June is pride month

Will it become pride year or just disappear?

I know I am getting old when I hear the word “pride” and think it means “a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired” or perhaps a group of lions. I can even remember when “gay” meant lighthearted or carefree. And I can clearly remember when LGBTQ were just consonants.

Now our society has a “pride” month, a “pride parade” and a “pride” flag comprising a rainbow. What became of the English language when words that had regular usage and meaning became icons of protest redefined to mean something never intended?

Now when I hear of “pride” I think of a group of people who prefer to define themselves by the people they love or the way they enjoy sex and no longer value privacy. I think of a pride parade as an advertising effort where people who prefer sex with others of the same sex (a difficult choice now that Liberals say there are an infinite number of genders, none of which have anything to do with chromosones or the ability to become pregant or birth a child) can publicly flaunt their preferences hoping to attract new partners. I guess Grindr isn’t enough and the “gay bar” scene too tawdry for others. Men who participate in pride parades seem to be saying “I like fellatio and anal intercourse” and women seem to be saying “I like cunnilingus”. Why do I need to know that? And how is it an “feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements”?

I think Canada should use the parade season in June to celebrate veterans who gave their lives to keep our country free; police officers and firemen who died protecting others; businessmen who created great companies that provided employment to thousands of people; scientists who developed cures for widespread diseases like diabetes or polio; and, inventors who developed the technology that makes smartphones and the internet possible. These are achievements worthy of a parade. Liking fellatio is not.

Instead, we have turned the month of June into a celebration of the sexual preferences of a small portion of our population and have no similar celebration for those of us who live, love and raise families in the old fashioned way - a husband and a wife and their children. And, we now have teachers in our schools that think it is important to discuss sex and gender with toddlers. Pardon me. I still believe that sort of discussion is best kept at home until children reach the age of puberty, and then handled gently but authoritatively without any effort to promote a particular choice of partners or sexual preferences. Our kids benefit from education, not indoctrination.

I live on a street where a few of my neighbours are homosexual. They are terrific neighbours, great people and welcome members of our community. But I don’t need information on who they love or how they love.

I am so old-fashioned I still think of that sort of information as “private” and protected in Canada by our Privacy Act. That legislation gives Canadians the right to keep personal information private but does not impose any obligation to keep such information private. It would be more useful as the law of our country if it did. There are some parts of the private lives of other I would prefer not to know about and certainly not paraded like they are some form of entertainment or somehow better than the ordinary, even boring lives of heterosexuals who just want to be left alone by activists of any sort.

There is no doubt that people who preferred sex with others of the same sex suffered years of prejudice and even persecution in Canada’s history. That ended at least 50 years ago when then Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau famously stated that the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation. Nor does any mayor, premier or member of any legislative body in any Province or federally, but I see them all raising rainbow flags and marching in pride parades. Isn’t it time society stopped singling out any group based on sexual orientation? That is what real acceptance looks like, and prejudice is prejudice, whether positive or negative, and perpetuates rather than ameliorates division.