I think much of the backlash is not against Pride itself, but rather to the commercialization of it. Its similar to people who bemoan the secularization of Christmas.
I think much of the backlash is not against Pride itself, but rather to the commercialization of it. Its similar to people who bemoan the secularization of Christmas.
In my zeal to jump into the conversation, I neglected to thank you for writing this article. It is very well-written, even-handed, and sober. I am sharing it with some of my conservative gay friends.
I so appreciate that, Milo. I think it's very important that as many members of the LGB community as possible understand the need to speak up. We need to let those outside our community know that we are not uniformly in agreement with the direction the movement is heading.
Perhaps somewhat, but the imposition of "queer" sensibility on Pride is also an issue. In queer sensibility, the main impetus is "├йpater les bourgeois" - shock or embarrass the middle-class. Every Pride festival is MORE MORE MORE - more shocking, more nudity, more in-your-face gay outrage. People are encouraged to bring children and then get this kind of offensive shit shoved down their throats. It's vile and disgusting.
It's not just about shock value. Queer is a totalitarian religious doctrine that claims a moral imperative to destroy all concepts of normal and all boundaries.
One of the strategies is to intensify the shock value until no one is capable of being shocked by anything. It's a desensitizing technique. Shock is a major mechanism for boundaries of all kinds.
I was at a small protest against transing bathrooms and locker rooms at a local high school ahead of a school board meeting on Monday night. There was a lone counter-protesterтАФa 17 year old boyтАФwho engaged me in a calm conversation. I explained to him that my position is that it is one thing for an individual to make their own gender identity more important than their biological sex, but there was no justification to create public policy that puts everyone in that position. He argued that identity is reality. I asked him if he remembered the case of Rachel Dolezal. While he did not remember the name, he remembered the controversy. I asked him, "what if I identified as white?" His response was, "you can be white if you want to be."
Milo, I think this argument needs to be made much more vigorously because it really tests the logic (or lack thereof) in gender theory.
If gender is a construct, then why isn't race? There are far more innate biological and genetic differences between males and females than there are between Black and White people.
The young man you engaged clearly has a dim recollection of Dolezal's experience. She wasn't allowed to identify as Black, so why in the world would you be allowed to identify as White? I would have pushed him to explain this double standard.
There is no "reality" to this viewpoint. There is nothing which can be called "truth". It's all intersectional victimhood. Your buddy there does not understand how much he is violating the Hierarchy of True Victimhood. If he had the temerity to make this statement in front of a group of black lesbians, he would be beaten to a pulp.
I totally agree with that. I have often criticized Pride events as being too much about sexuality, and not enough (hardly at all, actually) about the history and achievements of sexual minorities. Maybe decades of Black History Month have set the bar a bit high in my mind.
I think much of the backlash is not against Pride itself, but rather to the commercialization of it. Its similar to people who bemoan the secularization of Christmas.
Couldn't agree more, Milo -- hence my analogy to the holiday-drenched season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's become nauseating.
Hi Monica,
In my zeal to jump into the conversation, I neglected to thank you for writing this article. It is very well-written, even-handed, and sober. I am sharing it with some of my conservative gay friends.
I so appreciate that, Milo. I think it's very important that as many members of the LGB community as possible understand the need to speak up. We need to let those outside our community know that we are not uniformly in agreement with the direction the movement is heading.
Perhaps somewhat, but the imposition of "queer" sensibility on Pride is also an issue. In queer sensibility, the main impetus is "├йpater les bourgeois" - shock or embarrass the middle-class. Every Pride festival is MORE MORE MORE - more shocking, more nudity, more in-your-face gay outrage. People are encouraged to bring children and then get this kind of offensive shit shoved down their throats. It's vile and disgusting.
It's not just about shock value. Queer is a totalitarian religious doctrine that claims a moral imperative to destroy all concepts of normal and all boundaries.
One of the strategies is to intensify the shock value until no one is capable of being shocked by anything. It's a desensitizing technique. Shock is a major mechanism for boundaries of all kinds.
The technique is working on far too many people.
I was at a small protest against transing bathrooms and locker rooms at a local high school ahead of a school board meeting on Monday night. There was a lone counter-protesterтАФa 17 year old boyтАФwho engaged me in a calm conversation. I explained to him that my position is that it is one thing for an individual to make their own gender identity more important than their biological sex, but there was no justification to create public policy that puts everyone in that position. He argued that identity is reality. I asked him if he remembered the case of Rachel Dolezal. While he did not remember the name, he remembered the controversy. I asked him, "what if I identified as white?" His response was, "you can be white if you want to be."
Milo, I think this argument needs to be made much more vigorously because it really tests the logic (or lack thereof) in gender theory.
If gender is a construct, then why isn't race? There are far more innate biological and genetic differences between males and females than there are between Black and White people.
The young man you engaged clearly has a dim recollection of Dolezal's experience. She wasn't allowed to identify as Black, so why in the world would you be allowed to identify as White? I would have pushed him to explain this double standard.
There is no "reality" to this viewpoint. There is nothing which can be called "truth". It's all intersectional victimhood. Your buddy there does not understand how much he is violating the Hierarchy of True Victimhood. If he had the temerity to make this statement in front of a group of black lesbians, he would be beaten to a pulp.
The long-term objective is normalization of pedophilia, or at least lowering the age of consent. I agree with you.
I totally agree with that. I have often criticized Pride events as being too much about sexuality, and not enough (hardly at all, actually) about the history and achievements of sexual minorities. Maybe decades of Black History Month have set the bar a bit high in my mind.