I’m skipping Pride month

The pendulum has swung too far

At a recent dinner with good friends, I surprised myself by declaring that I’d had my fill of Pride events this year, even though I’d attended none.

I explained myself poorly because I really hadn’t clarified my problem with it at the time.

And I didn’t like the feeling of sounding anti-gay, because it’s incorrect. I know it sounds trite to say “I have gay friends who I love,” yet it’s true. Some are like family, and I’d fight for their rights to equality and respect. But when it comes to the activists’ agenda for the movement, I’ve been sliding down a slope of discontent.

I won’t deny past injustices nor speak for every neighborhood in America, but gays have clearly won the culture war. The acceptance of gay people has been among the biggest culture shifts in my lifetime.

My small town of Sausalito (population 7,000) celebrates Pride month with vigor. This year it’s sponsoring a Pride kickoff event, ongoing art exhibits, a literature reading, an outdoor happy hour, a themed jazz concert, and a drag show. It anointed Pride ambassadors and painted new, permanent, rainbow crosswalks downtown.

If you’re full of pride because of your sexuality or where your great-grandparents were born, that’s fine. This is America. And if politicians and corporations fall all over themselves for your vote or your money, more power to you. 

Overexuberance notwithstanding, my problem with Pride this year is because the movement has overreached.

Elements of it have taken an overbearing approach towards children, crossing lines of parental discretion and age-appropriateness. The transgender movement, in particular, is trampling too many people.

What started as a pursuit of equality has mutated into something causing genuine harm. Under the euphemism of "transgender care," irreversible surgeries and potent drugs are given to children and adults alike, in what has turned into a mass medical experiment. Female athletes are being sidelined. The English language is being twisted and beaten into submission.

Kids who haven’t outgrown their action figures are being targeted by LGBTQ “acceptance” training, transgender policies, drag queens, and, of course, a media singing the praises of it all. 

Utter a word of dissent, and you're seared with the anti-gay brand. Advocate for keeping adult content out of elementary school classrooms, and you're painted a homophobe, with the media wailing and officials chanting like mindless puppets.

The pendulum has gone too far.

The gay community will either reign in the overreach of their movement or risk losing some hard-earned support. They’ve done it before, disassociating themselves from pro-pedophilia groups that once literally marched in the streets with them.

I'm a live-and-let-live kind of guy, and I applaud anyone who lives life on their own terms. But when we start coercing those who can’t fully comprehend these choices, like children, or infringing on the rights of others, like female athletes, I find myself taking a step back.

I’ll always raise a toast to equality and acceptance, but let's make sure we're not letting fairness and common sense drown at the bottom of the glass.

Add this one to the list of racists …