Celebrating Pride Month at Irkallu
Kazan Ten'no
Here at Irkallu, we pride ourselves on being welcoming and inclusive. We’re that wholesome guild. So, we’re celebrating Pride month. We’ve made a new Pride logo for the month, and added some Pride emojis to the Discord server. Enjoy!
Pride is often a time where big corporations stick on rainbow branding and pretend to care about us until the month is over. Some companies do make nice gestures, but Pride is often reduced to marketing. That’s not what it has to be about.
As Guildmaster and a Queer man myself, I wanted to write a little piece of support that I hope can help people (even if it’s just a little pick-me-up).
I just want to say that it’s okay to be yourself, and it is perfectly valid and okay if you don’t know who that is yet or you’re not ready to be public about it. If you’re questioning yourself, then that’s a good sign! It means you’re exploring yourself and you’ll be stronger for it. You might find yourself under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, or you might not (and either way, that’s okay!).
A lot of people have to face internalised homophobia as well as external. Sometimes our greatest enemies are ourselves, but you can overcome that. I did. When I first realised I liked men, I told myself I was Bisexual so ‘at least I’m not fully gay’. It took years of being around supportive friends for me to come to terms with who I really was and be comfortable with that. If you’re going through something like this, reach out to your friends if you can and if it’s safe to do so.
Once you start to embrace who you are, you start to feel free and happy. Really.
So, whether you’re out, coming out, questioning or not yet ready, you are valid and normal. We’ll support and accept you.
Enjoy Pride. Embrace yourself.