Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
New Visions
Relationships and Religion
Your Shadow is Queer: Pride Offers Courageous Alignment

Your Shadow is Queer: Pride Offers Courageous Alignment

Last updated on: June 24, 2025 at 2:12 pm by Dr. Mike Simmons

Your Shadow is Queer: Pride Offers Courageous Alignment 2025-06-24T14:12:26-07:00 Dr. Mike Simmons

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Image of pride celebration under a large rainbow flag

Photo by Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash

Pride is a Protest to Performance

For my queer siblings, living authentically is a protest against expected performance. This is the purpose of Pride. Coming out is not a one-time event, but an ongoing life of courageous alignment: to name what is real in a world that often prefers performing roles rather than soulful living. Pride was born from protest, from refusal to split body from soul, or from inherent wholeness and worth.

Pride is not only about embodying authentic sexuality or gender expression—it is about initiating throughout life into our deepest and purest expression. It’s about breaking inherited scripts, reclaiming our body, and refusing to shrink. Even if you don’t identify as queer, there are parts of you that have been hidden, shamed, or contorted in order to fit. This reflection on queerness and Pride is for all of us who are learning to live more honestly. Because our shadow isn’t just hidden—it’s different, strange, and judged by our personal and collective ego.

The Shadow Resists the Script

“To queer an experience is to resist defining it.” –David Solem, PhD

Pride can be mistaken as the final arrival point—where LGBT+ individuals and allys become loud and proud about some fixed label. But the soul doesn’t move in straight lines (only “Q”s lol). Queerness, in its deepest sense, never settles into a finished identity. It remains fluid, disruptive, alive, and curious. Pride is not simply a month long expression of arrival, or even of survival, though those elements certainly are core. Pride is a collective renewal of our soul’s requirement to unfold and initiate into our highest and most authentic and energetic humanity (Read my previous post: Fascism and the Collective Shadow)

Your shadow is queer–your softness, your firmness, your doubt, your certainty, your intensity, your ease, your longing, your satisfaction. Shadow doesn’t just contain wounds in need of healing–it holds powers in need of activation. Shadow contains your power to refuse or comply with unhealthy expectations, and incongruent expectations.

Queer Theory Meets the Inner Life

In queer theory, “queer” is less an identity than a posture—a way of living that defies inherited scripts. Queer theorist, Michael Warner describes it as “resistance to regimes of the normal.”

Pride is a celebration of LGBTQ+ vibrancy and radical existence. It is also a month long sacrament for everyone to ask:

What have I had to suppress to belong?
Who did I become in order to survive in my family, school, faith community, etc.?
What might emerge if I stopped performing?

Performance and the Persona

Judith Butler, a core voice and pillar of queer theory, teaches that gender and identity are performative—not because they’re fake, but because they are repeated acts, sustained through social expectation and power. The same is true of the persona. When we confuse performance for authentic expression, the shadow grows. Coming into our truest and highest self is not a repeated performance of identify, but a transgressive journey into our expansive life.

The Risk of Normifying Queerness

This is why we must be cautious not to “normify” queerness itself. When queerness becomes marketable, palatable, or a fixed identity, it risks losing its transgressive and liberative power. Queerness will always be an affront to power and empire. However, it can become normalized and fixed in our psyche, and become the empire that assumes supremacy over anything “other” within. Whether you identify with the LGBTQ+ community or you’re an active ally, Pride isn’t simply a reaffirmation of identity, but a conscious protest welcoming and aligning with everything in us we’ve yet to value.

Your shadow is queer. It is is wildly complex, yet very simple to except by those who chose to break out of the many binaries available: masculine/feminine, good/bad, sacred/profane, normal/deviant, and yes, even straight/queer. shadow work requires us to move beyond integration as correctness or accuracy, into integration as love, alignment, vitality. It requires us to heal our wounds, yes, but then honor, celebrate and take pride in the vitalizing wisdom shadow carries.

Pride Calls us to Psychic Liberation

Pride invites everyone to fully participate in the sacred work of becoming whole. Because queerness isn’t only about who you love. It’s about who you become as you refuse to align with anything other than your highest and most authentic self. Your shadow is queer, and it protests any alignments you make rooted in basic survival rather than the life-vitality inherent in your soul.

Let’s Journey together into the depths of your Shadow

We all cast shadows which separate us from ourselves. You may have been a devout Christian, and shadowed your queer existence. Or you may have accepted your queer identity, but feel alienated from your spirituality, still held hostage by the old religious form and it’s associated traumas. I’d love to explore this further with you! I supports clients through a blend of individual support and intentional communal engagement. Book a free 30-minute discovery call with me to learn more.

Previous Post

June 10, 2025

Fascism and the Collective Shadow

Next Post

July 31, 2025 Get Your Inner Gold Back From Jesus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Christianity psychology Shadow Work Social Justice Spirituality Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 January 2025 September 2024 August 2024 June 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 July 2023 May 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz