…from this Pantheon of multi-hued striped variations on a theme?
THE FUCKING LEATHER FLAG!
FURTHERMORE…from the dozens of images that were returned via an online search, only a very small percentage of them included it.
And while we’re on the subject, if every variation of sexual expression wants to be included in the pride flag, why not just go for this?
It’s got a full spread of colors and a nice, neutral background. Oh wait…the front color is orange which (at least in the hanky code) traditionally means “anything, anywhere, anytime.” We can’t have that. Some might be offended by the blatant implication of licentiousness. And oh yeah…that’s a caucasian hand. Can’t have that either; it will probably offend some as a symbol of white supremacy holding all others in their grip.
How about this one?
Oh wait…that one has distinct lines. Someone may feel left out and unrepresented. How about this one?
Nope, that’s not gonna fly either. Doesn’t include white, black, gray, or brown.
What about this one?
It’s got white, black, brown and pretty much every color you can think of, with no distinct lines. You should be able to find your own, unique spot in there. But remember, the human eye can only perceive about one million colors, so don’t go micromanaging your sexual identity too much otherwise there won’t be a color for you.
It was designed by an American Artist called Gilbert Baker in 1978. It was originally an eight-stripe rainbow but was soon refined into the six-striped version that was the norm for many decades.
At a time when gay people couldn’t hold hands with their partners on the street, this flag served a useful purpose. It meant that you could easily find gay pubs or other places where no one had to pretend to be something they weren’t. The rainbow symbol was a simple and effective concept that conveyed positivity and unity.
And then some activists came along and said hang on a minute, why are there no black or brown stripes in the rainbow flag? See, for some reason they were under the impression that the gay flag was a literal representation of the range of skin colors that are acceptable in the community. And so we got this.
Okay then, I mean, well, there weren’t any white stripes in the original one either. But most people understood that it was symbolic with that we were all included already, irrespective of our race.
But then after this, trans activists came along and said, why aren’t we in there? So we got this one. And this was the chevron with the pink white and blue, which was based on the trans flag.
But surely this eyesore couldn’t get any worse, could it? Well, it could, because activists were then concerned that it was excluding intersex people, so they added this symbol.
Okay, it’s getting a bit out of control now. But then last year, some bright spark added a red umbrella to represent sex workers.
Now, if you thought this was getting out of hand, last year then we had Microsoft. They designed a new version to incorporate all the other multiple sexualities and genders that have been invented over the past few years. Let’s have a look at that.
I mean, what the hell is it? It looks like a space ship going at warp speed through a Care Bear’s bum hole.
Identity politics in its current form is an ever expanding beast. Pride used to be just one day. Then it was a month. And now Pride events have been scheduled all the way from March through to September. As one sign in a shoe shop pointed out Pride never stops. If only it would.
The initialism as well that’s expanded too. First we had LGB, and then it became LGBT, then LGBTQ, then LGBTQIA. The Canadian government currently favors 2SLGBTQIA+, although even its prime minister finds that a bit of a mouthful.
Similarly, Pride started out as an important protest against injustice. When the original Pride March took place in London in 1972, homosexuality had only been legal for five years, and the prospect of gay marriage or even an equal age of consent, seemed impossible. Only 2000 people turned up to these protests.
But by contrast, the Pride parade in London in 2022 attracted over a million. And of course, most of those people aren’t even gay. It’s become a family day out, a huge party.
And what’s so wrong with that, you might ask. And that’s a fair question. If people are celebrating and having a good time, that’s great. Except that’s not necessarily what’s going. Increasingly, gay people no longer feel welcome at Pride. I spoke to a representative from a lesbian group on this show last year who had been moved along by police when trying to protest at Pride. But isn’t Pride meant to be a protest, not a party? What’s going on?
The answer is that pride has been hijacked not once but twice.
First by avaricious multi-billion dollar corporations who are able to pose as virtuous by posting the pride flag. Only, they don’t do it in the branches in countries where homosexuality is still illegal. After all, you wouldn’t want to fly the flag anywhere which might actually make a difference.
I’m old enough to remember that corporations were certainly not celebrating Pride quite so openly before section 28 was repealed in 2003, or before the age of consent was equalized in 2001, or before the decriminalization of homosexuality in Scotland in 1980. So, these corporations’ commitment to LGBT rights apparently only manifests itself when it’s likely to make them a profit.
