PAUL

After the Glitter Settles: Life Beyond Pride Parties

Pride is over for another year. The rainbow flags have been folded, the drag queens have finally taken off their lashes (maybe), and every corporate logo has quietly returned to its usual dull blue. The streets that were once glitterbombed are now just…streets again. Pride is a party, yes, but it’s also a movement. So what happens when the DJs pack up and the after-parties fizzle out?

If your idea of queer community starts and ends with sweaty dancefloors, vodka sodas, and waking up with half-smudged eyeliner, then post-Pride can feel like a hangover without the two fizzy co-codamols. And honestly, it’s a bit tragic if we only know how to be queer when there’s a disco ball spinning above us. The party ends; but community doesn’t have to.

So, how do we stay connected, alive, and proud without relying on shots of tequila or scrolling for strangers on apps at 3am? Here are some ways to keep your Pride beating 365 days a year.

1. Swap Vodka Red Bulls for Actual Energy

Bars and clubs have their place. But if every queer gathering involves booze, drugs, or a bathroom cubicle encounter, maybe we need to expand the menu. Coffee meet-ups, sober raves, board-game nights, queer yoga, even knitting circles; yes, we can still be fabulous while holding a crochet hook. These spaces remind us that queer joy doesn’t have to mean stumbling home at sunrise.

There’s something rebellious about choosing connection that isn’t fuelled by substances. You get to remember the conversations you had. You get to actually see people, not just their blurred outline under a strobe light.

2. Support Your Local Queer Creatives

Pride is drenched in performance: drag, music, art, protest. But queer art doesn’t just live in June/July. Hit up local theatre shows, poetry nights, launches, or art exhibitions by queer creators. Buy their work, share their posts, clap too loudly at their performances.

And if you’re secretly sitting on a half-written poem, a canvas, or a spicy idea? Stop hiding it. Queer culture thrives because we make things. Be part of it.

3. Rethink “Chosen Family”

Yes, it’s a cliché but clichés exist for a reason. If Pride is about visibility, then life after Pride is about intimacy. Who are your people? Who do you text when you’re having a breakdown about your ex, your boss, or a “Karen”? Cultivating chosen family is slow work, but it’s what sustains us.

Host dinner nights. Create Sunday rituals. Celebrate birthdays, breakups, and random Tuesdays together. Being queer isn’t just about surviving; it’s about weaving networks of care.

4. Get Political (Without the Hangover)

Please note, this column is the opinion of the columinst and not that of GNI or Romeo & Julian Publiccations Ltd.

Let’s not forget: Pride started as a riot. Our rights didn’t fall from the sky because we threw a great parade. They came from people who organised, protested, and put their bodies on the line. After the party, the fight is still here; for trans rights, for asylum seekers, for queer youth, for global communities who don’t even get to wave a rainbow flag without risking their lives.

Volunteer at an LGBTQ+ charity. Fundraise. Write letters. Show up to protests. Being politically queer is far sexier than a harness at 2am. (Well… depending on the harness)

5. Build Queer Joy Into the Everyday

Here’s the edgy truth: Pride isn’t just a month. Pride is how you dress when you’re “just running errands.” Pride is the book you read on the bus. Pride is holding your partner’s hand in public even when you feel the stares. It’s cooking a meal with your queer friends. It’s laughing until you snort. The most radical thing we can do is live our queer lives unapologetically; in the small, daily ways.

6. Create the Spaces You Want to See

Maybe your city has endless bars but zero sober spaces. Maybe you crave a queer hiking group, or a film club, or a workshop on queer history. Here’s the thing: you don’t have to wait for someone else to build it. Gather a few people. Post on socials. Make it happen.

Pride is Not a One-Night Stand

We’ve all had one of those, the night that felt amazing but was gone by morning. Pride shouldn’t be that. Pride should be the long-term relationship, the one that grows and deepens, the one you want to come home to.

So yes, Pride month is over. The rainbow glitter is in the gutters, the parades are memories, the drag queens have finally taken a nap. But being queer is not seasonal. We don’t vanish in August. The party might end; but our community, our creativity, our fight, and our joy? That continues.

Maybe, that’s the real Pride.

Paul McAllister- Soul Script IG: soulscript.pm Facebook: soulscript.pm Email: soulscript.pm@gmail.com Website: www.soul-script.co.uk