In this post, you’ll find 70+ Pride Month quotes for 2023! Pride Month happens each year during the month of June. By honoring Pride Month, your company will send an important message about its values to employees and the community.
This year, as part of your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, share the Pride quotes below on your company’s social media channels or in your e-newsletter. You can inspire and enlighten your audiences while also starting an important dialogue. Sharing these quotes will also help LGBTQ+ clients, employees, and stakeholders feel seen and welcomed.
As you share these quotes for Pride Month, remember to also take meaningful action to support the LGBTQ+ community. Consider planning a volunteer day, supporting a nonprofit serving the LGBTQ+ community, or advocating for legislative change. After all, actions speak louder than words. Sharing words of wisdom is just one part of a meaningful Pride campaign!
TLDR: in this list, you’ll find:
- Meaningful quotes for Pride Month 2023
- Pride Month quotes to share on social media or in e-newsletters
- Inspirational quotes to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community
- Pride quotes from historical figures, authors, celebrities, and more
- Quotes about LBGTQ+ pride, being yourself, fighting for equity, and allyship
Looking for an educational and fun way to celebrate Pride Month with your team?
Check out our “Pride is Protest” virtual team building experience, with two live-streaming guides and a look at iconic locations in New York and San Francisco! Check out the brief video preview above – and then connect with Unexpected Virtual Tours to book your teams’s spot!
Pride Month Quotes on LGBTQ+ Pride & Equity
1. “It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen and visible in a world that tells us we should not exist.”
– Laverne Cox
2. “Do not allow people to dim your shine because they are blinded. Tell them to put on some sunglasses, because we were born this way.”
– Lady Gaga
3. “There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now okay to express ourselves publicly. We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.”
– Tammy Baldwin
4. “Darling, I want my gay rights now.”
– Marsha P. Johnson
5. “Of course, attitudes change, but only because brave people like Ellen [DeGeneres] jump into the fire to make them change. And if I hadn’t seen her on TV, I would have thought, ‘I could never be on TV. They don’t let LGBT people on TV.’ And more than that, I would have gone on thinking that I was an alien and that I maybe didn’t even have a right to be here.”
– Kate McKinnon
Pride Quotes on Courage & Overcoming Adversity
6. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings
7. “People used to think I was a monster. And for a long time, I believed them. But after a while, you learn to ignore the names that people call you and you just trust who you are.”
– Shrek
8. “To be yourself is truly a revolutionary act. And I think more and more people should try it, because it’s gotten me a pretty cool life.”
– Lena Waithe
9. “Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.”
– Harvey Fierstein
Pride Month Quotes on Coming Out
10. “The single best thing about coming out of the closet is that nobody can insult you by telling you what you’ve just told them.”
– Rachel Maddow
11. “How can people change their minds about us if they don’t know who we are?”
– Harvey Milk
12. “Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I’ve ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn’t even realized I was carrying.”
– Sir Ian McKellen
13. “Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.”
– Brené Brown
Quotes About Love for Pride Month
14. “I believe that marriage isn’t between a man and a woman, but between love and love.”
– Frank Ocean
15. “We deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame, and without compromise.”
– Elliot Page
16. “Self-love means that I have a relationship with myself built on trust and loyalty. I trust myself to have my own back, so my allegiance is to the voice within.”
– Glennon Doyle
17. “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow – this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.”
– Elizabeth Gilbert
Quotes on the Importance of Intersectionality
18. “The more I’ve been able to learn about gay rights and equal pay and gender equity and racial inequality, the more that it all intersects. You can’t really pick it apart. It’s all intertwined.”
– Megan Rapinoe
19. “We cannot be antiracist if we are homophobic or transphobic… All Black lives include those of poor transgender Black women, perhaps the most violated and oppressed of all the Black intersectional groups.”
20. “It is important and vital is to keep that education for critical consciousness around intersectionalities, so that people are able to not focus on one thing and blame one group, but be able to look holistically at the way intersectionality informs all of us: whiteness, gender, sexual preferences, etc. Only then can we have a realistic handle on the political and cultural world we live within.”
– bell hooks
Pride Month Quotes on Gender Identity
21. “Gender is between your ears and not between your legs.”
