As we approach the end of June, which unfortunately has become known as "Pride Month" in much of the world, footage is beginning to emerge from so-called "Pride Parades."
In New York City, crowds of nude adults rode bicycles down the main thoroughfare. The exact same thing happened in Seattle. In Toronto, groups of naked men and women similarly exposed themselves as they walked down one of the main streets. In attendance at all of these events were many children, whose clueless parents decided to bring them to an event celebrating the sexual proclivities of often profoundly-confused adults.
Some of the scenes that unfolded were so obscene that one can't even describe them in much detail. In Minneapolis a man in his underwear danced perversely right in front of a group of children, while onlookers cheered. One bit of footage that emerged from one "Pride" celebration in San Francisco, billed as 'family friendly,' showed two men pantomiming perverse sexual practices, as their truck rolled slowly down the street before gazing hordes of adults and children.
So desensitized has our culture become, that many people are no longer shocked by scenes like these. Some, in fact, overtly defend the importance of children witnessing nudity and sexuality at such events. And despite laws that almost universally prohibit public nudity, police refuse to lay any changes at these events. Instead, the LGBT movement's pleading appeals to "tolerance" and "acceptance" seem to magically suspend laws designed to protect the innocence of children and general public decency that would apply at just about any other time and place.
One journalist recently called the Toronto police to find out whether public nudity is illegal. When the officer told him "yes," the journalist pointed out that he saw naked people at the "Pride" parade. The officer replied, "it happens every year." The journalist then asked, "So it's okay when it's at the "Pride" parade, but not in other situations, obviously?" "Yeah, exactly," the officer responded.
In some particularly notorious jurisdictions, such as San Francisco, certain "Pride" events are known to feature actual (not simulated) public sex acts, to which the police simply turn a blind eye, as the sidewalks and streets are turned into a public brothel. After all, who are we to judge those who have found protection under the umbrella of the ever-expanding acronym (2SLGBTQIA+, etc.) of sexual 'minorities' who can lay claim to be 'persecuted' for their sexual preferences?
One video that has received a lot of negative attention in recent days, however, shows a crowd of marchers in the New York City "Drag March." In the video, some of the participants can be heard chanting, "we're here, we're queer, we're coming for your children."
The video comes at the same time as many conservative and pro-family activists have been accusing extremist LGBT activists of "grooming" children into sexually perverse lifestyles. While media have consistently called these claims a "conspiracy theory," the chant does little to assuage the concerns of parents who have woken up to the fact that LGBT activists seem hell-bent on introducing sexually explicit materials widely into school curricula, children's entertainment and (as "Pride" celebrations show) on the streets of our cities.
In response to the backlash from the troubling chant at the New York parade, NBC News published a far-from-reassuring article. As the LGBT activists interviewed by NBC News explained, people shouldn't be concerned about the chant, not because participants didn't in fact chant the troubling words, but rather because the chant is a common chant by participants in Pride festivals.
As NBC reported: "The 'coming for your children' chant has been used for years at Pride events, according to longtime march attendees and gay rights activists, who said it's one of many provocative expressions used to regain control of slurs against LGBTQ people." One activist told the news agency, "It's all just words. It's all presented to fulfill their worst stereotypes of us." Another called the chant nothing more than a "bad joke."
And you know what? They're right. Two years ago, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus released a video that was evidently one such "bad joke." The video featured members of the choir singing a song that began, "You think that we'll corrupt your kids / If our agenda goes unchecked." The song continued, "you're correct." "We'll convert your children / Happens bit by bit / Quietly and subtlely / And you will barely notice it." Another section ran, "We're coming for them / We're coming for your children / We're coming for them."
Evidently the members of the choir thought that this was a hilarious "joke" about how the LGBT movement would "convert" children into "tolerant" people with a harmless taste for drag queens with access to "information." But for parents who have seen precisely what LGBT activists consider "harmless" entertainment or information the song was a punch in the gut.
The fact is, that many parents have every reason to believe that the LGBT movement is, indeed, "coming for" their children.
