We Carry it Forward
- Aug 2
- 5 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
June reminded us who we are. July reminded us to rest. This month, we carry both forward. Because we are more than one thing.
If these times have taught us anything, it's that we can hold more than one truth at once: anger and hope. Exhaustion and perseverance. Grief and joy. Tears and laughter. The messy, beautiful reality of being human.
As a board, we knew we were going to pour our whole hearts into our Pride celebrations. We also knew we were going to give ourselves permission to pause afterward, to rest, regroup, and make space for what comes next.
And even during the quieter "lazy" days of July, the work continued.
Our hearts have been so full seeing the messages from community members sharing feedback, asking how they can get involved, volunteering their time, and supporting us financially. Every conversation, every hour volunteered, and every donation reminds us why we do this: to build something that gives back to our community and creates more spaces where people feel seen, supported, and safe.
And there is so much ahead.
We don't have all the answers for navigating these complicated times. But we are committed to staying in it.
We are small and mighty, and we cannot do this alone. When we say we need our volunteers, donors, partners, and community members, it isn't just something we say. It is a fact. Please read to the end of the newsletter for one of our favorite community donor partners, Stimpunks.
So please keep sharing your ideas, your feedback, and your hopes for what comes next. We may not be able to make every idea happen, but we want you to know we are always listening. We are always learning. We are always working to better understand what our community and the greater Hill Country LGBTQ+ community need.
Because this is what community looks like: leaning in, growing together, and continuing forward.
Onward. Together 🌈
Mark Your Calendars
Saturday, August 15 · Highland Lounge 21+
A campy, glittery mashup of drag and wrestling.
Y'ALL SOLD OUR VIP SEATS OUT!
We can't wait to see you there!
Pour Decisions: Wine Flights & Karaoke
Pride of Dripping Springs is taking over Feral housewife wine for a night of good wine and questionable singing. No talent required - just a commitment to having fun together. Your ticket gets you a wine flight and a hot mic.
YA Book Club
Starts Sep 15, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Facilitated by Erin Flynn, principal and founder of the Hedge School (an inclusive, secular homeschool cooperative re-imagining education and instilling a lifelong love of learning), this YA book club is less classroom and more a group of teens hanging out and talking about books they actually want to read.
📚 Speaking of reading...
Pride Summer Reading Challenge Ends Sep 1
All summer long, Pride of Dripping Springs has invited teens and adults to read, share, and celebrate LGBTQ+ voices through a good old fashioned Reading Bingo and chances to win gift cards for amazing local community-friendly pizza. We also shared some of our favorites here:
https://www.prideofdrippingsprings.org/pods-reads
But Wait, There's More!!!
We love to stand with other Hill Country organizations out here doing great work for the Queer community. Austin Pride is this month!
Austin Pride 2026
Viva la Resistencia.
Austin Pride 2026 sets the tone with a theme rooted in strength, presence, and momentum. This is about showing up. Staying visible. Refusing to disappear.
Resistir. Insistir. Vivir.
Lots of events leading up to Austin Pride August 22: https://austinpride.org/pride-events/
Community Spotlight: Stimpunks
We recently sat down with Ryan Boren of Stimpunks to better understand this great organization. You’re going to want to read this! Thank you, Ryan for sharing your wisdom, your heart and your time with us!
PODS: How were you called to create and sustain this space?
Ryan: We rolled our own education because public systems failed us and built our own care infrastructure because the institutions weren't built for us — and once you've been through that, you can't leave the next person to face it alone. That's our moment of obligation: not guilt, not charity, but the recognition that we know what's needed because we know it from the inside. As the Combahee River Collective put it, the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us.
PODS: How do you approach expressing yourself to the world?
Ryan: We default to open. Nearly 1,400 pages on stimpunks.org are living documents in various stages of development — we publish the drafts, the revisions, and the blameless postmortems, because the quality of the work depends on how many people can see it and talk back. Learning is a series of iterations, and iterating in the open keeps our thinking checkable instead of authoritative.
PODS: what do you want people to know about navigating the intersectionality of disability and queer spaces?
Ryan: Queer and Neurodivergent liberation are entwined — ABA and conversion therapy grew from the same behaviorist root, and the impulse to stop an Autistic person from flapping their hands is the impulse to stop someone from living their gender out loud. So don't ask people to check an identity at the door, and don't make them rank which part of themselves is most at risk; our dual identities aren't competing, they're complementary. Our covenant boils the practice down to one line: "Tell your truth in such a way that you're allowing others to tell their truths, too."
PODS: Anything you want to promote right now?
Ryan: ★ stuff is our call to inclusion safety — the kind that's owed, not earned. Every atom heavier than hydrogen was forged inside a star: the calcium in your bones, the iron in your blood. You were star stuff long before anyone asked you to earn your place, so belonging is constitutive, not conferred.
Cavendish Cards let you point instead of explain. Lay down cave, buzzy, headphones and you've handed someone a design brief instead of a behavior report — no reading required, no scoring, no winners. It's CC0 and community-authored, for anyone communicating a need or designing a space people can actually be in.
PODS: What media is getting you excited right now?
Ryan: "Why Don't Fascists Eat Vegetables" is a nearly six-hour video essay from The Leftist Cooks, and it earns every minute — it traces how a plate of food gets recruited into an ideology, from carnivore-diet influencers to the meat-industry lobbying machine to the quiet mutual-aid networks trying to feed everyone anyway. The section that landed hardest for us: when medicine disbelieves you, the grifters are waiting with a total explanation and a total cure. We watched the whole thing together at a Campfire — bodymind breaks every thirty minutes, drop in and out at will, nobody has to watch it all to belong.
PODS: Thank you again Ryan for your time and all you do!
Want to learn more about becoming a Volunteer or Friend with Pride?
With Pride & Gratitude,
Pride of Dripping Springs 🌈
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