Anyone else sick of the Pride flag? It’s everywhere. It flutters from virtually every building in central London. Town halls across the country are emblazoned with it. Every bank, corporation, supermarket and celebrity Twitter account has had a rainbow makeover. There are Pride-themed sandwiches, beer bottles, cakes. Jon Snow has even worn Pride-coloured socks. You could be forgiven for thinking we’ve been conquered by a foreign army that has proceeded to stick its flag in every nook, cranny and orifice of the nation.
Of course in retrospect, the author Brendan O'Neill was because a little bit optimistic when he wrote this:
[T]he reason it’s a whole month is because we are at the fiftieth anniversary of the New York Stonewall Riots of 1969, when gays, lesbians, drag queens and others fought back against cops who kept barging into gay bars and harassing the clientele.
Hate to tell you, but it will be a month forever now. And do you really want to be the person who says "Hey, it's July 1. Time to take down the rainbow flag," to your boss at work?
It’s no longer enough to leave homosexuals alone to live however they choose and to inflict on them no persecution or discrimination or any ill-will whatsoever on the basis of their sexuality, which is absolutely the right thing for a civilised liberal society to do. No, now you have to validate their identity and cheer their life choices. You must doff your cap to that omnipresent bloody rainbow. Today it isn’t homosexuals who are persecuted; it’s their critics, whether it’s Ann Widdecombe or Tim Farron, with their well-known aversion to gay romping, or those Muslim parents in Birmingham who don’t think six-year-old Muhammad needs to know that some men sleep with men.
...
But there are many reasons why it might be a good idea to dissent from the orgy of Pride conformism and to refuse to bow and scrape before the rainbow flag. That flag sums up everything that is wrong with our era. Its message is that you should be proud of yourself simply for what you are — for having been ‘born this way’, as Lady Gaga puts it — rather than for what you have achieved.
As a symbol, it’s a celebration of the self, of an accident of birth, of something as mundane as who one sleeps with. It’s an invitation to narcissism and, as such, it further corrodes the social solidarity and sense of community so many of us long for today. Pride, the institution, is anti-social.
Well, yeah. These are strong words from a guy who earlier states "The Stonewall uprising was a very positive movement. It gave rise to struggles for gay liberation and equality. The gains made by gay-rights warriors over the past five decades have been amazing and important." He is far more accepting of homosexuality than someone like me, and I think we should realize that there are plenty of people out there who feel the same way who are not part of the so-called "religious right".
You look at these new race-baiters and nuts in BLM and it is easy to see why they are continuing to claim that they are oppressed, even while purchasing huge mansions. I mean, it is totally working for the gays. They are no longer persecuted at all, yet straight people are behaving like they are, and are trampling over each other to raise actual flags to celebrate their lifestyle. It is a triumph of marketing over facts.
So happy there are only two damn days left in "Pride Month".
