Happy Pride Month to everyone who's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, asexual, pansexual, and all the others out there! This month is ours as a community to celebrate all we've overcome and achieved, and say loudly that we deserve to exist peacefully without persecution or violent judgement. It's a powerful thing to accept yourself when you've been told your whole life that you don't deserve rights or that your existence alone is a disgusting one. We are just as normal and deserving of respect as our straight friends and family, and we are human!

I'm going to be real for a moment here. I fought myself for years over accepting my own identity as a lesbian. I spent all of my teenage years feeling unlovable and alone. I've faced homophobia many times directly, from threats made to my face, having things thrown at me, losing friends I thought I could trust, workplace harassment, having slurs yelled at me from down hallways or across street corners. I've been mocked, made fun of, and isolated. Yes, even recently too. I've been there, I've experienced it, and I know the pain all too well.

This is exactly why pride month is so important to us, there are SO MANY of us who have stories like this and many that have it a lot worse. This is what we're still fighting to change to this day. We need to fix this. This is also why I draw so much gay content and characters. I want to create the kind of things that I wish I had seen growing up. Gay people, art, and characters living their lives and being happy together or being heroes in their own stories. I want other's to feel seen and appreciated too! It's a very important and personal factor in my artistic expression!

On a lighter note, I've been officially out of the closet since 2013, and even though the road's been very tough at times, I couldn't be happier. I have a special lady who loves me, and we've been together since 2015! I've made and expressed myself through art and characters that I would be lost without, and I've even been told that they've made other people smile too! I am a lesbian cartoonist/artist, and I wouldn't change myself for the world.

So wherever you are on the spectrum, I hope you have a happy and SAFE pride month! Here's to us. It's going to be ok.

-Kunaigirl