I wasn’t aware until recently that Target had an LGBTQ-themed section to commemorate Pride Month, which began on June 1. Why shouldn’t it? We have months that celebrate Black history, Hispanic heritage, Arab heritage, Jewish American Heritage, Women’s history. We celebrate cultures that were not always respected or given their due, and in many cases still aren’t.
The rainbow flag seems to wave in one variation or another wherever people equally take pride in celebrating people who alone, paradoxically, are the target of sweeping naked, discriminatory legislation across the country.
Post-racial fantasies aside, there’s still plenty of discrimination against minorities–if anything, it’s on a sharp rise, with Blacks, Asians and Jews at the top of the target list–but it often requires a whole set of coded signs and the scabby language of dog whistles, at least in the workplace, in schools, in public places. Except, of course, when the target is LGBTQ people. It’s open season on them everywhere, starting with schools.
As of this writing, nearly 500 bills have been introduced or passed this year alone, 10 of them in Florida, replacing LGBTQ identity with the equivalent of a yellow star, the emblem Nazis forced Jews to wear to distinguish them from everyone else in a warm-up to the Holocaust. Last year it was 180 bills.
This is what we’re doing to a group of people that should be the poster child for civil liberties and human rights.
LGBTQ culture–as opposite to cancel culture as it gets–is boundlessly diverse. The acronym seems to add a letter every year. In Canada the acronym is at risk of breaking anti-sprawl ordinances. It now refers to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Pansexual, Two-Spirited (2S), and Asexual. If you wonder what two-spirited means, just remember Little Horse, the “boy who didn’t want to fight the pawnee” in “Little Big Man,” back when the United States could muster a little tolerance from mayhem.
The acronym reflects the immense variations implied by the freedom of sexual orientation, assuming that part of the Pledge applies. I hesitate to call it a community. There are no such monoliths, least of all in LGBTQ world. It is just as diverse ethnically, racially and religiously. In a sense, you cannot possibly get more diverse than under the big LGBTQ tent. That’s the symbolism behind the pride flag.
Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected officials in California, har asked artist Gilbert Baker to design a flag to represent all that wonderful synonym for American freedom. He came up with the rainbow flag, its stripes a more colorful echo of the stars and stripes, a more achieved version of the United States. It was first flown at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade in June 1978.
Five months later Dan White walked into Harvey Milk’s office and assassinated him right after assassinating mayor George Moscone. At his trial White’s lawyer described him as “deeply endowed… in the traditional American values,” witnesses described him as a paragon of virtue, press reports referred to him as an “all-American boy,” and his defense claimed he was hopped up on junk food so couldn’t be blamed for gunning down a mayor and a queer. The whitewashing worked. Instead of getting convicted of first degree murder, he got manslaughter and served just five years. When he killed himself in 1985, his lawyer, Douglas Schmidt, still called him the “third victim.” And we wonder why Alex Jones has a following.
The rainbow flag flew at Milk’s funeral, and has been flying since, though these days it seems to take an Iwo Jima or two to keep it afloat. If you think I’m exaggerating, consider that between violence against LGBTQ people and the suicide rate in that group, especially among youths, the 7,000 dead of Iwo Jima may be more of an understated parallel than you realize. And these Americans aren’t dying on an atoll. They’re your neighbors. You see through them in church. You degrade them in such easy little taps as you feed your social mierda bile between a thought and a prayer for safer sympathies from your phone.
Getting back to Target: I stopped in to buy myself a rainbow-themed pair of socks. Instead I found the LGBTQ display relegated to a dimly lit back-alley in the store, the way old video stores used to dissimulate their porn collection. This was the result of anti-LGBTQ bigots confronting Target employees and vandalizing displays that had been more prominently placed.
You can’t really blame Target for protecting its employees, but it’s not as if the company can’t afford security. It has a full-on guard at its Palm Coast store, as I imagine it has many more in more rancid settings. They’re not there to help the little old visitor from Dubuque carry her parsley sprigs to her car. They’re there to ensure that customers live and let live. Instead, the guard is just another Target mannequin.
The company is patting itself on the back for not banning the displays. But this Pride Month, there’s not much to be proud of in people who to this day would rather burn than raise the Pride Flag. It’s about time it replaced all those MIA flags in school yards and at courthouses. LGBTQ victims, unlike the mythical missing, are real, and they’re piling up.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. A version of this piece aired on WNZF.
Jimbo99 says
Retail, just never ends with them, always trying to capitalize on a profitable scheme for another sale. We all saw how the Bud Light thing turned out. Waiting for the month long pet history month that they will fabricate. There has to be a month open for that ? When is the holiday for people with a 3rd boob on their foreheads birth defect ? Instead of just lower affordable prices, they constantly have a sale going on. Gives them a reason spam our email accounts. Pushy salespeople types, the execs fool nobody any more, not that they ever did.
