No “Happy” in Pride for 2025 By Micaela Kaibni Raen

We are Queer and Trans Palestinians, whether living in Palestine or living in exile, our love transcends empire. Despite our cultural erasure, Queer and Trans Palestinians have always created, shared, and celebrated Tatreez, Indigenous Palestinian embroidery. Tatreez is our sacred hoop of continuance, resistance, and connection. As the culture of Tatreez evolves within Palestinian communities so does its inclusivity of diverse genders and sexualities.

Our grandmothers' tears of Tatreez live on through us. Her tightly sewn stitches hold hope, resistance, and sumud...our cultural inheritance. We are more than fierce grief...we are ancestral indigeneities in human form dreamed into being by our ancestors. We were formed by dreams, sand and stardust but we are shaped by love. We are Palestine. With Palestine, and so much of the world, facing genocides and health catastrophes, it is a crucial time for all of us to continue building our community movements…demanding racial, gender,

and land justice. So, in 2025, I will not say "Happy Pride" but I will say...

Artwork Title: No Pride in Genocide (Queer Tatreez) Artwork created by Micaela Kaibni Raen.

I am my grandmother’s dream, and she is mine. We exist together through Tatreez sharing Indigenous geographies and cultural memory. As a Palestinian lesbian creator, I feel Tatreez holds a deep connectivity to ancestral Indigenous femininities. The act of Tatreez creation becomes a bridge into deep time where I sit with my grandmothers in our sacred Tatreez Circle and listen.

Micaela Kaibni Raen @queertatreez is a Palestinian American creator, cultural worker, mother, and global Queer/Trans rights activist. She is known for Queer Tatreez, a style of visual art and poetics inspired by Indigenous Palestinian Tatreez embroidery. Her work appears in Bint el Nas; Mizna; Qafiyah Review; Sinister Wisdom; Yellow Medicine Review; The Poetry of Arab Women; The Olive Tree; El Ghourabaa; Ask the Night for a Dream; and Heaven Looks Like Us.