Consider, for instance, the parents of top female athletes, whose daughters have been devastated and had careers destroyed, and who are forced to have their modesty violated, because narcissistic males have been welcomed to compete against and change with them, all in the name of "equality" or "tolerance." Or the growing numbers of parents who are speaking out about how their previously healthy, well-adjusted child has turned into a child riven by anxiety, depression and gender confusion, after encountering one of these "harmless" transgender activists on TikTok or at school.
And what is worse, what people are finding is that LGBT activists are refusing to allow anyone a haven that is untouched by their relentless propaganda. Practically every single institution is increasingly being told that celebrating "Pride" or the LGBT agenda is no longer optional, but rather a bare minimum in order to be allowed to function. This includes even religious institutions whose teachings are explicitly opposed to the doctrines of the LGBT movement.
This is the hard lesson that Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland is learning. Recently, Archbishop Sample temporarily shut down his diocese's Department of Catholic Schools. The decision comes in the wake of a growing feud between the diocese and certain parents, teachers, and administrators over gender ideology. While the diocese has said the shutdown is unrelated to the feud, it seems reasonable to suspect that there may be at least some connection.
As Douglas Markwell, the archdiocese's director of marketing and communications, told Catholic News Agency, the diocese is working to figure out "how to best integrate schools more fully into our mission." And certainly, the diocese has struggled to integrate certain schools into the Catholic Church's mission in the wake of the publication of a set of guidelines by Archbishop Sample about how Catholic schools should deal with gender ideology.
In those guidelines, published in January, the Archbishop had reasonably stated that, "Catholic institutions should not endorse gender identity theory nor enable any form of gender transition whether social or medical." The statement clarified that "names, pronouns, facilities use, attire, and sports participation should depend upon biological sex identity rather than self-perceived gender identity." In other words, Catholic schools should function in accordance with Catholic teaching on gender, which is the same way almost every school in the world had functioned up until a few years ago, when gender ideology exploded in popularity and power.
However, as Oregon Live reports, the Archbishop has received fierce pushback from some Catholic school administrators, teachers and parents. At one school three teachers refused to follow the guidelines and did not have their contracts renewed. The principals of two diocesan schools resigned, and some parents and students are organizing to protest the Archbishop's guidelines.
Unfortunately, the power of the LGBT movement in popular culture has become so powerful, and their propaganda so effective, that even religious institutions that should be free from their influence are finding it hard to keep the juggernaut at bay.
On the one hand, the Catholic Church is way ahead of the LGBT movement in urging, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that homosexual individuals, "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity." At the same time, however, the Church has had the foresight and wisdom to recognize that there are pernicious strains of thought that, while promoted in the name of love and tolerance, in fact do grave harm to individual human beings. These strains of thought deserve no protection.
One need look no further than the grotesque masquerades that appear on our streets in June to realize that there is much more to the LGBT movement than the slogans of "love" and "respect" might seem to suggest. Far from merely preaching love and respect, LGBT activists are concertedly promoting a certain understanding of the human person and human sexuality that turns out, upon inspection, to be profoundly degrading and harmful.
For those who have not completely lost their moral sense, the sight of grown adults parading their sexual proclivities in front of crowds of children is nothing short of horrifying. What does any of this have to do with living a decent, happy, meaningful life?
Every day, the fundamental beauty, richness, and humaneness of Catholic teaching on family, sexuality, and human dignity is becoming more and more apparent. Our children are not clamoring for more explicit sex-ed in the classroom, for more drag queens, for more gratuitous entertainment. They are looking for sources of meaning in their lives. They are looking for wisdom, for truths that call them to become the best versions of themselves.
Catholic teaching on sexuality and gender is rich with such truths, showing children that they need not be slaves to their passions, or worshippers of a shallow ideology. Instead, they are called, as all human beings are, to integrate their sexuality into their lives in a way that integrates their body, mind, and soul in the light of the truth, draws them into intimate, self-giving, non-selfish relationship with other persons, and that ultimately unites them more closely with God Himself.
None of this wisdom is to be found in "Pride" ideology. Thus, it is up to us to educate ourselves on the richness of Catholic teaching on sexuality, to protect our Catholic schools (Archbishop Sample is setting an example for us on that score), and to be living examples of the joy that is possible when those teachings are lived out in a courageous, consistent fashion.