Pride Month makes me feel like an imposter
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Pride Month makes me feel like an imposter
Every June, I'm forced to reckon with the parts of myself that still don't fit
Published June 18, 2026 9:00AM (EDT)
Every year, on the first day of June, fate and biology join hands to punch me in the stomach. Not only is June 1 the start of Pride Month — a 30-day celebration and reveration of all things queer — but it’s also my birthday. And no matter how much I prepare for the confluence of these two events, there will inevitably be some part of myself, throughout the day, that feels like I’m doing it wrong. I’m not being gay enough to honor my forefathers, foremothers and forepeople. I’m not turning another year older by holding a raucous celebration with 50 of my loved ones. I’m not honoring myself.
No one makes these demands of me, and yet, I feel burdened by them anyway — by the opaque feeling of obligation on a day my birthright says I should have none. The older I get, the less persistent these emotions are. But when they hit, and they always do, it’s a psychic whallop. For a brief moment in time, I’m questioning everything tangentially related to my dual identities (gay guy and June-born person), which can be an exhausting emotional shift when you spend 11 out of 12 months of the year blissfully ignorant of what others in your community might perceive as shortcomings.
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Why is it that I have few close friends who are gay men, but I can’t seem to stop pulling women of all kinds into my orbit? Do I not make enough of an effort to keep in touch with my fellow gay men, and if so, why? Why aren’t my 30s making me more wistful toward the community I was born into? Am I being wilfully ignorant of some broader complex I have about my sexuality, or am I just growing further into my own self, and thus, less inclined to align with whatever picture of........
