From Alpha To Omega

Pride in Teens

Imagine this:

An empty stage with a blank projector staring at the wall. Then, a spotlight clicks on and Mags walks from left stage to center stage.

Mags: Heyooo, my peeps! I know it's been a while since we at Alpha to Omega have reached out, but we have something special for our teen crowd tonight!

The projector begins shining a banner on the wall.

The crowd goes wild!

Mags: Wow! I'm happy to hear y'all are excited! Today, we'll be talking about pride in teens and how teenagers can celebrate outside of Pride Month. Speaking of Pride Month, I experienced something today.

This is a true story that happened on June 30th, 2024: Pride flags waved high in the streets downtown. I am always so happy to see them every year. And then I was reminded that today was the last day of June. I turned to my brother and said, "I bet you they're all gonna be taken down right when the clock strikes 12 tonight." I really hope I'm wrong, but it really is worrisome. They act like we don't exist outside of June. That needs to change.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we do anything else, I want to share my teen experience of finding myself in all of my identities.

Mags' Teen Experience

I came out as gay when I was fourteen. I had just gotten home from the hospital and being at death's door really hit me in the gut. I learned that I should live as myself and stop denying it. Now, I grew up (and still am) Catholic, so I had some big denial issues in my early teenage years, even after I came out as queer... Because my coming out story still wasn't over.