Perspectives on Pride
A running list of essays about the LGBTQIA+ experience, curated by Medium publication editors
Published on: 2024-06-16
My favorite Medium stories teach me something I didn’t know I didn’t know. For example: A few years back, journalist
Barry Yeoman
spoke with more than 40 LGBTQIA+ baby boomers about their experiences growing up before the Stonewall uprising — and thus before gay rights as we know them today. As a gay millennial I could imagine, but didn’t really understand, how living through the AIDS crisis might shape your experience of seeing a doctor. Another story led me all the way back to the 1936 Olympics, where trans men and intersex people were competing professionally long before I thought they were.
Medium’s mission is to deepen our understanding of the world, and by definition that means helping us learn from people whose experiences are different than ours. For Pride month, we invited editors of a few Medium publications to share some stories that do just that. Whether you identify as lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, intersex, asexual, some combination thereof or none at all, I hope these stories deepen your understanding in some way.
In recent years, merely observing Pride has (disturbingly) become a political lightning rod and an excuse for some to react with hate. I want to pre-empt that by saying: basic human empathy and kindness are not political. Medium was (and is) built by queer people and our values — which include building a safe, inclusive platform for writers and readers — are simply our values.
One more thing: You may notice an updated Medium logo reflecting the colors of the LGBTQIA+ flag this month, too. Big ups to our design, product, and engineering teams for making that happen.
The stories below are just a tiny fraction of the LGBTQIA+ perspectives on Medium. I hope you’ll share your recommended reads in the responses! You’ll find many more in this list, which we’re updating all month, and on relevant topic pages.