6 Ways To Celebrate Pride 2025
1) Leave the area.
Not what you expected, right? But there it is. It’s not July and thus, not Pride in San Diego, so I’m here enjoying all the prides one can possibly find in June and I encourage you to do the same, as feels right to you.
It’s Pride practically everywhere else all over the world in June so why not enjoy it?
My daughter and I went to Oceanside Pride. It was the best. Chill and Lively. Supportive. We crafted personal and family flags. We took ours home when others added theirs to the bigger community flag.
We traveled to New York City for my nephew’s Bar Mitzvah (coming of age ceremony). He was amazing and it was so good to see my East Coast family. It was also really wonderful to be in NYC. Everything and everywhere had pride flags, and instead of seeing it as pink washing or rainbow washing, I saw it as moments of joy all around me. After all, the flags were still up, even though not-my-President Trump has made life miserable on a federal level for trans and queer people and those who love us. He’s created misery for people who want to protect the USA in the military who also happen to be trans. He’s cut off the LGBTQ+ supportive and affirming help line through 688, and just recently the Supreme Court pushed down Tennessee’s right for trans kids to have access to trans - affirming health care. I feel that it is an act of bravery to post a freakin’ LGBTQ+ flag in the USA.
It is so vital to see people experiencing Pride. I didn’t realize how shut off from the outside world I’d been. There, in NYC and in Oceanside, I felt like I could be my full Jewish and Queer self.
2) Wear rainbows.
Abi, a smiling white Jewish ENBY person wearing rainbow sunglasses by Central Park in New York City, NY
I am wearing rainbow glasses. Yes, it’s my everyday style, but it also felt really nice to bring the rainbow with me everywhere I go.
At times, I’m scared when I wear something obviously queer these days. It’s a mixed bag having the privilege to blend into the environment. Sometimes, I found that even when I’m being blatantly out and visible and queer that people who don’t or can’t see my queerness, can overlook it. It’s weird to me but also in some ways, protects me. It allows me to disappear in plain sight. Others’ cis and heterosexual-centered view of the world paints me and my wife and daughter into two sisters or friends out on the down, each holding a hand of a child. My fear diminishes slightly when I am mistaken for someone who just loves rainbows rather than the super queer and trans-y person that I am.
Abi and their/her rainbow glasses stands in front of a window near the top of the Empire State Building in New York City
At other times, it brought a great sense of relief to be visibly queer. With rainbow glasses, I become the person that I am often looking for outside in the real world. I am often looking for solidarity, for another queer around them, or for people who are politically liberal. These signs of queerness, like wearing rainbow glasses or commenting on someone else’s fabulous LGBTQI+ wear can really help put me and others at ease. I noticed that I have gotten more compliments on my glasses than I ever have and I’ve worn them for a while. When I spoke to my wife about it, she said that maybe people want to show others that they notice and support queer people especially in this time, where Trump’s shadow appears to be everywhere.
When we flew home, I noticed the pilot’s rainbow ribbon that he wore his identification tag on. I smiled and waved and he waved back. I felt so seen and so safe. Then, the steward told me he loved my glasses as he passed me in the aisle. I thanked him and gave a tilt of my head and said, “it’s always time to queer it up.” We laughed together, sharing knowing looks. In a world where it doesn’t always feel safe to be out and LGBTQI+, solidarity and community help tremendously.
It was a similar feeling when I was in a very, very long line on a very, very hot and humid day for entry into the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington DC. I’m a talkative sort of person and an extrovert so while my kid and wife were enjoying a shaved ice and a bit of quiet time, I chatted with the people in line with me. I turned around and started talking with a person behind me about the length of the line. I had no idea if he was going to be friendly or not so much, but we kept chatting along and his friend/partner came over to meet him in line and we kept chatting away. I quickly noticed the friend’s Hamsa necklace and commented on it saying, “I love your Hamsa or Hand of Fatima.” She said it was her Hamsa and we laughed again talking about what it was like to run into each other, both Jews, both away from home, and now, together, sharing space. Although this meeting was about similarity of religion amongst other things it was so comforting to feel connected to people who were also trying to get by in this really difficult world right now.
Abi, a white Jewish enby and female person, wearing rainbow glasses smiles while leaning on a leaning on a statue of a pilot at a Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C.
