Happy Pride Month 2025

Our Letter for Pride 2025

Happy Pride Month 2025! This is the third year of Pride for Love Friends, which some of you might know that we’ve been covering LGBTQ+ topics ever since the beginning of Love Friends.

In this letter, We’d like to cover few things that are relevant to what’s going on with Love Friends and Pride, as well as LGBTQ+ matters around the world as of late.

A little recap of Love Friends and Pride, by Marisa Amberson

The idea about Love Friends came about around Valentine’s of 2022. That’s where the “Love” part originated from. Love, of course, is diverse. We can love people in many ways, even platonically, which is where the “Friends” part comes in. Through the story of Love Friends, we can see how this group of friends are bonded together with the power of love despite their differences.

Of course, many kinds of love have been historically “forbidden.” Mostly love between people of the same gender. That’s why I feel like LGBTQ+ topics are what we need to cover when “Love” is what Love Friends are all about. No matter if you love someone of the same gender or many, or you don’t feel any sexual or romantic attraction at all, we wanted to convey that via our stories through different characters.

And “Love”, for us, also means love people for who they are. No matter who they were born as, no matter what’s their identity. Unfortunately, being transgender has also been historically forbidden. That’s why we wanted people to know that there are diverse sexualities and gender identities. To know that they’re normal and okay. And for me, a big part of realizing who I am, is seeing that I can be those things. I hope Love Friends will do that to other people as well.

Aside from our comics and stories, we also got LGBTQ+ merchandise such as our Pride T-Shirt, Sticker Sheet, Posters, Postcards, and more. It’s a way for people to show appreciation and support for us, and for people to proudly display who they are via our products. We also post special artworks on LGBTQ+ holidays such as Asexual Pride Day, Transgender Day of Visibility, International Lesbian Day, etc.

We are more than proud to cover LGBTQ+ topics through our stories. And we will continue to as long as we still exist.

What’s next for Love Friends and Pride?

We have a very good news! Later this June, we will be a part of a group exhibition for this pride month with other LGBTQ+ artists! The details are not finalized yet and Love Friends’ artworks are still not finished as of the writing of this post, so be sure to tollow us on platforms listed on the bottom footer of the page for updates!

We also plan to release more LGBTQ+ themed merch in the future (sticker packs, maybe more posters?) Stay tuned for more details on all of our platforms!

Thailand LGBTQ+ rights news

As you might know, Love Friends was founded in Bangkok, Thailand. And earlier this year (January 23), Marriage Equality Law came into effect, allowing same-sex couples equal rights to marriage.

For me, this is even more personal since my aunts who were life-long lovers, ever since my mom was born according to her, got married shortly after.

I think it’s really nice to see that a lot of people who got married after the law took effect were life-long couples who have been in love with each other for a very long time, and they finally don’t have to wait for any longer, even if the wait was unnecessary too long.

Of course, they can love each other without getting married. (why else do you think they’ve been together way before the law was passed?) But marriage is also about benefits and other rights that heterosexual couples have.

But we still got a long road ahead. Such as including transgender healthcare in our universal healthcare system, and gender recognition for transgender individuals.

I have recently changed my legal name (finally), but throughout the process I keep being reminded how I still am a Mister and legally male. I keep fearing people will judge me when they see my full legal name with “Mr.” title in front of them. It reminded me how far we still have to go for LGBTQ+ people in Thailand.

The worrying state of worldwide LGBTQ+ rights

Looking further out from Thailand, we’ve been seeing increasingly negative views towards LGBTQ+ people in a lot of countries, many were even considered to be safe for LGBTQ+ people in the past.

We see more horrific remarks online on news of anything having to do with LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender people. In the US after re-election by right wing groups with people such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and in the UK with the TERF (Trans-exclusive Radical Feminism) movement with people such as JK Rowling.

We need to stick together now more than ever. We shouldn’t be spending our time attacking and being petty to each other over every little thing. These people are villainizing us every day because we’re an easy target for them. We need to support each other as well as other marginalized groups of people. (Who do you think they’re gonna use as scapegoats next?)

Closing notes

Things may be looking depressing, but if we stick together, we can make it through. Love Friends is proud to be a part of that effort, and like we’ve said earlier, we will always continue to as long as we still exist. Thank you all for reading our letter for Pride this year!

Marisa Amberson
Creator of Love Friends