Meet the bigots who are trying to ruin Pride Month
People around the world celebrate Pride Month in June because of the Stonewall riots that took place 50 years ago, when members of New York City’s LGBTQ community resisted police raids aimed at suppressing their sexual orientation. Pride Month is both a celebration of progress and a sobering reminder that the struggle for LGBTQ equality continues to this day.
A far-right group called Super Happy Fun America wants us to ignore history believe that heterosexuals are the ones being marginalized. Instead of appreciating that Pride Month is the result of years of persecution, they view it as some sort of elevation of LGBTQ rights and a threat to straight people everywhere. They act slighted and aim to portray heterosexuals as the true societal victims who are under attack.
The group, whose name appears to poke fun at the word “gay,” this week got approval to host a “Straight Pride Parade” in Boston in late August along the same route as the Pride Parade earlier this month. Super Happy Fun America has tapped Milo Yiannopoulos to be the parade’s Grand Marshal, a man who “has spent his entire career advocating for the rights of America’s most brutally repressed identity – straight people,” according to the group’s website.
Every person is a unique individual who should feel pride for who they are, no matter what their sexual orientation. But such pride has not come easily to Americans who have identified as anything other than heterosexual. Taking a month out of the year to shine the spotlight on LGBTQ pride is a healthy and important step forward, offering positivity and inclusion. People who are straight have no reason to feel threatened by a Pride Parade in their city. Instead of mocking the LGBTQ community while pushing for a Straight Pride Parade, this group should be “super happy” that there is no need for one.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month