Queer Pride, History, Art & Family: UK, US, Mexico, Nigeria, India, & More!

Prism & Pen Weekly Digest, 21 June 2026

By Rachel Addison & James Finn

Week 3 of Pride at Prism & Pen concludes with so many personal essays centering resilience, love, family, and resistance. Politics feature strongly this week, with Emily Chudy shining a light on how UK libraries are now banning Pride and queer books. Meanwhile, Grayson Bell asks if now is finally the time to leave the US.

Australian artist Sarah Scorze offers us pieces on how Pride is something grown outside of June.

In personal stories, Kaleb Brownlow takes us inside a joyful queer drag space in conservative Alaska, Clara Dolderman invites us to stand in solidarity with her at her mother’s deathbed, while Tamoharakaali shares the joys and fears of his first gay crush.

In queer history, please don’t miss Dr. Janine Bouey’s long read on the life and art of the revolutionary and fabulous Frida Kahlo.

Are you a trans woman considering surgery? Kira Ry shares her experiences — what she expected after her last surgery, and what took her by surprise.

And so much more, we hardly know what to recommend first! 👇

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Big thanks to all our readers and supporters!

P&P Highlights

I Was Erased From My Mother’s Obituary Because of Anti-Trans Bigotry

One cold, windy evening in February, 2024, I got the call. “Mom is dying; we’ve been told to come immediately. She might not make it through the night.” And then, disappointingly but predictably, “You’ve been asked to come as [Old Name].”

I was thrust into turmoil. First of all, my mom was dying. That should be all you need to think about when your mom is dying… I entered the room at the hospice, preparing to say goodbye, to sit by her bedside, share stories and memories …

But before I had taken even three steps into the room, her husband stood up …

🔑 Read more of this story by Clara Dolderman

How Do You Explain a Sexuality You Never Chose? His name was Jayanth.

The moment I realized what I had done, panic hit me. I tried deleting it for what felt like forever… My sister found it. And like every older sibling… handed the phone straight to my mother.

For a few terrifying minutes, I was convinced my life was over. They read the name “Jayanth” and somehow assumed I was in love with a girl… So when she later asked me about the friend I was meeting almost every day, I gave her some random name instead. Not because I wanted to lie… but because sometimes survival begins with the smallest lies.

🔑 Read more of this story by Tamoharakaali

LGBTQIA+ Book-Banning Has Always Been a British Problem

Library staff in Essex County Council being told to “scale back” their support for Pride just this month.

A (Reform) council leader in Merseyside, George Woodward, said it even blunter as he called on libraries to remove Pride displays: “We don’t consider celebrations of sexuality, especially those with left-wing political leanings such as Pride, to be appropriate for the council to dedicate valuable officer resources.”

🔑 Read more of this story by Emily Chudy

The Story of Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón

The bisexual, communist, feminist, Indigenous, pain-soaked, unapologetically Mexican artist refused to be anything less than all of it …

Her mother, Matilde Calderón y González, was a woman of mixed blood, part Spanish and part Indigenous Mexican, a combination that placed her at a particular crossroads of colonial history and native identity that Frida would spend her entire adult life consciously inhabiting and celebrating.

🔑 Read more of this story by Dr. Janine Bouey

I Love the Power of Drag and Queer Joy Spaces in Alaska and Everywhere

It is not my first drag show in my hometown but the first for Sam and still feels like I need to pinch myself to confirm I am not dreaming.

My family will never comprehend how lonely, isolated, and at times scared I was. With no one to speak with about these feelings, I retreated inwards, pulling up physical and invisible layers around me. Eventually, these layers calcified into an impenetrable fortress deceiving me into believing it protected me, rather than trapping me.

Now, the Dollhouse show begins…

🔑 Read more of this story by Kaleb Brownlow

I Don’t Regret My Trans Surgery, But Here’s What I Wish I Knew Before

I don’t regret my surgery for a second. But if I had to write a list of things to know beforehand, it would be quite different from what I had prepared myself for.

Hi, I’m Kira, a transgender woman and counsellor specialising in transgender care. It’s been almost three months since I had my sex reassignment surgery. It has been a true rollercoaster, with highs, a few falls, and unexpected turns. The information provided by the clinic covered only the surgery itself and the initial recovery period, but everything beyond that is a big “unknown.”

