Proud, all year round

The first time I really heard the words of "Dancing in the Dark" I was already grown-up, a person with a big backpack on my back. What reached me was a person at a mirror wanting to change their clothes, hair, face — someone (me) aching to be remade. Springsteen wrote a radio hit in 1984, and I finally heard one of the great queer songs hiding in plain sight: the ache to come out, and the hand reaching across a dark room for the stranger who might be the spark.

The flag in the footer stays up year-round — June, November, the grey Tuesdays in between. Keep the porch light on, stay hungry, and reach for the spark.

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Note

"Dancing in the Dark" — words and music by Bruce Springsteen (1984). The song's mirror image — "I check my look in the mirror / I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face" — and its spark are his, borrowed here in tribute. All rights remain with the artist.