✍︎ Chad
They tell us the world has changed,
that the battle is won,
because the streets glow with colors
every month of June.
Yet why do some still lower their voices
when speaking their truth?
Why do some still hide their hearts
behind locked doors and practiced smiles?
A rainbow hangs above the crowd,
bright enough for photographs,
but not always bright enough
to erase the shadows of prejudice.
They celebrate us in posters,
but question us in classrooms.
They wave our colors in public,
but deny our stories in private.
How strange it is—
to be told, “Be yourself,”
and then be punished
for exactly that.
There are children learning
that love must be whispered.
There are dreams abandoned
to fit inside society’s narrow frame.
Still, we rise.
Like colors after the rain,
we refuse to disappear.
We are every voice once silenced,
every name once mocked,
every soul that chose courage
over fear.
Pride is not glitter alone.
It is the history of survival.
It is a wound that learned to bloom,
a protest wrapped in color,
a declaration that says:
“We are here.”
And until no one is rejected
for who they are,
until every heart can exist
without apology,
the rainbow will continue to shine—
not because it is a trend,
but because it is a reminder
that equality should never have been
something people needed to ask for.