🔑 Read more of this story by Kira Ry

P&P Pride Month Prompt and Responses

It’s Pride 2026, Time To Raise Our Voices in a Loving Roar!

Pride: the opposite of shame!

That’s why we’re out in the streets every June. We are different. We’re going to remain different and celebrate who we truly are. We’re not hiding anymore, and people of good will all over the world are cheering us on for taking back our dignity and our pride.

You tell your stories, we’ll help you share them!

🔑 Read more of this prompt by James Finn

For Me, It’s First About Finding Pride Within

Maybe my ambivalence is a hangover from the Sydney Mardi Gras, which has become a political football, an excuse for more hedonism and a marketing opportunity, with the event losing its sense of grassroots activism after being more or less taken over by government and corporations keen to cash in on the pink dollar.

I’m not queer for one month a year, and some of this feels little like an annual display of rainbow decoration rather than a wholehearted effort to advocate for the needs of our people.

Pride for me is an emotion, not a parade, not a circus or a lost weekend.

🔑 Read more of this prompt response by Sarah Scorze

I Zombie-Named Myself, and Here’s What Happened

“I’m so sorry, but you need to know”, my friend advises. “And I (expletive) hate to be the one to tell you, but that account displays your deadname.”

I pant some expletives to myself as the air escapes me, calling myself names and none of the them charitable.

I should have known. I should have known. I changed the primary email and thought I’d updated it, but…

It’s too late now.

🔑 Read more of this prompt response by Rachel Addison

A Trans Woman Falls in Love with the Dark Side

Hi, I’m Sarah, an emerging trans woman.

The 1.01 version of myself was childish in a great many ways, and like many small children, I woke early.

But over the past twelve months, something new has happened. I’ve noticed a distinct change…

🔑 Read more of this prompt response by Sarah Scorze

News & Opinion

As a Trans Person, Should I Leave the United States?

This is a question I have been asking myself ever since the results of the 2016 US presidential election, which was two years before I came out and began my transition.

Should I leave the country of my birth, the United States, because I no longer feel safe?

🔑 Read more of this story by Grayson Bell

The Truth Behind Queer Excellence: Are We Truly All Overachievers?

“Who’s us?” Monique asked. “Women?”

“Gay women, Hispanic lesbians, Black sapphics, and all of us under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella,” I said as if she should know… I’ve always believed that gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, non-binary, and all of us under the rainbow flag have always outperformed our heterosexual peers.

When I was in the military during the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell era, my gaydar alerted me to whom I could trust. I met other family through friends of friends. All of us excelled in our positions…

Or am I just speaking for myself?

🔑 Read more of this story by Edrika Gutierrez

Why Are Queer People Seen As ‘Political’?

What’s perhaps a little funny is how the mere inclusion of gay/LGBT people in media, especially video games, is seen as political. When The Last of Us Part 2 was released in 2020 and featured a trans character alongside the main protagonist Ellie who was depicted as being in a lesbian relationship, this was denounced by reactionaries as “political”. The same treatment was given to games such as Horizon: Forbidden West and Dragon Age: The Veilguard for including queer characters.

🔑 Read more of this story by Laura Westford

Essays & Creative Nonfiction

How I Became the First Gay Person in History

My father told me, “This gay stuff. That’s a white thing. Sometimes it’s a Black thing. But it’s never been a brown thing until you. You’re the only one. You’re the first. You’re the one who has let this into our people.”

Quantum physics tells us our actions echo out in all directions. Like a pebble dropped into the water, what we do sends ripples out throughout all space and time.

As I understood this, this was my superpower. I am Q2. The Quantum Queer. I reverberate gayness everywhere.

🔑 Read more of this story by Ladi Loera

He Could Be Raped Again — and Nothing Would Happen

My first instinct, as he narrated the ordeal, was that he was making it up. He had to be making it up; it was just too absurd to be true. Yet there was a contradiction I couldn’t ignore. The tears in his eyes. Was he faking that too?

He had been stranded in the streets of Lagos following a job interview and didn’t have enough money for a hotel.

