June is marked annually as Pride Month, so Happy Pride Month, my queer friends! In many parts of the world, it’s observed by people, businesses, and public institutions as a month-long celebration of diversity and inclusion for LGBTQIA+ people and as a way to commemorate and honor the brave people who took part in the Stonewall riots in 1969. Those six days between June and July were enough to pave the way for the beginning of gay liberation and marked a watershed moment for queer history.
In honor of Pride Month, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite Pride Month quotes and empowering messages, coming from activists, politicians, celebrities, and even some iconic references from LGBT+ movies and books! Feel free to use our collection for your Pride Month captions on social media during these next weeks of celebrations.
And if you’re part of the LGBTQIA+ community, remember one thing. It’s totally ok if you’re not ready to come out yet. The right time comes for everyone, so feel free to celebrate this Pride Month discreetly, like simply wearing a rainbow bracelet under your hoodie, or don’t do anything at all. Your safety is the top priority! Or, go full RuPaul if you’re lucky enough to live in a supportive community that makes you feel safe enough to go out there and show all your Pride and colors!
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“I believe that marriage isn’t between a man and a woman but between love and love.” – Frank Ocean
"When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free." – President Barack Obama
“You don’t have to be gay to be a supporter—you just have to be a human.” — Daniel Radcliffe
“Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?” – Ernest J. Gaines
"Being born gay, black, and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay, black female is." – Lena Waithe
"This world would be a whole lot better if we just made an effort to be less horrible to one another." – Elliot Page
"Follow your gut and don’t feel like you owe any sort of explanation to anyone. Your sexuality is yours only so build with it at a pace that works for you." — Daya
"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." – Dalai Lama
“Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I’ve ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn’t even realized I was carrying.” — Sir Ian McKellen
“We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity.” — George Takei
"There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s a lot wrong with the world you live in." – Chris Colfer
“It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love when you love, or how you love. It matters only that you love.” – John Lennon
“Being gay is a natural normal beautiful variation on being human. Period. End of subject. Therefore, any argument which says differently is an immoral supremacist one. Call it out as such. Be outraged, offended, angry and intolerant of any discussion or anyone who describes you as unequal, undeserving or unnatural for being just as you are.” – Larry Kramer
"All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential." – Harvey Milk
“I realize that just living my truth of what I am, there’s one less person to fight me in my own head.” – Raven-Symoné
“We must make it clear that a platform of ‘I hate gay men and women’ is not a way to become president of the United States.” – Jimmy Carter
“Don’t be afraid. Don’t be ashamed. Don’t ever apologize for your sexuality. Just be you.” – Sonya Deville
“A woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful.” – Drew Barrymore
"One day we won't have to 'come out of the closet.' We'll just say we are in love and that will be all that matters."
"I've been embraced by a new community. That's what happens when you’re finally honest about who you are. You find others like you." – Chaz Bono
"We must remember that our greatest strength is in our love of life and colors, beauty and music, dancing and joy. That is our secret weapon. That is something that the opposition does not have. Keep those things near and dear to your heart because in times of war that will sustain you." — RuPaul Charles
"I am not gay, but if I were, I would be the first one running out of the closet." – Dolly Parton
"After a while, you learn to ignore the names people call you and just trust who you are." – Shrek
“From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.” — Howard Dean
“Obviously, no LGBT person should be denied the ability to be who they are because their boss disagrees.” – Gloria Steinem
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud." – Anderson Cooper
“It’s time we love people for who they are and let them love who they want.” – Ellen DeGeneres
Oh, Ellen. "Let them love who they want"--as long as "they" isn't T-Swift, eh?