3) Get excited!
An LGBTQ+ Rainbow flag with a white Jewish star on it. It was at my nephew’s synagogue in New York City and I needed to take a picture. Yay for Jewish LGBTQI+ people!
And be open to finding new LGBTQI+ and Jewish - allies.
Even though the San Diego Pride organization kept their starting lineup of performers, the Jewish community of San Diego decided to create a Jewish LGBTQI+ Pride in 2025 in San Diego!
I was so surprised and delighted that they were combining events from different synagogues and adding new ones to create these events! Please let me know if you want more information and I’m happy to share it with you! I’ll be there and I’ll try and bring my family and friends. The more warm and fuzzy LGBTQI+ Jewish - allies, the merrier.
4) Read all the LGBTQI+ books.
Books are my happy place. These days I have two kinds of books that I read outside of work: 1) sappy & spicy queer and trans books and 2) books written by queer and trans people I want to support. There might be an ally author or two in there a bit if I think I could learn something new in how to see the world and how to support people.
I’ll leave you to find the spicy and sappy books on your own. :)
For that second category, I’ll start with my dissertation research on supporting transgender Jewish - American people. My dissertation research highlighted how books and education helped support my participants. Hey, you could even read more about it here in Transkeit: Liberating Gender for Jews and Allies: The Wisdom of Transkeit. See me holding the book in the picture above or click the sentence before this one for my blog post about the book. Click this sentence for a link to the publisher and yes, you can find it at the big rainforest bookstore too. Writing my chapter was a true joy and reading others’ words was an incredible experience. One of the books that I’m lingering over now is called Shechinah at the Art Institute by Irwin Keller, who also contributed to the pages of Transkeit. I love reading Rabbi Keller’s book and brought it with me on our East Coast trip. As always, I read a few pages or thirty and then stop and meditate on it for a bit, then put it down until the next time I have space in my life for some more. Plus, he’s a really grounded and kind and thoughtful person.
Other books I’m reading include one that I bought at the Oceanside Pride event. The one I’m reading is a memoir by Mary Ann Horton called Trailblazer, Lighting the Path for Transgender Equlity in Corporate America. It’s also a really good read and a vital one. Let’s honor those who figured themselves out while doing fabulous things and who persisted and made a difference for all of us.
Books are a great way to remind oneself that one could live in a world where people are supportive and kind and that seeing it or listening to it happen in someone else’s imagination or real life is almost like practice for it happening in real life (again)!
These days I’m also enjoying all the LGBTQI+ books I can find and going back to enjoy some picture books like The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish by Lil Miss Hot Mess Here’s a youtube version of it where Read Aloud by Mina Mercury reads the book.
One can purchase the book here if you can’t locate it in your local library or want a copy for yourself like we did. Here are some others that Keshet (the Jewish LGBTQ+ organization) gathered too https://www.keshetonline.org/resources/lgbtq-inclusive-book-list-for-children-and-families/ They have some on there that I haven’t seen in awhile and some new-to-me ones too. Gosh, I love reading!
5) If you have the energy, go on out (or stay in) and volunteer, protest, or otherwise support something you care about even if it is not related to your own experience in the world.
While there are some days that I just wanna curl into myself and rest, there are other days where I need to volunteer for work I believe in strongly but don't feel fully mine. You don’t need to tell anyone else you stepped up either. You can share and, at the same time, you don’t need to in order to be of help. No need to take center stage. In fact, I’d encourage you to step back and let others be the ones seen. Take direction from others, do your own research on the cause and be there in support and love.
6) Take rest and notice your body and your mind. And as always, heal as you are able.
I went to my own therapist this afternoon. Did I want to cry and do my own work? Not particularly. But I knew that I needed to work through some of my stuff so I went. I showed up for myself for both my own mental health and so I can show up fully for clients.
We at Waves are here for you. If it is your time to do your own work to feel as best as you can feel, we would be honored to help you. We provide individualized support, through talk therapy, connecting to your body therapy, and/ or LGBTQI+ - centered EMDR.
Contact us for a free 15 minute consultation by clicking the button below or by texting Waves at 619-403-5578 to see how we can support you in feeling better, whatever that looks like and feels like to you.
