I’m not sure if this was a first for our 4th of July parade, but it’s the first time I recall seeing a PFLAG contingent.
One of the reasons I live in Peachtree City and not Decatur or Virginia-Highlands is because I prefer to be around and — more importantly — raise my children amongst people with more traditional values, in general.
And so it made me a little sad to see PFLAG in the parade because it signals the possible arrival of a more aggressive push for accommodations to the LGBTQ agenda.
PFLAG, which stands for Parents, Family, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, is a homosexual advocacy group founded in 1972. Their stated goal is to protect the rights and well-being of homosexuals, the transgendered, and anyone who doesn’t fit into the traditional notions of gender.
That’s well and good. I certainly don’t want any group of people to be denied their legal and constitutional rights or be left vulnerable to unjust discrimination or bullying.
But PFLAG and other such advocacy groups stretch that seemingly reasonable proposition to include the indoctrination of children into the latest conceptions of gender fluidity and self-identification.
After reading their website and simply observing what is going on in our culture now, it seems to work like this.
If a third-grade kid mistakenly calls a classmate who is male but identifies as female “he,” then PFLAG or some other advocacy group will swoop in and like totalitarian thought police demand that the school change its policies to ensure such grievous acts never again occur.
They do this by demanding that the school system make changes to its sex education program to ensure ideas like the following are taught: gender is a social construct and can be freely chosen at any age for any reason; that gay marriage is the moral and social equivalent of heterosexual marriage; that adults (and teens) should be free to pursue any sexual expression they deem fit, as long as it’s consensual; and that affirming traditional views of sexuality is just barely short of a thought crime and at least is very mean.
In other words, the LGBTQ activist will require the schools and the community to adopt their view of sexuality and impose it on children as early as possible.
Any defense of traditional sexual morality or biblical morality will not be tolerated and labeled strictly as acts of hate, bigotry, and intolerance.
Those of us who harbor such thoughts will be loath to defend them for fear of persecution and will likely meekly accept the new norm rather than risk social opprobrium and/or potential career harm.
Thus, the received wisdom of thousands of years of human development, the near universal religious consent, and the results of scientific studies on gender and sexuality will be ousted in favor of an ideology with precious little scientific evidence or justification.
Under the guise of tolerance and compassion, we are already enforcing an anthropological view of humankind that is almost completely subjective and primarily focused on the rights of adults to live any way they want regardless of the impact on children and society.
The mere act of requesting more robust social science inquiry into the effects of LGBTQ policies and ideology on children or the persons themselves is often labeled as inherently hateful and intolerant and so doesn’t happen, is ignored, or done in a scientifically flawed manner to arrive at pre-determined conclusions.
In other words, no real debate can happen and we are forced into accepting ideas whose consequences we barely understand and are required to either repudiate what our faiths teach or at best just keep it private.
This is not a world I want to live in. Is there some way that we can return to the old standard of “live and let live”? Weren’t we told that all homosexual activists wanted was acceptance, but that people could continue to hold their own beliefs and teach their children accordingly?
That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I hope I’m wrong about PFLAG’s agenda for our community. I really am.
But I think we’re probably in for some difficult times ahead and that all resistance to redefining morality will be quashed under the banners of “tolerance” and “compassion.”
Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.
