Celebrating Pride - Defying the Storm

What Pride Month Means When the Fight Gets Harder

Happy PRIDE Month to everyone in the Qstack community!

And I must add: We aren’t going away!

But rather than name the horrors and their perpetrators that proliferate daily, let’s focus instead—for just this month—on how kind, powerful and brave we are.

For now, let us turn inward to our circle and sing songs of hope, defiance and love.

A Garden of Defiance

During the World Wars of the 20th century, Victory Gardens were a movement to ease the supply chain, increase food production, and boost morale of the people when industry and manpower were focused on the war efforts. They planted fruits, vegetables and herbs in backyards and public parks to make sure everyone had healthy, fresh food to eat, and to feel they were contributing to the fight against fascism.

Fast forward to today, let’s be honest: the fight is getting harder. The drumbeat of injustice has grown loud, coordinated, and shameless.

That’s why courage is not just a feeling—it’s a practice. Something we do especially when we’re tired, angry, or afraid. We draw it from each other, from art, from community, from memory.

This month is not just about celebration—it’s about encouraging ourselves to hold the line with grace and power when the pressure mounts. Because it will.

This Pride Month, we are planting the seeds of a Garden of Defiance.

Qstack has a full month of programming to energize our circle of Queer friends, raising voices to defy the current hostile assaults on our civil rights.

We will be omitting the usual News & Announcements and other info at the beginning of the posts so that you can get right to the good stuff—there’s a lot, and we want you to dig in and engage with the writers’ work as much as possible.

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Every Monday in June, we have defiant writing and poetry including:

🌱 “Rainbow Warriors” by

Jamie Magnant

of

Painting Nature's Poetry

🌱 “Trans People Were Made to Fight Fascism (Whether We Like It or Not)” by

Adrian S Costello

of

They’re Powerless To Turn The Trees Against Us

🌱 “Feeding the Fight” by

Justin Burke

of

Taste This

🌱 “On Gender and Sacrificing Womanhood: How transness and feminism go hand in hand” by Arlo Everlove of

Getting to know Arlo

🌱 “Queer Sex is Revolutionary” by

Lachlan E

and “American Spring” by

Robert Birch

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Wednesdays, we have weekly posts with guest writers including:

🌱 The June edition of “Qstack Readers Select” with

Mr. Troy Ford

of

FORD KNOWS

🌱“How I Came Out to My Mother at 25, What That Feels Like at 58, and the Magic of Trees” by

Kate Mapother

of

Life at the Bottom of the Canyon

🌱 “Paul’s Case” by

Ed Wolf

🌱 “Qstack Poets” with

gabby

,

Mark McCormick

,

Keith Aron

,

Sam Vallius

,

Margin Tianya Zheng

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On Fridays, we’ll be Cross-posting special articles by Qstack members

Cross-posting is one of the under-utilized features of Substack by which you can send the original post of someone else direct to the Inboxes of your subscribers, with your own introductory blurb. It’s a great way to showcase other people because all the traffic, Likes, and Comments go direct to their post and newsletter.

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We are so pleased to announce the June premiere of the Unfixed/Qstack short independent film collaboration Unsung: Queer Portraits of Authenticity and the Cost of Its Absence, a project many months in the making!

“Told through intimate interviews and personal storytelling, Unsung is a portrait of resilience, expression, and becoming. It celebrates the radical act of living truthfully in a world that often demands conformity … Through the voices of its subjects, Unsung offers a stirring meditation on the quiet power of authenticity—and the freedom that follows. This is not a film about what’s broken. It’s a film about what breaks through.”

Meet the Cast:

Dalia Kinsey

,

Aris Hearth

, antmen pimentel mendoza, and

Gail Marlene Schwartz

Clockwise from top right: Dalia Kinsey; Aris Hearth; antmen pimentel mendoza; Gail Marlene Schwartz

And Co-Directors:

Kimberly Warner

and

Mr. Troy Ford

Kimberly Warner/Unfixed & Troy Ford/Qstack

Stay tuned for details of the premier screening and live Q&A with the cast and directors.

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I’ll say it again: Hell yes, it’s a Happy PRIDE Month here on Qstack!

We’re still here, still singing, still planting, still pushing forward—together. Let this month be a reminder that our voices matter, our joy matters, and our love—for each other and for ourselves—is a powerful act of resistance.

Thank you for showing up, for reading, for lifting each other up in small and mighty ways.

In this Garden of Defiance, every share, every kind word, every poem or story passed along is a seed. Keep planting. Keep believing. Keep reaching out. We need each other now more than ever.

Just a reminder that for all of Pride Month, listings in the Qstack Directory, submissions for guest articles, and starting your own threads in the Chat are still open and free to all.

ALL submissions received by June 30th will be considered for future guest posts.

See the Membership & Special Offer page for the changes effective July 1st. Your support means so much to this important work.

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