"We deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame, and without compromise." – Elliot Page
“For a lot of my life, I was judged for my gender representation or my sexual orientation, or what people assumed of me; and every single time my goal has been to combat that and show my greatness.” – Taylor Small
"It takes some intelligence and insight to figure out you're gay and then a tremendous amount of balls to live it and live it proudly." – Jason Bateman
"If you’re part of a group that’s called "other" — a group that does not get the chance to be center stage — build your own stage, and make them see you. Your queerness is beautiful, your Blackness is beautiful, your compassion, your understanding, your fight for people who may be different from you is beautiful." — Beyoncé
"Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do." - Brené Brown
"I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion, and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence and community." — Janet Mock
"I want people to fall in love with themselves and to be really proud and full of joy for the space they take up. If someone else appreciates the space you take up, then that's the icing on the cake." — Jonathan Van Ness
"So let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me." – Tim Cook
"I think being gay is a blessing, and it's something I am thankful for every single day." – Anderson Cooper
"I am a strong, black, lesbian woman. Every single time I say it, I feel so much better." – Brittney Griner
"I want to do the right thing and not hide anymore. I want to march for tolerance, acceptance, and understanding. I want to take a stand and say, 'Me, too.'" – Jason Collins
"I'm a young, bisexual woman, and I've spent a large part of my life trying to validate myself — to my friends, to my family, to myself — trying to prove that who I love and how I feel is not a phase." – Halsey
"Gender and sexuality are so fluid. It's OK to change your mind a million times and figure out what works for you. It's OK to take your time." – Amanda Stenberg
“I learned compassion from being discriminated against. Everything bad that’s ever happened to me has taught me compassion.” — Ellen DeGeneres
“Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?” — James Baldwin
“What I preach is: People fall in love with people, not gender, not looks, not whatever. What I’m in love with exists on almost a spiritual level.” — Miley Cyrus
“The single best thing about coming out of the closet is that nobody can insult you by telling you what you’ve just told them.” – Rachel Maddow
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” – Alice Walker
“We are not actually equal – humanity – if we are not allowed to freely love one another.” – Lady Gaga
“Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.” – Barbara Gittings
“You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights.” – Marsha P. Johnson
"Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizen of this country." – Zachary Quinto
“If a transvestite doesn’t say ‘I’m gay and I’m proud and I’m a transvestite,’ then nobody else is going to hop up there and say ‘I’m gay and I’m proud and I’m a transvestite’ for them.” — Marsha P. Johnson
“If you help elect more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised a green light to move forward.” — Harvey Milk
“Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.” — Barbara Gittings
"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges.” — Bob Paris
“Your judgments about another person say more about your own character than the character of the person you’re pointing a finger at.” — Alaric Hutchinson
“I believe that no one should ever have to choose between a career we love and living our lives with authenticity and integrity.” — Selisse Berry
“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.” – Tennessee Williams
“Love doesn’t care how much money you have. It doesn’t care who your parents are. It doesn’t care if you’re gay, straight, or transgender.” – Rumer Willis
“Everybody’s journey is individual. You don’t know with whom you’re going to fall in love. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.” – James Baldwin
“All human beings deserve equal treatment, no matter their gender identity or sexuality.” – Andreja Pejic
“This is why homophobia is a terrible evil: it disguises itself as a concern while it is inherently hate.” – Tyler Oakley
“The beauty of standing up for your rights is others see you standing and stand up as well.” – Cassandra Duffy
“I am proud that I found the courage to deal the initial blow to the hydra of public contempt.” – Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
"I think it's important for parents to educate themselves, too, and be open, and realize that your children are their own person and if they may or may not act the way you want them to in terms of gender expression that's OK." – Laverne Cox
"The whole issue of sexuality is so grey. I’m just trying to acknowledge that fluidity, that greyness, which has always existed. But maybe only now are we allowed to start talking about it." – Kristen Stewart
"Somebody, your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour – and in the oddest places! – for the lack of it." – James Baldwin
"How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race?" — Marsha P. Johnson
"I was not ladylike, nor was I manly. I was something else altogether. There were so many different ways to be beautiful." – Michael Cunningham
"It still strikes me as strange that anyone could have any moral objection to someone else’s sexuality. It’s like telling someone else how to clean their house." – River Phoenix
“The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why Gay Pride Month is June tell them, ‘A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be.’” — Brenda Howard
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” – Harvey Fierstein
“I’m living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay.” — Portia de Rossi
“But I’m not a saint yet. I’m an alcoholic. I’m a drug addict. I’m homosexual. I’m a genius. Of course, I could be all four of these dubious things and still be a saint.” — Truman Capote
“Love demands expression. It will not stay still, stay silent, be good, be modest, be seen and not heard, no. It will break out in tongues of praise, the high note that smashes the glass and spills the liquid.” — Jeanette Winterson
“We have to do it because we can no longer stay invisible. We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are.” — Sylvia Rivera
“To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow—this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
