AlexGS @betterbebig - Twitter Profile

Pride mattereth because so many among us were first taught its opposite. Shame in what stirred the body. Shame in who drew forth our desire. Shame in the softness within us and in the truth of our longing. Some received it from cruel classmates, some from their mothers or fathers who could not see clearly, and some from guilt, silence, or the heavy hand of religion. Thus were many of us taught, whilst still tender in age, to conceal, to diminish, to lie, and to make ourselves smaller than we were ever meant to be. That is why Pride mattereth. It is the refusal to bear shame that was never rightfully ours. What thou art seeing here is not merely release, but surrender. It is the body speaking plainly at last. Men overcome by pleasure, by trust, by desire, and by the blessed freedom of no longer withholding themselves. These final moments, these visible proofs of abandon, these sweet undoings of the flesh, this too is Pride. The crown hath found his own in loving men openly, in making love to men, in vulnerability, in desire, and in the freedom to let the body confess what the world once demanded it conceal. I was once made to feel unworthy of the very love and pleasure I desired. I reject that entirely. So I urge thee, find thy Pride. Find in what thou desirest, in who thou lovest, in the culture and spirit that make thee distinct. Be loud in it. Be honest in it. Be unashamed in it. Here in this kingdom, shame holdeth no power. Only pleasure. Only tenderness. Only the courage to be fully seen. The crown would be remiss not to commend @SpoogeTube , whose careful hand gave life unto this edit.