Reclaim Your Peace and Joy with Color Me Queer

Coloring has this powerful ability to bring a sort of easy happiness to its artist. It demands only stressless concentration, making coloring both tranquil and simple yet, somehow, never monotonous. As pencil, marker, or crayon fills up empty space with bright, vibrant bursts of color, blank paper is transformed into the types of rainbows many of us haven’t seen since our childhood. Coloring offers a deeply nostalgic and welcome escape from the growing pains of adolescence and the headaches of adulthood. It’s for all of these simple pleasures that Pride and Joy Publishing is proud to release its first-ever adult meditative coloring book: “Color Me Queer.” 

Featuring thirty-three unique mid-century modern designs, “Color Me Queer” invites us to relax and reflect on the strength and solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community through quotes by Marsha P. Johnson, Harvey Milk, Audre Lorde, and many more timeless Queer icons. It’s the coloring book that will bring simultaneous joy and empowerment to queer folks and our allies of all ages all summer long. 

The Foundation’s Executive Director, Elena Joy Thurston, a Mormon woman who came out on the TEDx stage, knows how hard it can be to feel the peace and happiness that come from our own authenticity. It’s her hope that “this book will provide a way to experience that joy and usher in a few moments of tranquility.” It’s an added bonus that “Color Me Queer” also supports an incredible cause; all of its proceeds bolster the Pride and Joy Foundation’s mission of reducing the rate of suicide and homelessness in the LGBTQ+ community through education and empowerment.

And this book couldn’t come at a better time.

As June fades into July, so too will dominant corporate support fizzle out. Rainbow flags will come down from Starbucks and JC Penney awnings, and “Pride” apparel will be moved from display windows and marked down as 30% off clearance items. Predictably, many companies will stop flying their support so publicly, and when that happens, not only is it harder for the Queer community to feel safe and seen, but it’s also a reminder of the selectivity and (fleeting) commercialization of support for LGBTQ+ individuals. 

"Color Me Queer" is the perfect “thinking of you” gift for your LGBTQ+ loved ones and/or for yourself. It’s a present that shows support for your family’s and friends’ mental and emotional wellbeing while actively advancing the Pride and Joy Foundation’s mission of sustainably supporting the most vulnerable in the Queer community. It’s a relaxing reminder to the people you care about that even as commercialized allyship ends with pride month, yours doesn’t.

Purchase your copy at www.ColorMeQueerBook.com

Written by Summer 2022 intern, Ryan Park, Barnard College