Opinion: If a Straight Pride Parade Is Stupid, so Is a Gay Pride Parade

Personally, I agree with the people who say that the upcoming “straight pride parade” in Boston is a silly stunt. It’s not something that I would have any interest in attending, though I do appreciate the intentional irony of Milo Yiannopolous being named the parade’s grand marshal.

I believe I am on stable intellectual ground in calling the parade silly, as I have also said the same about gay pride parades. In fact, I think parades, in general — festive traffic jams, as I call them — are kind of stupid. But there are at least some justifiable reasons to throw one. Winning a war would be one good reason. Winning a Super Bowl would be another. If we are going to have a parade to announce our pride in something, it ought to be a real achievement. Or else it should at least be some occasion for actual celebration, such as a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas. But your sexual orientation is neither an achievement nor a holiday. You have not accomplished anything simply by being attracted to one sex or another.

It is argued that the real purpose of a gay pride parade is to resist and protest the persecution of homosexuals. Heterosexuals are not persecuted for being heterosexuals, so the argument goes, and therefore a heterosexual pride parade is pointless. But if that’s the point of a pride parade, then why do they call it a pride parade? If it’s really a protest, then call it a protest, or a rally, or a demonstration. And in that case, why do they hold these “protests” in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles, rather than Tehran or Riyadh? It seems that these pride parades are held in precisely the places where gays are not persecuted.

All the evidence indicates that gay pride parades are indeed gay pride parades. That is, they are parades that give gay people the opportunity to announce their pride in being gay. Indeed, the New York City Pride Parade website calls its event a “pride celebration.” Another LGBT website puts it plainly: Gay people should “feel pride in being gay.” If you agree that gays should feel pride in their gayness, and that parades ought to be held across the country to celebrate that pride, and to “create inclusive places for self-expression” for homosexuals, then it would obviously be a ludicrous double standard to insist that heterosexuals are not entitled to a similar celebration for themselves. (Read more from “Opinion: If a Straight Pride Parade Is Stupid, so Is a Gay Pride Parade” HERE)

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