And then there’s the second hijacking. See, whereas the original Pride was about agitating for equal rights for gay people, it’s now been taken over by activists who are obsessed with group identity and who believe that gender is more important than sex.
That’s why the British library, to celebrate the advent of pride month this week, posted a thread on Twitter about the sex life of fish, and how some species have been known to change from male to female.
I mean, what’s that got to do with Pride? Why have Librarians seemingly forgotten that human beings aren’t the same as fish? Now, they’ve since deleted those tweets, because well, you know they’re bonkers. And although we might laugh at that kind of nonsense, the ideology it promotes is actually rather sinister, particularly for gay people.
See, in her book, “Time to Think” by Hannah Barnes, she found that between 80 and 90% of adolescents referred to the Tavistock pediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. Studies have long confirmed a correlation between gender non-conformity in youth, and homosexuality in later life. At the Tavistock, staff used to joke that “soon there would be no gay people left.” Somehow the medicalization and sterilization of gay people has been reframed as progressive.
Even Stonewall, the UK’s foremost LGBT charity has redefined the word “homosexual” on its website and promotional materials to mean “same gender attracted.” Its CEO, Nancy Kelly, has claimed that women who exclude trans people from their dating pool are akin to sexual racists. There’s been an intense resurgence of old homophobic tropes online from gender ideologues that believe that “genital preferences are transphobic” and that lesbians who don’t include men in their dating pool must be suffering from trauma.
Gay rights were secured by recognizing that a minority of people are instinctively attracted to members of their own sex. And the new ideology of gender identity rejects this notion entirely, and actively shames gay people for their orientation.
So, when you see this flag, try to understand that many gay people consider it to be a symbol of opposition to gay rights, Women who are concerned about their rights consider it a symbol of misogyny, because it promotes an ideology that denies the reality of sex-based oppression, and yet most people, gay people included, haven’t even noticed this transition from the pro-gay rainbow flag to this anti-gay imposter.
And that’s because it all happened so quickly, and activists are playing on good intentions of a public who don’t want to be seen to be on the wrong side of history. Well, I would suggest that upholding the rights of women and gay people and protecting gender non-conforming children and opposing the hypocrisy of corporations is the truly progressive approach.
Anyone who spends any time on social media would have seen that homophobia is clearly on the rise. It’s coming from the reactionary elements of the right, who are now holding gay people responsible for sexualized drag shows for children, and the proliferation of sexually explicit books in school libraries. But of course, they’ve fallen for the trick. This isn’t gay people. That’s gender ideologues who’ve convinced everyone that the LGBTQIA+ movement is one big happy family, when it isn’t.
And we know this because homophobia is also on the rise among gender ideologues themselves, who frequently go online to tell gay people to kill themselves. Some of them have said that they celebrate AIDS as a good thing. And this isn’t just a few mad activists, there are thousands of examples of this if you’ve got the stomach to look them up.
So whether it’s coming from those who consider themselves right wing or left-wing, anti-gay sentiments are back in fashion. And the best way to combat this is to remind everyone that that Progress Pride flag, and the corporate orgy that accompanies it, is not in the interests of gay people.
And if it’s too late to reclaim the original Pride flag, we can at least ditch the new one.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is poetic. The title, Fahrenheit 451 symbolizes the temperature at which paper burns. This minor detail holds the premise of this dystopian novel.
Guy Montag is a fireman in a world where literature is in danger of extinction. Television is glorified and books are the source of all unhappiness and chaos. Traditionally speaking firemen usually banish fire, but in Montag’s society, firemen start fires to burn books. Every printed book, as well as the house in which they are concealed in, must be obliterated. Escorted by helicopters, and equipped with deadly hypodermic, The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department takes their job lethally serious. They are ready to hunt down any individual who defies the rules to conserve and read books.
Back at home, Montag has a standard life. He has a wife named, Mildred, who is obsessed with television. He retreated home with a clear mind and never questions his actions. One day he meets an interesting young neighbor, Clarisse. She becomes responsible for introducing him to a time, where books were vital: the past and the future. She teaches him the significance of ideas in books, as opposed to the senseless act of watching television. This is where Bradbury shines. His commentary on the censorship of literature is straightforward but unique. In Montag’s world trivial information is accepted, whereas knowledge and ideas are an evil. Fire Captain Beatty explains it best:
“Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs…. Don’t give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.”
