06/06/2026
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๐๐๐๐๐๐ | You Deserve All The Rainbows In Every Universe
I grew up learning that love had limits.
In the quiet corners of my childhood, shaped by the firm hands and faithful voices of my religious grandparent, I was taught early that there was a right way to live and a wrong way to love. They spoke of a higher command, of rules that must never be broken, and of punishments that waited for those who strayed. Among those warnings was one that stayed with me the mostโthat loving someone of the same gender was a sin, or not loving at all.
I believed them.
Growing up, I was told that being friends with g**s and le****ns could be wrong, and that expressing myself in ways seen as โtoo masculineโ meant becoming someone I was not allowed to be. These ideas settled quietly within me, shaping not only what I feared, but what I thought I had to hide.
So I held myself back.
I held onto those teachings tightly, not just out of respect, but out of fear. Fear of being punished. Fear of disappointing them. Fear of losing my place in a faith that once made me feel safe. So I learned to hide parts of myself before I even fully understood them.
I became quiet about who I was.
For a long time, it felt like I was living under a sky with no colorโonly rules, only restrictions, only silence. While others spoke freely about crushes and feelings, I kept mine, afraid that even the smallest truth might betray me. I convinced myself that if I ignored it long enough, it would disappear. That if I stayed obedient, I would be saved from becoming someone I was taught not to be.
I was not just closeted. I was afraid of myself.
Faith, for a long time, felt like a cage I could not leave. I thought that stepping outside of it meant choosing sin, choosing punishment, choosing to be wrong. So I stayed where it was safe, even if it meant denying who I truly was.
But truth has a way of finding you, even in silence.
Slowly, I began to question the fear I carried. I began to see that love, in its purest form, was never meant to harm. It was not something to be punished or hidden. It was something to be understood, to be embraced, and to be accepted.
Even the darkest skies cannot hold back color forever.
Slowly, I began to unlearn the fear I was raised with. I started to understand that love was never meant to be a source of shame. And in that realization, I began to see myself more clearly.
I am part of the rainbow.
And that truth is not something I need to run from.
The rainbow has always been more than color in the skyโit is a symbol of the LGBTQIA+ community and a reminder of diversity, resilience, identity, and love that refuses to disappear. It carries every shade of becoming, every story of courage, every truth once hidden but now lived openly.
It took time to unlearn fear. It took courage to choose acceptance over silence. But in doing so, I discover far more powerful than fear.
I discovered freedom.
This Pride Month, our stories are not about escaping where we came from, but about stepping fully into who we are. The rainbow is not just something we admireโit is something we are. May every story like mine continue to move toward acceptance, understanding, and wholeness. And may every person of the spectrum, in every place, be reminded that they deserve to live fully in their truthโbright, visible, and unafraid.
Because we are not meant to exist in fragments. We are meant to live in color, and we deserve every rainbow in every universe.
Happy Pride Month!
Written by: Janelle De Vera, Feature Editor
Layout by: Rey Julian Dichoso, Arts and Graphics Editor
