Category: Read with Pride – LGBTQ+ blogs and articles

Kenji’s hand found mine as we stepped through the towering torii gate at Nezu Shrine, and I felt something shift: not dramatically, but quietly, like taking off shoes you’ve worn too long. The red lacquered gate marked more than an entrance; it was a threshold between Tokyo’s relentless pulse and something older, gentler. Something that …

Kami and Kinship: Finding Peace in a Tokyo ShrineRead More

The tambourines start at 5 AM in Lagos. Not the gentle kind either: the aggressive, holy-ghost-fired-up kind that rattles through aluminum roofs and makes windows hum. By 6 AM, three different churches on Chukwudi’s street are competing for God’s attention, each one louder than the last, each congregation more convinced that volume equals virtue. Chukwudi …

Lagos Hallelujahs: Finding Grace in the NoiseRead More

When Marcus first told his grandmother he was getting married to another man in a Lutheran cathedral, she laughed, not from disbelief, but from joy. “Of course you are, älskling,” she’d said in her lilting Swedish accent. “This is Stockholm, not the dark ages.” And that, in a nutshell, is what makes Sweden’s approach to …

Northern Lights and Altar Vows: Inclusivity in StockholmRead More

When Love Hides in Plain Sight There’s something about the Greek islands that makes secrets feel both heavier and lighter at the same time. Maybe it’s the way the sea holds onto whispers, or how the narrow cobblestone streets seem to remember every footstep. In the village of Agios Nikitas, where the white-washed church of …

Incense and Iconography: A Greek Island RomanceRead More

The bells of St. Brigid’s rang out across the Dublin sky just as they had every Sunday morning for the past 147 years. But today, Cillian Murphy stood at the iron gates of his childhood parish for the first time in eighteen years, and everything felt different. His partner Eoin squeezed his hand. “We don’t …

Emerald Vows: Breaking Chains in DublinRead More

“The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.” , Rumi When the Soul Recognizes Itself Mehmet first saw Kerem at the Hodjapasha Dance Theater on a February evening, when the ancient stones still …

Dervish Dreams: Spiritual Union in IstanbulRead More

There’s something about silence that either reveals everything or hides it completely. For Marcus and Owen, the quiet of the Philadelphia Friends Meeting House became the place where they could finally stop hiding. Finding Refuge in the City of Brotherly Love Philadelphia’s history with the Religious Society of Friends: the Quakers: runs deep. It’s woven …

The Silent Circle: Quaker Love in PhiladelphiaRead More

Part 17 of the Sacred Hearts series: Stories of faith, identity, and love across religions and borders The Weight of Temple Square Daniel had memorized every crack in the ceiling of his childhood bedroom. Twenty-eight years old, lying in his parents’ basement apartment in Draper, and he still knew exactly which water stain looked like …

The Salt Lake Struggle: Hope Beyond the TabernacleRead More

The wind across the Saskatchewan prairie carried memories Koda had tried to forget. Standing at the edge of his grandmother’s land, he felt the weight of twenty years pressing against his chest: twenty years since he’d left this place, this identity, this version of himself behind. He’d built a life in Vancouver. A good life. …

Spirit of the Great Plains: Two-Spirit HealingRead More

Part 18 of the Sacred Hearts series Raj had been coming to the Gurdwara in Southall since he was seven years old. He knew every corner of the building: the way the light filtered through the windows during evening prayers, the worn spot on the carpet where his grandmother used to sit, the kitchen where …

Equality at the Gurdwara: A London UnionRead More

There’s something profound about watching two men hold hands in a church pew, isn’t there? That simple act: fingers intertwined, palms pressed together: becomes a prayer in itself. A declaration that love, in all its forms, belongs in sacred spaces. Welcome to the final chapter of our Sacred Hearts series, where we’ve explored the beautiful, …

The Global Chapel: Where Love is the Highest PrayerRead More

Part 19 of the Sacred Hearts series There’s something about summer in Mississippi that makes you feel like you’re swimming through the air. The humidity clings to your skin like a second layer, and the cicadas sing their endless hymn from dusk till dawn. It was in this thick, heavy heat that Tyler Campbell realized …

The Baptist Rebel: Finding Love in the Deep SouthRead More

The bass was so loud I could feel it in my chest before I even got to the door. Standing outside Club Vertigo at 10:47 PM on a Saturday night, I was having what could only be described as a full-body panic attack disguised as “just checking my phone.” I’d circled the block three times …

Dancing in the DarkRead More

When Love Arrives Without Fanfare There’s something profound about finding love when you’ve already lived. When the first blush of youth has faded, when you’ve built a career, weathered losses, and know exactly who you are: that’s when connection takes on a different architecture. It’s quieter. Deeper. Built on foundations that don’t crack under weight. …

The Quiet Architecture of ForeverRead More

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Where the Tide Meets the SkinRead More

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A Harvest of Second ChancesRead More

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The Language of Unspoken VowsRead More

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Echoes in the City of GlassRead More

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The Slow Burn of Winter SunlightRead More

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Two Souls, One HorizonRead More