menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Pride Month makes me feel like an imposter

17 0
18.06.2026

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

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.

Want more from culture than just the latest trend? The Swell highlights art made to last. Sign up here

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........

© Salon