he is beautiful like a rainbow
this was never a story of pride parade floats
this was a rebellion created by black trans women throwing bricks at cops
stonewall was a riot
my love is not celebrated by supreme court legalization of monogamous marriage,
or flags held up in business windows to attract money
it is not found
in your rainbow capitalism
when historically those same places have always held us down
beaten us and thrown us out in the streets

he is beautiful like a rainbow
and right now i am sitting on the street where i went
to a nightclub
with my friend from band
and i remember how that night i was reminded for a second
of orlando
because i am a gay trans white man and she is a straight cis peruvian woman
and together as one gay trans and one latina we made up the three groups that had been targeted

he is beautiful like a rainbow
and when he smiles, my world flourishes
and his laugh can echo its way into my heart
with a love of books and disney and cats
i couldn’t be more grateful to find him
but the truth is
something you care for becomes more meaningful when you have to fight for it
and us gays
have always been fighting harder than you have
yet you complain
because you want your straight pride parade
because you think our world is nothing but a party in a pink triangle
but you never think
of the way that the pink triangle originated in our own genocide

he is beautiful like a rainbow
and my love as a man to other men was never made for your consumption
i was never meant to simply be your favorite porn category
your token friend for whenever you need your full queer resource center
i have my privacy
that you do not respect
but i don’t tendril into your’s
you say you’re not homophobic
but the way that you go out of your way to not acknowledge my partner’s gender

even though i have explicitly stated it numerous times the same way you’d mention your’s
shows me otherwise
the way that you flinch when i mention my relations
shows me otherwise
you visibly jump
at the sound of it
because i didn’t know you were a faggot
god forbid
that i shatter your hetero world

he is beautiful like a rainbow
and the way that men love other men should not be foreign to you
you think of yourself as strong and intelligent
yet you get so confused and don’t understand
when i say that i’m gay
i really don’t think
that’s a hard concept
to understand
that i can be a man
who loves other men

he is beautiful like a rainbow
i walk with him across rainbow crosswalks
reach him miles away
my love fights harder than yours
every activist campaign
is brought in
because we love ourselves and our friends and chosen family
who know the angry police raids
and the gunfire shots
staining our blood in pride month
it used to be believed that blood was blue in your body
and red outside
funny how that mixes and creates purple
when it stains the dance floor
but that isn’t true
blood remains red no matter where it is
every rainbow begins with red
because our rebellion originated with our sorrows
and how we loved something different
funny how
every fight for justice is always started by injustices
it’s almost as if
we just wanna have human rights
every fight
in its time
is seen as unreasonable
but yet generations later they pretend they were with you all along

he is beautiful like a rainbow
and my love is not easy to find
it isn’t easy to find the right one
but here i have found him
in a mess of everything else

he is beautiful like a rainbow
a man who wasn’t your pride parade gimmick
instead he is another man i never knew i’d know
stronger than the stuff of fairytales
because fact is stranger than fiction
and reality is stranger than fantasy

he is beautiful like a rainbow
the man who i can’t express enough about having found,
a cutesy antique found on the shelf
my love cannot be found in the same space as your’s
it is usually found hidden away in the dressing drawer or cupboard so no one will see
but i would like to use the space you’ve always taken away from me
you give me an inch and claim that’s enough
but you’ve always had the bigger and upper hand
always preferred more
if i have to see another forced unnecessary no chemistry hetero story again
i think i will puke
because you think we see ourselves everywhere
but just for once can at least we be everywhere
because you’ve had a lifetime of everywhere
but we’ve had a lifetime of hidden

he is beautiful like a rainbow
my love is more than just your stereotyped view of grindr profiles and a different home,
my love is men who are gentle and soft
and don’t find straight people romanticization of abuse funny
my love is the man who majors in literature and wants to travel the world in disney parks
and always has a kind ear
and holds me into a safety found nowhere else
my love is beautiful like a rainbow
he isn’t made for your consumption

he is beautiful like a rainbow
a quiet walk in a forest that doesn’t end
winter leaves rot and a world grows from it
he is beautiful like a rainbow
the man i never thought i’d know
who measures his money in how many bags of dollar-store candy can one buy
who tells me not to buy a thirty-dollar crate of gushers off of amazon
because then i’d be called the gushers guy
for the rest of my life

he is beautiful like a rainbow
and now i finally do understand
the songs and stories
i wish i could find myself in the songs and stories
i finally do understand
a thing as simple as the small sketchbook covered in drawings of rainbows and cats
given for christmas
i finally do understand

why all the hardship is so much more worth it
i wish i didn’t have to go through it though but
i finally do understand
he is beautiful like a rainbow
and now i finally do understand.