“There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now okay to express ourselves publicly. We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.” – Tammy Baldwin
“Being gay isn’t something you choose, but you do face choices about whether and how to discuss it.” – Pete Buttigieg
“We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.” – Gore Vidal
“We don’t want to promote any system that treats the fact that an individual is LGBT as a personality disorder. And anything that perpetuates that perception is harmful – not only to that member of the community but the entire community.” – Kamala Harris
“To be yourself is truly a revolutionary act, and I think more and more people should try it, because it’s gotten me a pretty cool life.” – Lena Waithe
"You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all." – James Baldwin
"All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more — and no less — heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century." – Tammy Baldwin
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde
“I do realize the importance of having the bravery to live as who you are and I feel like a lot of people don't have that bravery. Maybe by me opening my big fat mouth like I usually do and stepping up and owning who I am, maybe it might inspire somebody else to do the same." – Michelle Rodriguez
"I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world is a revolutionary act." – Janet Mock
“There’s no right or wrong way to be gay. No right or wrong way to come out. It’s your journey, do it the way you wanna do it.” – Tan France
"If you are not personally free to be yourself in that most important of all human activities — the expression of love — then life itself loses its meaning." — Harvey Milk
"It takes no compromise to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression." – Harvey Milk
"If I wait for someone else to validate my existence, it will mean that I’m shortchanging myself." – Zanele Muholi
"The more I’ve been able to learn about gay rights and equal pay and gender equity and racial inequality, the more that it all intersects. You can’t really pick it apart. It’s all intertwined." – Megan Rapinoe
"We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That’s okay." – Laverne Cox
"Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do." – Brené Brown
“All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more—and no less—heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century. We are ordinary people, living our lives, and trying as civil rights activist Dorothy Cotton said, to ‘fix what ain’t right’ in our society.'" — Sen. Tammy Baldwin
“It is absolutely imperative that every human being’s freedom and human rights are respected, all over the world.”— Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
“Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start.” — Jason Collins
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” – James Baldwin
“If public figures came out of the closet, then the LGBT kids who saw them on TV would feel safe before they even knew why they felt dangerous. Maybe if enough people came out of the closet, gay kids would never feel dangerous. Maybe we could have a world where we could all just live. We may not all agree, but why can’t we just all live?” – Margaret Cho
“So while I might not want to constantly be asked about my sexuality and just be me, a big part of me is my love of women. So I guess I’m talking about it until it’s no longer seen as something to talk about." –Hayley Kiyoko
"This community has fought and continues to fight a war of acceptance, a war of tolerance, and the most relentless bravery. You are the definition of courage, do you know that?" – Lady Gaga
“Our community is not a monolith, thank goodness, any more than America itself is. I look forward to and will continue to work toward the day when America recognizes all of us as full and equal citizens." – Cynthia Nixon
“The more I accept myself as a genderless human being, in a way, the more I’m loving my body.” – Sam Smith
“And you’ve got to elect gay people so that that young child and the thousands upon thousands like that child know that there’s hope for a better world. There’s hope for a better tomorrow." – Harvey Milk
“I can't give someone a playbook on how to come out, but I can help create a safe space for others to be heard and feel loved—just like the one my mom provided for me. I know who I am. I've lived in this body for the last 27 years, and I'm very confident in the power that I hold.” –Mauree Turner
“I’m nonbinary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman, solely. I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or the ‘she.’ If I am from God, I am everything. I am everything, but I will always, always stand with women. I will always stand with Black women. But I just see everything beyond the binary.” – Janelle Monáe
“It is so silly we are having these debates in this day and age but at the end of the day love always wins and equality matters.” – Sophia Bush
"It takes a little bit of bravery to step out, to be like, okay, I don't look like anybody else around here. I am making the conscious decision to present myself the way I want to today." – Hunter Schafer
"If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work: 'Hello. Can't work today, still queer.'" – Robin Tyler
“When you put love out in the world it travels, and it can touch people and reach people in ways that we never even expected.” — Laverne Cox
"I want to make sure that any young person or anyone really who is looking up to me—who sees a glimpse of I am as a person—that they see no shame, that they see pride, and that I'm truly unabashed about the person that I am." – Samira Wiley
“Stonewall represented, absolutely, the first time that the LGBT community successfully fought back and forged an organized movement and community.” — Mark Segal
“I don’t love just men. I love people. It’s not about gender. It’s just about the spirit that exudes from that other person you’re with." – Kesha
“I once worried that there was no place for trans people like me to participate in any way in our politics. Since coming out, though, I've seen that change is possible and I've learned that the only things that are truly impossible are the things we don't try. You can run, you can win and you can serve.” – Sarah McBride
“When we look back at the Stonewall uprising and activism that grew out of that moment, even the most basic progress seemed like it would take a revolution to achieve. So we had one. And that’s how we’ve made such enormous progress over the last 50 years. Today, we should remain inspired by the courage of the story of Stonewall.” – Tammy Baldwin
