Poetry for Pride Month

I have perceiv’d that to be with those I like is enough,

To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,

To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,

To pass among them or touch any one,

or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment, what is this then?

I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea.

Walt Whitman

I Sing the Body Electric

Origins

Tired of socializing in seedy bars where they were likely to be harassed and arrested, sick of lying and denying, of withstanding humiliation, of being beaten up, and of living in constant fear of discovery that might get them fired or even killed, the “deviants” at Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, one night fought back. That night and the nights to follow occurred at the end of June 1969, and they are the reason that June was chosen for LGBTQ Pride Month.

~ Kathleen Kuiper

More about the history of Pride Month (Library of Congress)