—they are real whether anyone else understands them or not. The right people won’t make you minimize yourself or wear masks to be accepted—they will meet you where you are and make space for you as you are. Your community is out there; you just have to stay long enough to find it. I promise you, it does get better. You are loved. You are important. You are beautiful. You matter. I am proud of you for surviving long enough to read this—but stay a little longer, hold on a little tighter, love a little deeper. You didn’t survive your worst days just to disappear before your best ones could find you.
