Pride keeps people alive.
It kept me alive.
But first, I want to acknowledge a warning for those who want to skip past potentially triggering words. I’ll place a ****** before and after that section.
Second, I am choosing to write this without the help or guidance of any language learning modules. So there will be typos… There will be ellipses… and sometimes—if I am really feeling it—there will be em-dashes.
And additionally, I’ve been thinking a lot about this “consumer warning” label as it comes to AI. Almost instinctually, I want to hear a “preamble” to the art I’m digesting. Like when you take off on an airplane and the flight attendant gives you the same script we have grown accustomed to hearing—I want to hear artists tell me they are not using AI to bring their thoughts to life.
I want to read your wild, unscripted thoughts.
These are mine.
The first Pride I remember is Chicago Pride because I went to school in Chicago. I remember feeling the safety of seeing rainbows on public transit.
You have to imagine what it felt like going from Tennessee in the 90s to the early 2000s in Chicago. It was like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz—from corn fields to technicolor.
Or so it felt that way. The unexpected rainbow sighting acted like a homing device of safety. Everywhere I saw a rainbow, I felt welcome.
As I’ve gotten older, I feel the exact same safety every time I see a rainbow in a public space or a big box store. I can also see just how political and divided the decision is. Even though I live in a progressive city in a very red state, I also still don’t live in one of the coastal progressive safe places (NYC or LA) anymore. So these towns can’t go all out in the same way. There is still a difference living in a red state.
When I see a rainbow in my hometown… it feels divine… guided. From small towns to large towns—rainbows make me feel at home.
The tough part about living in the South in 2026 is that they actively try to remove pride images. Tennessee, in fact, has become the first state in the country to rename PRIDE Month Nuclear Family Month.
It is laughable because we are (my husband & I) a nuclear family already. In the bill, passed and sponsored by the person who has introduced more anti/LGBTQ bills than any person in the state, Rep. Bulso proves that meanness is the point. There is even a section that says that you cannot defend your right to display a flag just by claiming you didn’t hear about the bill, OR that you think it is (and it is) unconstitutional.
Tennessee has won first place this year for lowest voter turnout and for passing more anti-LGBTQ bills than any other state in the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
I have recently sat directly across from Rep. Bulso with my husband. In our meeting, he (Bulso) claimed he does not think he is being harmful to LGBTQ+ people and that he also does not need to acknowledge my marriage to my husband. These are hard pills to swallow when you are sitting across from a man in a suit who is responsible for legislation that directly harms you and the people you love.
But there’s another person present in the room with me that I want to acknowledge. My inner child.
******
There is always going to be a part of my story that is a very hurt and bullied middle school student who thought that he would be better off dead. That no one cared enough about him when he was bullied for how he looked, how he dressed, and how he sounded.
That I came to my mom and told her I thought I should not be alive….
That part of me will always be present…
******
The inner child who needed to see that he is not alone. That is the person I fight for. That is the reason I stay.
I will sometimes hold my hands against my chest and repeat the line “I am safe. I am supported. I am seen”—all of which can make me feel scared that I’m none of these things and that sometimes feel like a tremor of a past life—all of which are necessary reminders I have deployed to “parent” myself through these big feelings.
It can be a lot to see grown men justify their hatred. Just today, our congressperson, Andy Ogles, said the silent part out loud—that “homosexuality has no place in America.”
What kind of ripple of hatred and fear can this cause? What kind of ripple could be caused if these weren’t words shared by our national “leaders”?
1 in 3 LGBTQ+ kids
seriously thinks about
ending their life.
1 in 10
actually attempts it.
trans youth whose pronouns
are respected are
50% less likely
to attempt suicide.
only 1 in 3
LGBTQ+ kids experience
parental acceptance.
this is why
Pride exists.
Tennessee may have done a legislative act to make Pride buried in the images you see walking around town… but I will continue to raise my metaphorical and literal flag.
I will continue to sing PRIDE at the top of my lungs.
Because to me, Pride is about community.
About knowing you’re not alone.
That we will “make it out alive” is more than a song.
It’s more like a prayer
And my prayer for you is to know that you are worthy of staying alive.
My hope for myself is that I somehow find the courage to keep waving my little freak flag.
My hope is to keep my hands in the soil of the earth and make things I need to see.
And I hope I get to do that with you someday.
with love,
MORGXN
MORGXN is an Emmy-winning singer/songwriter and unlikely farmer based in Nashville, TN. For more music and musings, visit https://morgxn.komi.io/
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