It was his first time in the city, and it would now be his last.

🔑 Read more of this story by Victor Ude

The Loudest Voices

He spoke about “those people” with such theatrical disgust that he even talked about killing them… or mentioned you will be killed in “our country” meaning Nigeria.

I am Nigerian! ​I just stood there listening.

I felt attacked, aside that, The NERVE! ​I walked away. ​I remember thinking I could never understand why some people needed to announce their hatred so loudly.

🔑 Read more of this story by Terry James

Maybe You’re a Lesbian?

Angry. Sad. Alone. I had just turned 35 and I felt nothing. I owned my home. I had two boys I loved deeply. I was healthy. Good at my job. Married. Check, check, check. I had done everything right and I felt completely empty.

“Now. Why are you here?”

I didn’t know where to begin. The words came anyway.

🔑 Read more of this story by Outat35

The Euphoria of Existing, and Living It as a Transgender Woman

It is an awareness that how I live is the most powerful expression of who I am, effortlessly.

I am a transgender woman living in the Dominican Republic. At 66 years of age I no longer settle for what is handed to me.

There is much left on that plate, and I demand it all.

🔑 Read more of this story by Otsokai Ko

Who Finds True Love as a Trans Woman?

When I came out as a trans woman, I decided to do it all at once. No living half-as-Old-Me, half-as-Real-Me. I had accepted the truth about my gender, and after taking 50 years to figure that out, there was no way in hell I was going to wait any longer…

So I had come to the conclusion that my romantic life was over… Then, three days later, I met a long-time reader of my blog in a coffee shop, and — That. Was. It.

🔑 Read more of this story by Clara Dolderman

History, Arts & Culture

The Day Kurt Cobain Helped Defeat an Anti-Gay Oregon Ballot Measure

Gay film director and native Oregonian Gus Van Zant (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting) reached out to Danny Goldberg, chairman of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and a manager of Nirvana, in the hopes that Nirvana — then, arguably, the biggest rock band in the world — would perform a benefit concert for the No on 9 campaign.

Guitarist/lead singer Kurt Cobain never relished the idea of Nirvana being associated with politics per se. But he had always been an LGBT ally and passionate about issues regarding sexual orientation, especially when it came to bullying.

🔑 Read more of this story by Rand Bishop

A Review of ‘The Boy and the Wind’ (O MENINO e o VENTO)

The name of the film is O Menio e o Vento (The Boy and the Wind), and oh boy, what a magical experience it turned out to be. The film was released in 1967 and is shot in black and white. The film was sheer visual poetry. The cinematography was mind-blowing. Every scene was like a painting …

The movie… is available to watch on YouTube, but I would recommend watching it in the cinema. Some of the film’s posters lead you to believe it is an LGBTQ+ movie; yes, it might be, but it is so much more than that.

🔑 Read more of this story by Amae

Humo(u)r

We Need To Punish Trans People by Giving Them Gender-Punishing Care

I’d like to think that the conservative governments of the world are part of one large cabal…twiddling their villainous mustaches scheming and hatching ways to ensure that they stay rich while staying in power.

But I would argue that if this secret-society Cabal really wanted to punish trans people, they would give us access to any and all gender-affirming care.

This would be the absolute worst punishment you could give to a trans person… hear me out…

🔑 Read more of this story by Amber Poe

Fiction

A Gay Man’s Nighttime Visitor

He saw it.

A fuzzy shape. Like the shape of a man, and yet — not. Man sized, almost six feet tall from his vantage point. There was something unnerving about the shape. The edges seemed to wriggle, giving it a fuzzy appearance.

The shape stayed, facing the house, facing Kyle.

While Kyle stared at it, it nodded its head at him, like a greeting, like they knew each other. Like he was being considered.

🔑 Read more of this story by Ladi Loera

Poetry

Wonder Woman: Her Transition in the Airport: A poem

Her lifelong identity, true to her spirit, if only they could see, beyond the X-ray machine,

🔑 Read more of this poem by Patsy Starke

Mutilated: Haiku two verses

We know who we are Your lies mutilated us The children prevailed

🔑 Read more of this poem by Patsy Starke

That’s it for this week. Courage to our 28,000 followers on Medium!

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