Nothing to Be Proud Of.

Apparently, June is "Pride Month" in this country.  It's a month when people who are either homosexual or "non-binary" express their "pride" regarding their sexual preference or sexual identity.

It's a longer conversation, but to make that longer story short, I do not believe in transsexuality or the transsexual movement.  I don't bother to express an opinion about it regarding adults, because they're adults, and they can do as they wish, whether or not it is rational.  But I do object to the imaginary concept of transsexualism being acted out on minors.  As I said, we're not going to have that conversation right now, unless you comment about it, and what to discuss it.

But I have no issue at all with homosexuality.  It is a completely "normal" variant of human sexuality, it is not a reflection of any other problem, like psychopathology, and anyone who tells themselves that homosexual people groom or prey on other people are simply wrong.  Do homosexual people ever commit sexual-related crimes?  Yes, they do.  But not nearly as much as do heterosexual people.

The issue, though, is "Pride Month."  Homosexual people have been badly treated in this country, for no other reason than their sexual preference, and whoever treated them badly, or continues to treat them badly, has serious issues of his or her own, and ought to knock it off.  (And probably get help.)  Caring if someone is homosexual is as ridiculous as caring what gender they are, what race they are, what religion they follow, or any other completely irrelevant issue.

But why, apart from relief, or feeling less ashamed, do homosexual people want a "Pride Month," or to celebrate it?  I myself am heterosexual.  I don't need a month set aside to celebrate that fact, or parade in the streets.  Of course I realize I have never been disadvantaged for being heterosexual, but still, the cure for being disadvantaged is no longer being disadvantaged.  It's not the establishment of a commemorative month.  Or a parade.  ("Black History Month" most certainly hasn't stopped black people from being mistreated.)

But like everything else in this country, "Pride Month" is now a business.  It has been monetized.  The emblem is rainbows, and places that want to profit from "Pride Month" want to sell things with rainbows.  It's not uncommon that what they want to sell is clothes.  Those clothes, to allow as many middlemen as possible, are sold in stores.  Or the rainbow is emblazoned on something.

So, places like Target, and consumer goods like Bud Light, get in on the ($) deal.  Their aim is to be inclusive, but more than that, to sell stuff.  What they also wind up doing is attracting the ire of people who, for whatever reasons, object to "Pride Month."  With enough pressure and pushback from these objectors, Target and Bud Light withdraw their offerings.

"Pride Month" offends some heterosexuals, and the withdrawal of the celebratory gestures offends some homosexuals.  Target, and Bud Light, stand to lose business either way.

And this is all over nothing.  There is nothing wrong with homosexuality, "Pride Month" is unnecessary, and objecting to it, and boycotting sales and vendors, is petty and ridiculous.  But the objections have caused problems for Target, Bud Light, and possibly other vendors.

What a dumb mess.