I’m wearying of the arm-twisting demands that I must constantly celebrate other folks’ diversity, gender, sexuality, and every other aspect of their lives.
And I’m not sure where the tipping point comes in alienating folk from causes they might previously have supported or sympathised with.
But once it has been reached there’s a danger that once hard-won rights become not a cause for celebration but something to be ignored.
I think we may be close to that point in several areas.
I have no interest in how other people live. But I’m tiring of the insistence that I should clutch to my bosom their particular causes.
Or that those causes should be acknowledged by the rest of us in a kind of breathless hush.
On that note I wonder if Pride is one such movement that is pushing it too far in indulging in a whole month of celebration.
Dundee Pride has held on to support but others have gone too far
First, I’m glad the Dundee Pride weekend wasn’t hijacked in the way that some such events have been in recent times.
The photos and news reports suggested a family-friendly, positive gathering with a focus on inclusivity.
But increasingly, I sense some none-too-gentle persuasion, where the wider public feels compelled and coerced into saluting the cornucopia of concoctions which now make up the rainbow coalition.
I’m not sure how the sexuality of individuals became a matter of public pageantry to be danced about in the streets and shouted from the rooftops.
And I’m unclear as to why we’ve raised the sexual orientation and preferences of one part of our community to a level which appears to demand religious-like devotion?
Who or what folk are attracted to is a matter for them. But the increasingly narcissistic theatricals and the hedonism on display at some events are in danger of turning what was once a very vital reminder of the bigotry which the gay community historically faced into a circus.
The public parading of the various fetishes of men and women in bondage gear, or on dog leads, or in nappies, and their desire that we applaud their ‘brave individualism’ is simply extracting the urine.
This exhibitionism and self-indulgent flaunting by a very small element is the embodiment of individual identity reigning supreme, untrammelled by any notions of common decency or decorum.
And some Pride events have morphed from bona fide appreciation of the prejudices faced by the LGBT community into demands that we genuflect before some outlandish folk who’ve hijacked them.
Equality and special treatment are not the same
I’m not interested in what consenting adults believe, or do, in the privacy of their homes or lives.
But the Rubicon is in danger of being crossed with some aspects of both the behaviour and the duration of the event.
The notion that we should observe heightened amounts of acclaim for some folk on the basis of their sexual orientation, or gender, or indeed race, religion, or any other characteristic is now in danger of fracturing the idea of equality.
Everyone is different in some way
If we regard each other in society as equals, then the insistence on celebrating only some sections of the community is fundamentally at odds with that principle.
Everyone is different in some way from everyone else. That’s a simple fact of life. So why the pressing need to insist on differentiating between us?
Being ‘different’ doesn’t make anyone special, it just makes them different.
And this insistence on proclaiming such distinctness is somehow an achievement, or an accomplishment demanding approval and appreciation, is in danger of backfiring.
The law offers equality for everyone, and indeed more equality for some groups now than others.
There are bigger battles to be won against poverty, ill health and homelessness – to name a few – than in seeking to secure special status and artificial uniqueness for some but not others.
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