Pride month
June is Pride Month. I didn’t know it until by mid-month I began to notice an inordinate amount of rainbow-decorate Facebook Profile pictures and rainbow-decorated FB posts in addition to a couple curious stories in my hometown newspaper online. I figured, What's up with this? But rather than being told, I had to figure it out for myself. I don’t think I’d call myself a fan of any cause that hijacks a day or a month for publicity purposes, no matter how worthwhile the cause is. Why? Because I appreciate modesty, humility and quiet.
Pride fatigue. Yawn.
“Pride” is the language of self-esteem. I am not impressed with self-esteem, and I suggest that pride is a shallow and inappropriate emotion. Pride is self-centered and I have little regard for (excessive) self-centeredness. Oh, I understand and recognize self-centeredness, but I don’t see it as a great virtue. Pride fosters animosity more than love and homosexuals end up rejecting my love and support. They give me Pride fatigue. Yawn.
I want people to be as gay as they desire. Go be gay! Yeehaw!
Some people will immediately interpret my remarks as homophobic. Nurtured in part by their cultivated sense of outrage, people are quick to appoint themselves watchdogs. I want to quash (reject as invalid) that right away. First of all, no one knows me. Despite what I write and what I say, no one knows what I sincerely believe about anything. And you don’t know anything about my sexuality, do you? You might think that you do. I keep my beliefs largely private while using and playing with language in public. I don’t discuss my sexuality or my sex life with ANYONE. That’s a good thing about living in Japan. Japanese do not habitually discuss private matters, so in that regard I feel suited to the culture. Things are slowly changing in Japanese culture, but still … Secondly, in fact I support LBGT people. I support their campaign for civil rights in society. You know that I do because I’m telling you. I want people to be as gay as they desire. It’s wonderful. Go be gay! Yeehaw! I don’t really want to hear about it, though, and that’s the thing, isn’t it? Not because of moral outrage so much as because of privacy outrage. Privacy is private, that’s why it’s called that. Once upon a time I preferred the foundation of the LGBT movement to feature privacy rights - the argument that no one - the state or social institutions, or even your family and neighbours - has a right or even an prerogative to stick their noses in your private affairs, rather than as a civil rights argument. Although, admittedly, long ago the debate broke the bounds of privacy such that LGBT people might call that a “mere” or minor consideration rather than a major one. The civil rights argument is valid, true and correct. You know that I know and admit that it is because I’m telling you, but for me privacy is a major thing. One’s sexuality is no one’s business but one’s own.
People with whom I have spoken about this tell me I’m ranting, and they appear to patiently indulge me like I’m a comedian, or something. I reject that. I don’t think I’m ranting - speaking or shouting at length in an impassioned way. Nor am I engaged in tirade - a long, angry speech of criticism or accusation. Or, maybe I am. I think I have a considered position that I am presenting in a calm manner which is not due any less regard than the LGBT Pride argument. This essay is more than 1,000-words long, but for me that is not “long.” It’s typical. I understand that in the modern world people communicate less, and when they do “message” each other they are prone to write mere notes rather than expanded ideas. But writing of this length has been normal for me since university. I think of it as “normal” length conducive to genuine communication, not “ranting” length.
If the LGBT community wants my support and regard, then Pride parades and publicity campaigns are not the way to do it. On the one hand, I prefer humility and modesty to inflated self-promotion. I reject inflated ideas of entitlement from people who seem to say “With our words we get what we want. We will say what we wish, and no one can stop us.” LGBT people might say my approach has rendered them nothing, thus justifying their proactive my-genitals-in-your-face approach.
I think less of gays and lesbians because of the Pride campaign than I otherwise am prone to do.
On the other hand, I think we would all be better off not sticking our noses in each other’s genitals. More than that, we would do well to avoid sticking our genitals in other people’s noses. And that’s what a Pride parade is - a rubbing-my-genitals-in-your-face party. Homosexuals are violating the privacy principle by forcibly making their private affairs my business - a grave sin, as I’ve explained. So rather than nurturing my support and regard, the Pride movement is compromising my support and eroding my regard. I think less of gays and lesbians because of the Pride campaign than I otherwise am prone to do. LGBT publicity robs them of humanity in my regard and makes them mere symbols.
By expressing an opinion I am encroaching on their party and trying to appropriate their culture.
Gays and lesbians might respond that my feelings are irrelevant to their activity because they hold parades and participate in publicity for their own purposes, not for mine. It’s for them, not for me. By expressing an opinion I am encroaching on their party and trying to appropriate their culture. I understand that, but it is incorrect. We are all in society together and as such we are intertwined with mutuality. We are each other’s minders because we’re in this together. LGBT want my respect and regard - a desirable foundation for civil rights, but not a necessity - but I don’t feel I’m getting the same from them.
But I could be wrong.