Ultimately Montag questions his actions and profession when his wife puts herself in danger and Clarisse mysteriously disappears. He does the unthinkable: he begins to hide books.
The beauty of Bradbury’s prose is found within the questions he indirectly raises: Why is literature important? is it of any danger? How does it influence our minds?
Some may say that Fahrenheit 451 is outdated, but the truth is that uttering such statement is narrow-minded. Fahrenheit 451 is less about how technology is infiltrating our lives, but more about Western society’s blind faith in the media and government. The symbolism in this book is pure and grandiose. Reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury created a world where the mind is caged. No original ideas are consumed or fed; society is dormant and submissive. Ray Bradbury’s vision is prophetic and poetically satirical as well as melancholic.
If you are a lover of literature, this book will puncture your heart. It is not far from the truth, which can be distressing at moments. Unlike other dystopian societies in literature, Bradbury’s novel has become a historical act; it is one of the truer book in science fiction and life.
Farenheit 451 reached in and tore at my heart when I happened upon the 1966 film adaptation on television in early 70s. It prompted me to seek out the novel, which then led me to other dystopian narratives like 1984 and Animal Farm. All were potent reminders of what happens when society turns against its own people—and eerily prophetic of the times we currently find ourselves in. As I’ve written many times before, this is not the future I envisioned when I was a teenager.
Twelve hours later, we’re back up again. I was pouring over error logs from the hosting site and saw a suspicious “account suspended” script had run two days ago. That wouldn’t be the source of the outage, but it got me feeling a bit nervous. I’m paid up with not only hosting but also my domain name through the end of this year, but I stated looking for other adult-content-friendly hosts. Moving everything would be a major pain in the ass, but at least I know it can be done relatively painlessly if needed…
A popular Orlando burger restaurant known for regularly featuring drag shows is suing the state of Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis — arguing that the state’s new law targeting drag shows violates First Amendment rights.
The owners of Hamburger Mary’s in Orlando say their First Amendment rights were violated after DeSantis signed a bill, SB 1438, last week that restricts children from attending certain draw show performances, according to a federal lawsuit obtained by NPR.
The restaurant’s Orlando location is asking the court to block the implementation of the state’s new law. Other Hamburger Mary’s locations across Florida and the rest of the U.S. are not part of the suit.
“It is apparent from the actions of the State of Florida, that it intends to consider drag shows to be a public nuisance, lewd, disorderly, sexually explicit involving public exposure and obscene and that it is necessary to protect children from this art form, in spite of evidence to the contrary,” the lawsuit says.
LGBTQ groups sue Florida over the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law
The owners of Hamburger Mary’s in Orlando say the establishment has regularly hosted drag shows since 2008.
They argue in the lawsuit that the drag performances are appropriate for children and that there is “no lewd activity, sexually explicit shows, disorderly conduct, public exposure, obscene exhibition, or anything inappropriate for a child to see.”
The owners also claim Florida’s new law is too vague, and they allege their bookings fell 20% after the restaurant, out of caution, told customers this month that they could no longer bring children to drag shows.
Florida state Sen. Clay Yarborough, the bill’s sponsor, and DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
The owners of Hamburger Mary’s declined NPR’s request for an interview. In a statement posted on Facebook, the owners explain their decision behind filing the lawsuit.
Some States Want To Say Where You Can And Can’t Be In Drag
“This bill has nothing to do with children, and everything to do with the continued oppression of the LGBTQ+ community,” Hamburger Mary’s Orlando said in a statement.
“Anytime our [legislators] want to demonize a group, they say they are coming for your children. In this case, creating a false narrative that drag queens are grooming and recruiting your children with no factual basis or history to back up these accusations AT ALL!” the statement adds.
Florida’s new law, referred to as the “Protection of Children” act, prohibits children from attending any “adult live performance.”
An “adult live performance” is described in the law as “any show, exhibition, or other presentation in front of a live audience which, in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities … or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.”
Florida House passes controversial measure dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill by critics
Those who are found in violation of the new law could face prosecution, in addition to thousands of dollars in fines and having their licenses revoked.
The law is just one of several related to anti-LGBTQ+ topics that were introduced by Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature this session.
Last week, DeSantis signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, restrictions on discussion of “preferred pronouns” in schools and restrictions on using bathrooms that don’t match one’s assigned sex at birth.
More than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were filed in 2022 during state legislative sessions. However, only 29 of those bills were signed into law.
