Recently I’ve covered a few stories on my radio show about students in middle and high schools who are being subjected to what can only be called the “gay agenda”. One of these stories made national news because of the egregiousness of it. (https://www.foxnews.com/media/daughter-meeting-queer-transgender-identity-art-club).

I advertise my radio show with these stories on Facebook and Instagram, and my fourteen-year-old daughter asked me to stop sharing on Instagram because her friends follow me and think I’m a “weirdo” for spending so much time on the topic. Well, it is Pride month, so it’s kind of hard to avoid. But also, her friends can stop following me if I’m so “cringey,” another epithet I often hear from my teenager. (My offensive behavior hasn’t stopped any of the teenagers from accepting rides from me, though.)

This, and the many posts I see on Facebook got me to thinking about the whole topic of Pride. One could be forgiven for thinking that there are only two stances when it comes to the LGBTQ community: You’re either a full-throated supporter that waves the gay flag (whichever one is currently in style), or you’re a bigoted hater. Case in point, I recently saw a meme on a friend’s page that said “Be careful who you hate. It may be someone you love,” with the rainbow colors on it. The implication being that if you don’t agree with the Pride agenda, or even “love” the lifestyle of a gay friend, you must hate that person. The assumption is that you can’t not love what someone is doing, but still love the person. That’s an incorrect (and rather insulting) stance. We all have gay friends and/or family members-we may not love their lifestyle, but the vast majority of us still love them.

(The left loves to shout “hater” to anyone that doesn’t appear to jump on their bandwagon instead of engaging in debate about why you could think that behavior is wrong and harmful to society, and still love the person engaging in it. I guess that debate is too rigorous for them. It’s easier to just shame you by calling you a hater, than to admit that you might have a point.)

My supposition is that views of the community are not binary. In fact, you might say that there is a whole rainbow of opinions. First of all, it’s a misnomer to even call folks who identify as gay, transgender, etc., a community. They are not more monolithic than any other collection of people. For example, you can’t assume that all black people share the same culture, views of the world, political identity, etc. Not all LGBTQ individuals even feel like they are part of the “community.” For example, many who identify as gay don’t want to be lumped together with transgender individuals.

Views of the “community” can range anywhere from rabid support of the Pride agenda to outright hatred of all gay people. (Though I don’t know anyone in the latter category, and believe that that view is a very tiny minority of the population.) I did a podcast last year with a few members of my church who identify as having same-sex attraction, but don’t embrace the “community” because they are striving to live the gospel as they know it, and don’t currently act on their attraction. They actually expressed disdain for the Pride movement. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k34UblGCRIA&t=125s&ab_channel=AnnetteTalks )

Then there are individuals who DO identify as gay, bi, transgender, etc., that ALSO don’t embrace the Pride movement, and resent the politicization of their sexuality or gender identity, and virtue signaling of all of the woke corporations. They would like to be left alone to just live their lives and aren’t interested in pushing an agenda.

There are also LGBTQ individuals that are very much behind the Pride movement, but don’t think it belongs in elementary or middle schools. They recognize that sexuality is not an appropriate topic for kids, and discussions about it should be left to families.

Then, of course, there are those who are full-throated in their support of the Pride movement, DO want to “educate” kids in classroom settings, push the agenda in entertainment (see Disney), think drag queens should read books in libraries to kids, etc., etc. There are also some people who believe in some of the things I just mentioned, but not others.

I could go on and on, because views both inside and outside of the “community” are not binary, and there are as many views as there are colors of the rainbow. Actually, there are several more, as a person can actually hold a very nuanced view of this topic, just as they have of many, many other topics.