Khristofer Johnsen

When reflecting on what I wanted to share for Pride Month, I really found it through my work with others and a simple line from George Strait’s You’ll Be There:

“You don’t know where you’re going ‘til you know where you’re at.”

All the lives around us—past, present, and future—are together in this world and universe.

This song might more commonly be heard as a story of ascendance into heaven, existentialism, and Christian country themes.

Hear me out though. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

What I also hear is a story of great love, liberation, and connection. “Hope is an anchor and love is a ship.”

While that can be hard to connect with in times like these, I’m reminded of what we’re here to do in this world. “You don’t bring nothin’ with you here, and you can’t take nothin’ back.” It’s how we loved, how we cared, how we showed up for one another, and whether we left this place more whole than we found it.

I’ve been sent out into the world—not just to exist in it, but to change it, to love on it, and to care for my siblings.

We might not always have our answers. We might not always know where we’re headed. But we deserve places that are safe, loving, trusting, and affirming. We deserve communities where we can be fully seen.

Our hopes for a more loving future can sometimes be curtailed by confusion, fear, and division:

“If you can’t read the stars, well you’d better have a map. A compass and a conscience, so you don’t get lost at sea. Or on some old lonely island where no one wants to be.”

For me, that compass is love. It is the deep knowing that our lives are bound together.

The wisdom of those before us still speaks. Their voices cry out through us. Their courage, grief, joy, resistance, and love live on in these vessels we call bodies. Being together, connected, and loved is what we so deservingly need.

The spirit and light of those who came before us enter the darkness alongside us. Love connects, heals, and nourishes our souls, slowly collapsing the divide between us.

“I’ll see you on the other side if I make it. And it might be a long hard ride, but I’m gonna take it.”

Love has always been stronger than the systems built on transphobia, racism, homophobia, colonialism, and every other form of oppression. Not because love is passive, but because love moves. Love organizes. Love resists. Love liberates.

“From the beginning of creation, I think our maker had a plan. For us to leave these shores. And sail beyond the sand. And let the good light guide us. To the waves and the wind. To the beaches in a world. Where we have never been. And we’ll climb up on the mountain y’all. We’ll let our voices ring. And those who’ve never tried it. They’ll be the first to sing. Oh, my, my”.

Hey my friend, I ask that you surround yourself with love. Feed your soul. Move to the rhythm and beat of the drum. Holler out to the world from within. If just being here is all you’re able to give, well, that’s all we need — is you. Stay here, take a rest, I promise others are fighting for us every single day. We all deserve rest, that’s not giving up. We share the fight together. Remember, ‘hope is an anchor and love is a ship’.