– Chaz Bono
22. “Being transgender is not just a medical transition. It’s discovering who you are, living your live authentically, loving yourself, and spreading that love towards other people and accepting one another, no matter the difference.”
– Jazz Jennings
23. “We’re all born naked, and the rest is drag.”
– RuPaul
24. “It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.”
– Emma Watson
25. “Gender is not what people look like to other people; it is what we know ourselves to be. No one else should be able to tell you who you are; that’s for you to decide…Man and woman are two of many – stars in a constellation that do not compete but amplify one another’s shine.”
– Alok Vaid-Menon
Pride Quotes on Allyship
26. “No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
– Alice Walker
27. “Being an ally can’t just be about nodding when someone says something we agree with – important as that is. It must also be about action. It’s our job to stand up for those who are not at the table when life-altering decisions are made.”
– Kamala Harris
28. “When we’re free to love anyone we choose, when this world’s big enough for all different views, when we all can worship from our own kind of pew – then, we shall be free.”
– Garth Brooks
29. “…there is a subtle difference between tolerance and acceptance. It’s the distance between moving into the cul-de-sac and having your next door neighbor trust you to keep an eye on her preschool daughter for a few minutes while she runs out to the post office. It’s the chasm between being invited to a colleague’s wedding with your same-sex partner and being able to slow-dance without the other guests whispering.”
30. “We need to own that if you truly are taking stands against hate and oppression, you should not fund hate and oppression. Period.”
– Gabrielle Union
Pride Quotes on Queer Visibility
31. “If public figures came out of the closet, then the LGBT kids who saw them on TV would feel safe before they even knew why they felt dangerous. Maybe if enough people came out of the closet, gay kids would never feel dangerous. Maybe we could have a world where we could all just live. We may not all agree, but why can’t we just all live?”
– Margaret Cho
32. “We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are.”
– Sylvia Rivera
33.”The whole issue of sexuality is so grey. I’m just trying to acknowledge that fluidity, that greyness, which has always existed. But maybe only now are we allowed to start talking about it.”
– Kristen Stewart
34. “Love demands expression. It will not stay still, stay silent, be good, be modest, be seen and not heard, no. It will break out in tongues of praise, the high note that smashes the glass and spills the liquid.”
– Jeanette Winterson
35. “Each step forwards to become the person we are makes it harder to go backwards, to return to the shadowy, private world of closed doors and shuttered windows. The experience, the awakening of one’s true self, after being so long suppressed, can never be adequately explained with language.”
– Lili Elbe
Inspirational Quotations on Owning Your Power
36. “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
– Audre Lorde
37. “If I wait for someone else to validate my existence, it will mean that I’m shortchanging myself.”
– Zanele Muholi
38. “There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s a lot wrong with the world you live in.”
– Chris Colfer
39. “This community has fought and continues to fight a war of acceptance, a war of tolerance and the most relentless bravery. You are the definition of courage, do you know that?”
– Lady Gaga
40. “Never stop believing in yourself. You had it all along.”
– Karamo Brown
41. “For a lot of my life, I was judged for my gender representation or my sexual orientation, or what people assumed of me; and every single time my goal has been to combat that and show my greatness.”
– Taylor Small
42. “I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer. And the more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I dream, the more my heart grows and the more I thrive.”
– Elliot Page
43. “Putting yourself out there is hard, but it’s so worth it. I don’t think anyone who has ever spoken out, or stood up or had a brave moment, has regretted it. It’s empowering and confidence-building and inspiring. Not only to other people, but to yourself.”
– Megan Rapinoe
Pride Month Quotes on Changing History
44. “History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”
– Marsha P. Johnson
45. “Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizen of this country.”
– Zachary Quinto
46. “All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more — and no less — heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century.”
– Tammy Baldwin
47. “I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act.”
– Janet Mock
48. “We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.”
– Bayard Rustin
Pride Month Quotes on Disarming Fear
49. “Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
– James Baldwin
50. “Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start.”
– Jason Collins
51. “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”
– Audre Lorde
52. “Never has it felt more important for me to tell stories of joy and abandon passion and recklessness. Life is short and difficult, people. We must take our pleasures where we can find them. Let us not become so cautious that we forget to live.”
– Elizabeth Gilbert
53. “When I was younger, I wish I would have been told more often that I was right and nothing was wrong with me, that I was deserving of everything this world has to offer, and that my visions for my future were worthy of pursuit.”
– Janet Mock
54. “To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.”
– Bayard Rustin
Quotes for Pride Month About Freedom
55. “It takes no compromise to give people their rights… It takes no political deal to give people freedom.”
– Harvey Milk
56. “Our community is not a monolith, thank goodness, any more than America itself is. I look forward to and will continue to work toward the day when America recognizes all of us as full and equal citizens.”
– Cynthia Nixon
57. “All human beings deserve equal treatment, no matter their gender identity or sexuality.”
– Andreja Pejic
58. “There will always be enemies. Time to stop being your own.”
– Larry Kramer
Quotes on Making the World A Better Place for All
59. “A long time ago I asked myself, ‘Do I want to be right, or do I want to be kind?’. I opted for kind.”
– Jane Lynch
60. “We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity.”
– George Takei
61. “I once worried that there was no place for trans people like me to participate in any way in our politics. Since coming out, though, I’ve seen that change is possible and I’ve learned that the only things that are truly impossible are the things we don’t try. You can run, you can win and you can serve.”
– Sarah McBride
62. “Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.”
– Barbara Gittings
63. “Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges.”
– Bob Parris
64. “It is absolutely imperative that every human being’s freedom and human rights are respected, all over the world.”
– Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
65. “I believe that no one should ever have to choose between a career we love and living our lives with authenticity and integrity.”
– Selisse Berry
Quotations About the Power of Being Yourself
66. “We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That’s okay.”
– Laverne Cox
67. “I am a strong, black, lesbian woman. Every single time I say it, I feel so much better.”
– Brittney Griner
68. “The more I accept myself as a genderless human being, in a way, the more I’m loving my body.”
– Sam Smith
69. “I want to make sure that any young person or anyone really who is looking up to me—who sees a glimpse of I am as a person—that they see no shame, that they see pride, and that I’m truly unabashed about the person that I am.”
– Samira Wiley
70. “There’s no right or wrong way to be gay. No right or wrong way to come out. It’s your journey, do it the way you wanna do it.”
– Tan France
71. “I want people to fall in love with themselves and to be really proud and full of joy for the space they take up. If someone else appreciates the space you take up, then that’s icing on the cake.”
– Jonathan Van Ness
72. “It takes a little bit of bravery to step out, to be like, okay, I don’t look like anybody else around here. I am making the conscious decision to present myself the way I want to today.”
– Hunter Schafer
Frequently Asked Questions About Pride Month
What is Pride Month?
Pride Month is a time for the LGBT community and allies to come together in celebration, solidarity, activism, reflection, and support of all LGBTQIA+ people (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual).
While a Pride Parade or Pride March are often part of Pride celebrations, there’s more to this holiday than parades! Pride can be a meaningful time to learn about the historical and present struggles and exclusion of LGBT people.
When is Pride Month?
Pride Month is celebrated during the month of June. In 2023, Pride Month will be June 1-30, 2023.
Where is Pride Month celebrated?
Pride Month is primarily celebrated in the United States. However, you can find Pride Month festivities around the globe – even in areas where it is not an officially recognized occasion.
How did Pride begin?
Pride originated as a celebration of the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising (sometimes called the Stonewall Riots). In the early hours of June 28, 1969, police conducted a raid on a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City.
Unfortunately, during this time, being gay was a criminal offense. In fact, it was illegal to serve alcohol to a gay person until 1966. Raids on gay bars were standard procedure, but this raid would go down in history as the birth of the Pride movement.
Led by courageous transwomen, people at the Stonewall Inn protested the raid, leading to a six-day-long resistance. By just the second evening, thousands of protestors had gathered. Confrontation, violence, and escalation ensued for nearly a week. In the aftermath of Stonewall, many people became more engaged in activism and advocating for the equal treatment for LGBT people.
The first Pride march was held one year later, on June 28, 1970.
Learn more about the Stonewall Uprising from the Library of Congress.
We wish you and your team a safe, happy, and celebratory Pride! If you’re looking for more Pride Month ideas, explore our guide, 16+ Pride Work Ideas. Additionally, you can book our Pride Month virtual team building experience!
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