INTERSECTIONALITY | WRITING PROMPT

Rainbow-Striped Fear — On Pride And The Fears We Carry For Others

Intersectionality Writing Prompt for June 2026

Photo by izzet seni on Unsplash

“Are you guys together?”

The question was innocent enough, and not unexpected. We had, after all, spent 20 minutes making out in the backseat of the car while Carla — this Carla, standing in front of me right now with the question marinating in the silence between us — drove us first to her house, then mine.

But she wasn’t ready to tell people, and I’d promised to keep it between us.

“What? Nooo, no… we were just so drunk last night. Sorry if that was weird for you!”

The lie sat heavily in the back of my throat, and I tried to ignore the hurt on Carla’s face as I watched her swallow down her own emotions in real time.

“Okay. Yeah… it was a crazy party… things got super out of hand!”

I once allowed someone else’s fear to make choices for me that left me unsettled. I thought — at the time — that it was inevitable. I lied — constantly and unflinchingly — to everybody in my life that mattered except the person who was asking it of me.

The consequences of that fear lasted well beyond that relationship.

Do I regret it?

Strained friendships. Trust irrevocably broken. Moments for connection that I can never get back. A nervous habit to conceal and deceive that took me years to break free from.

Yes — I regret the lies.

The fear that prompted those lies carried consequences, layered and unforgiving. I allowed it to cloud my judgement, to lead my decisions, to alter my own internal narrative.

Yes — we were together.

I’ve never regretted that, but I wish I’d trusted those around me to adapt instead of forcing myself into a box I thought was my only option.

That’s what pride means. Not the absence of fear, but the celebration of love and identity despite the fear of everything that can go wrong.

That particular fear — at that particular moment of my life — happened to be rainbow-striped, but fear takes on the shade of the context in which it is born.

A job you stayed in too long because you were afraid of making an uncomfortable leap. A version of yourself that kept your heart hidden for fear that it might break. A truth you held back because you weren’t sure if somebody else could handle it.

Carla wasn’t the first person to confront me, nor was she the last I lied to. But time and experience have allowed me to set aside that old, borrowed fear and lead with my own truth.

That’s a non-negotiable now.

This month’s prompt is FEAR.

• Whose fear have you carried within yourself? When did you realize it wasn’t yours to begin with?
• Fear sometimes arrives dressed as loyalty. Have you ever confused the two?
• What choices has fear made for you, and what did you lose as a result?
• Has fear ever proven useful? Where did it steer you?
• Pride — in any context — is not the absence of fear. Tell us about something you chose, or someone you became, despite being afraid of everything that could go wrong. What made you do it anyway?

The Details

As always, previous prompts remain active! Feel free to submit stories for any of the monthly prompts, or anything else that’s on your mind related to the in-between areas of your life.

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