12 Pride Quotes About Friendship

June is LGBTQ Pride month, a yearly month-long celebration held in honor of the 1969 Stonewall riots and LGBTQIA+ people everywhere. While the annual observance is dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, it is also a time for everyone to show their support — just like these Pride quotes about friendship do, because love is love, and I'm not just talking about the romantic kind, either.

Pride month is about celebrating and giving a voice to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer men and women, but it is also an opportunity for allies to take a stand against the discrimination of the LGBTQ community and show support for their friends and loved ones. It is the perfect time for everyone to fight for the equality, visibility, and the safety of friends who face prejudice, discrimination, and inequality every day. Pride is about celebrating the accomplishments that have been made, recognizing the work that still needs to be done, and realizing we can do it, better and faster, if we all work together.

June is the time to show your pride with a capital "P." So, in honor of Pride month, here are 12 Pride quotes about friendship, companionship, loyalty, and love to read and share.

1. "No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow."

— Alice Walker

2. "Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses."

— Ann Landers

3. "Every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends if indeed they are your friends. You must tell the people you work with. You must tell the people in the stores you shop in. Once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and all. And once you do, you will feel so much better."

— Harvey Milk

4. "The last time I checked, the only difference between my gay friends and I is who we choose to love. I'm not sure how that warrants a loss of rights, but it needs to stop. What ever happened to liberty and justice for all?"

— P!nk

5. "I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant."

― Paul Newman

6. "I believe everyone should have the same rights. They say gay marriage ruins families and hurts kids. Well, I've had the privilege of seeing my gay friends being parents and watching their kids grow up in a loving environment."

— Brad Pitt

7. "LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones — and they are full and equal citizens, and deserve the rights of citizenship."

— Hillary Clinton

8. "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

9. "Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don't care who's listening."

— Allen Ginsberg

10. "I am who I am because of the people who influenced me growing up, and many of them were gay. No one has any right to tell anyone what makes a family."

— Drew Barrymore

11. "My friends, welcome to the other side of the rainbow."

— Sen. Ed Murray

12. "My love for my gay fans is just pure, authentic love for them as supporters of me from the beginning, and me feeling connected to their struggles as someone who is a part of their fight."

— Lady Gaga