Prepping For Pride 🏳️‍🌈🥳

Getting My Rainbow Duckies In A Row

Photo by James A. Molnar on Unsplash

How is it almost June, y’all?! Time flies when you’re having fun (and/or just “Living La Vida Loca”). It’s hard to believe we’re just days from the start of Pride Month 2025!

While haters gonna hate, lovers gotta CELEBRATE!!! So let the playlists play and love and lust rain/reign (supreme) on all of our parades. Loudly and proudly.

While I see Pride as a 24/7/365 celebration, I’m always happy to turn up the volume every June. But I don’t wait for the parades to start waving my rainbow flag—I’m already tuning up my pride playlists and getting all my rainbow duckies in a row.

This year, I'm going all-in for a month-long celebration across my Shop, Substack, and YouTube channel. Think of it as a queer, creative community-powered Pride parade—with floats made of pixels and party favors you can download, stream, or hang on your wall.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’ve got in the works…

🌈 SHOP = PRIDE PRINTS + TEES + THROWBACKS

I’m curating a rotating selection of exclusive Pride prints, throwback designs, and LGBTQ art from history—some you might know, some you might not, and a few I’ve been saving for a while.

• Featured vintage photos + artworks from LGBTQ creators and muses

• Limited edition tees + merch that celebrate living and loving outside the lines

• A few “back by demand” bestsellers from past Pride collections

I’m also working on some new original Pride designs and visual love letters to queer creativity and culture throughout the decades.

👨‍💻 SUBSTACK = PHOTOGRAPHY + POP CULTURE + PRIDE

My Substack is getting the full rainbow treatment all June long. That means:

• Pride-themed blog drops—stories of queer creatives and pioneers, a behind-the-scenes peek at my creative process, and videos galore

• Vintage photo deep-dives with historical context and commentary (because I’m proud to be helping preserve queer history)

• Words of encouragement for those navigating Pride season with mixed feelings

I plan to make COLLIDE PRESS a space that’s celebratory and reflective.

📺 YOUTUBE = MEN + MONTAGES + MORE

Over on my YouTube channel, I will be posting a series of Pride videos—some fresh, new montages, and some refreshed favorites—with a focus on creative expression and queer eye candy:

• Videos honoring LGBTQ heritage and history

• Shorts spotlighting queer creatives

• Live “replay” streams

And if YouTube rains on my rainbow parade with one of their “Community Guildelines” strikes or “Ad Suitability” warnings, I will be back on Substack with a megaphone in a rainbow minute.

🗓️ PRIDE MONTH = A MONTH-LONG CELEBRATION

Pride Month, for me, isn’t just one single post or one event. It’s a mosaic of moments. Some quiet, some loud. Some funny, some fierce. All full of feeling. It’s about making space for joy and justice, love and lust. It’s about seeing the full spectrum of who we have been, who we are, and who we are becoming.

So whether you’re dancing in the streets, laying low with a book, or somewhere in between, I hope you’ll join me this June for a month of creative LGBTQ celebration.

Let’s make it count—and make it colorful!
Clint 🌈✌️

P.S. For anyone curious, I ended up skipping last night’s Substack Bestseller mixer in West Hollywood and going to bed early instead. I’m feeling MUCH better today and hoping there will be more opportunities to meet fellow Substackers in the near future. Still honored to have been invited. A big, BIG THANK YOU to all my paid subscribers and patrons for making that possible!

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Big thanks to all who’ve subscribed and/or supported!

FOR YOUR (SUBSTACK) CONSIDERATION

• The Dark Pop Revolution of Yoshitomo Nara (Rogue Art Historian)

• On Being Dads and Still Feeling Sexy (PJ and Thomas)

• Who’s Afraid Of Alice Toklas? (John Birdsall)

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ON THIS DAY = MAY 29

BIRTHDAYS

• 1736 = Patrick Henry = American lawyer and politician

• 1893 = Max Brand = American journalist and author

• 1894 = Beatrice Lillie = Canadian-English actor and singer 🌈

• 1894 = Josef von Sternberg = Austrian-American filmmaker

• 1903 = Bob Hope = English-American actor, singer, and producer

• 1917 = John F. Kennedy = American politician and 35th POTUS

• 1947 = Anthony Geary = American actor

• 1947 = Gene Robinson = American Episcopalian bishop 🌈

• 1950 = Rebbie Jackson = American singer and actor

• 1953 = Danny Elfman = American composer and singer-songwriter

• 1954 = Nancy Cárdenas = Mexican actor, writer, and activist 🌈

• 1956 = La Toya Jackson = American singer-songwriter

• 1957 = Ted Levine = American actor

• 1958 = Annette Bening = American actor

• 1959 = Rupert Everett = English actor and novelist 🌈

• 1961 = Melissa Etheridge = American singer-songwriter 🌈

• 1967 = Noel Gallagher = English singer-songwriter

• 1972 = Laverne Cox = American actor activist 🌈

• 1975 = Daniel Tosh = American comedian, television host, actor, and writer

• 1975 = Mel B = English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor

EVENTS

• 1453 = Fall of Constantinople: Ottoman armies under Sultan Mehmed II capture Constantinople after a 53-day siege, ending the Roman Empire after over 2,000 years.

• 1851v Sojourner Truth delivers her famous Ain't I a Woman? speech at the Woman's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

• 1886 = The pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in The Atlanta Journal.

• 1913 = Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a riot.

• 1954 = Dial M For Murder is released in theaters.

• 1961 = A Raisin In The Sun is released in theaters.

• 1963 = Hud is released in theaters.

• 1965 = Organized by ECHO (the East Coast Homophile Organizations), seven men and three women picket the White House. It was the first of a series of pickets held throughout the summer, which also targeted the Civil Service Commission, the State Department, and the Pentagon.

• 1974 = SETA, a Finnish LGBTQ rights organization, is founded in Helsinki.

• 1992 = Sister Act is released in theaters.

• 2015 = One World Observatory at One World Trade Center opens.

HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES

• International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers

• National Paperclip Day

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PORTRAIT + QUOTES OF THE DAY

“I don't think I've ever tried to change anyone. I don't have the energy.”
Rupert Everett

“Actors make bad lovers. Their most important kiss is for the camera. Not in a superficial way, in a really deep way. They can only give everything if they know someone is going to shout cut!”
Rupert Everett