With Pride Month kicking off next weekend, we can look forward to a cavalcade of media reports about parades, commemorations and similar events. Given these expectations, a little context is in order.
According to United States Courts, the official website of the national federal court system, Pride Month is one of six, month-long observances in the U.S., referred to as Heritage Months. There are heritage months for people whose familial ancestry is of Asian and Pacific, American Indian, and Latino and Hispanic origin. There are also months set aside for examining the history of women and blacks in America.
These observances highlight the accomplishments of people of particular ethnic and racial backgrounds, or their sex. While much of the American story involves men who happened to have been white, it’s wrong to ignore the myriad contributions of others. Our history is replete with achievements by (among very many others) Amelia Earhart and Admiral Grace Hopper; the Tuskegee Airmen and George Washington Carver; Roberto Clemente and Dr. Ellen Ochoa; Daniel Inouye and Jenson Huang; Powhatan and Sacagawea; and countless others who made their mark on America.
Then there’s Pride Month. Rather than emphasizing the contributions of groups with defined and immutable characteristics, this observance is predicated on private behavior and opinion. Nobody gets to choose what race or ethnicity or sex they are but we do choose our personal behavior, which is foundational to Pride Month.
Regardless of which letter of the alphabet one applies to one’s self, it connotes a particular behavior. One cannot proclaim L, G, B, T, or Q status without acknowledging the behavior that defines it. Some argue that homosexuality is an innate characteristic but science has not proved or disproved that theory, and transgender ideology claims that variations of sexuality are fluid, so the jury is out on that matter.
Much of Pride Month involves how and with whomone chooses to copulate. Lesbians, gay men and bi-sexual people engage in specific sexual behavior which is a prerequisite for inclusion in one of these subsets of the population. With transgender ideology, a person’s behavior of pretending to be something they’re not is combined with their individual feelings. This is not a judgment, merely a factual observation.
Dedicating a month to the personal conduct of a small percentage of people diminishes the perseverance and achievements of Americans who contributed marvelously to history and helped make America great. Observances focused on women, blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Indians celebrate accomplishments, not sexual preferences.
But Pride Month is different. Consider this June 1, 2023 compendium of “25 LGBTQ+ people who changed the course of history.” It’s grossly irresponsible to promote speculation that Leonardo Da Vinci, Julius Cesar, Alexander the Great, Isaac Newton and others mighthave had sex with other men. Even if any of this were accurate, there is no achievement in such behavior. Suggestions about their sex lives, while giving short shrift to their accomplishments, is insulting to them.
Poet Emily Dickinson and painter Frida Kahlo might have had sex with other women but who cares? Conversely, there may be some value in teaching about artist Lili Elbe, thought to be among the first men to undergo elective surgery in pursuit of altering his body. Complications from this ‘gender affirming’ mutilation in the early 1930s killed him.
Andy Warhol and Gore Vidal were tremendous artists with lasting impact, and they happened to be gay. Okay, fine. Hopefully, people will be more interested in their contributions to art and literature than their sex partners. Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing, the British author/playwright and mathematician/code breaker respectively, were criminally prosecuted for their homosexuality. But putting victimhood aside, their contributions to the literary arts and defeating Nazi Germany are monumental. It’s also good that Great Britain stopped prosecuting men for being gay nearly 60 years ago.
It can be argued that providing role models for young people confused about their sexuality might be helpful. But perhaps it would be more effective in a personalized manner rather than subjecting hundreds of millions of Americans, with no need of inspiration to feel good about their sexuality, to a month of gratuitous and, frankly, boring parades and presentations on how blues singer Billie Holiday might have had sex with women in prison while separated from one of her three husbands.
Of course gay men and other non-heterosexuals have made their mark on America. I’m reminded of one of my favorite composers, Aaron Copeland. Whether he was gay is inconsequential compared to his compositions like Appalachian Spring, Fanfare For the Common Man, and so many other soaring masterpieces. Instead, Pride Month is better recognized for bizarre costumery and public displays of lewd behavior, cheapening achievement and offering praise not for what we accomplish but for sexual mannerisms. It’s become a 30-day insult to American excellence, gay and straight.