Deborah Coffey says
Absolutely! I hope everyone will turn out at Town Center on June 10th from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. to show our support for our LGBTQ community.
Judy says
MIA flags represent soldiers who are “missing in action” defending our country!!! Big difference in my opinion!! Just ask a family who has lost one or a Veteran who is missing a friend. Nothing against the LGBTQ community but I’d rather see everyone show more respect and support for our young men and woman who join the service and pledge an oath to keep us all safe.
JustBeNice says
Very well said. I agree. Also, do we have an million month to celebrate every US service member?
M says
We have several months to celebrate those in the military currently, vets and family members.
May is National military appreciation month
April is the month of military children
November is National veterans and military families month
Juanita says
Thank you, well said👏👏👏
sean says
people on this island have two learn change is in the air and all are welcome in Florida with out everyone Florida would be a broke Mississippi
Denali says
Normally I take little exception to your words my friend. However this time you have broached a subject too close to my heart. Your writings rang clear and true; I support you and still support the Gay Pride Movement and have nothing but love for our LBGTQ cousins, brothers and sisters.
I must take exception to your use of the term “mythical missing”. I grew up in a military family; my father volunteered in WWII and retired after 20 years with a couple of stars on his shoulders. He served in both Europe and the Pacific during WWII and later in Korea. I recall all too vividly the war (horror) stories I heard as a young boy who had crept down the stairs to eavesdrop on adult conversations. The names of places I have never seen still haunt my memories; Normandy, the Ardennes, Guadalcanal, Iwo, the Phillipines, Incheon, Chosin and others. These are little more than dots on a map to many but to me are the final resting places of my parents friends and my uncles. There were also the families who never knew what happened to a husband, boyfriend, brother or son; they are the true missing. There are to this day just over 81,000 MIA’s from WWII to today. Hardly a “mythical” number. I am fortunate to not know any of the missing from Vietnam to today. however, with the brevity of in the degrees of separation, I am sure that in my list of acquaintances, there are some who have been touched by this loss.
I say nothing here to lessen any support for the LBGTQ community, I just wanted to bring out that trying to compare the human losses of MIA’s and LBGTQ folks is a false equivalency.
Charles says
Isn’t it amazing gay people have never gotten arrested for storming the Capitol and you never hear of them getting arrested, they do not cause trouble. Yet DeSantis and his wife are on this hate against WOKE. They are discriminating everyone their Pastor is instructing them too who is also a phony pastor to discriminate the children of GOD. Not right, unfair and unjust
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Denali says
Heard a comment on the radio the other day; “I will start worrying about my safety around LBGTQ folks when a drag queen bursts into a school and beats eight kids to death with a copy of “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Until then, wake the hell up people.
Gm says
Rhonda Santis is worse for Florida than Yankees ….for sure..!!
Jeff Miller says
How about a white pride month. I bet that would open a can of worms..
Sherry says
@ NO recognition of “white” skin needed. . . with disdain towards “the other”, we still live in privilege, have more opportunities and maintain the majority of power in the USA.
Jeff Miller says
Thank you for call me privilege. I am. How about you are you white privilege?
Sherry says
Yes, jeff . . . as noted with the word “WE” in my prior comment.
Brett says
Thank you, Pierre. Homosexuals are not going anywhere. We come from straight couplings and protected or not we will always be here.
Atwp says
Years ago as a young man, I heard many white male t.v., preachers say this country was founded on Christian Values. I believed it then, not now. Many people say this is a free country. One group trying to silence another group if it mean death. Blacks were targets by the white man for eons, hatred and fear were the reason why. Today it is the gays and black people. That will never change. To keep or kill another group of people is the goal of other people. Why bother gay folks when there is no reason to bother them. The world we live in. Gay folks don’t bother me why should I bother them?
Brian says
Why do the alphabet people feel the need to be celebrated? I am of the belief that people born as male are boys who become men, and people born as females are girls who become women. If an individual chooses to pretend to be a member of the opposite sex, more power to them – I couldn’t care less. But don’t fly your flag in my face, or expect me to celebrate you, or treat you as “victims”. And I hope you enjoy your rainbow socks, and your ladies one piece bathing suit with the “sack-tuck”. I would not rather “burn than raise the pride flag”, but as I said, don’t try to fly it in my face.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
I would say the same thing about all those “Trump” flags people still have flying from their houses and vehicles that say 2020, he lost get over it.
Laurel says
Nephew: Yeah, or rebel flags. Lost a looooong time ago. Get over that one too.
Sherry says
WOW brian. . . and, just where is “your” face anyway? I’m sure the sponsors of this event are not flying any flag directly in front of your home. Or, is it that you are so very arrogant and entitled in your white privilege that you feel the entire state of Florida belongs to you and has your gorgeous face stamped on it?
Been There says
What about intersexed people? Not everyone is born clearly male or female by your definition.
Laurel says
What we used to call
hermaphrodite
hər-măf′rə-dīt″
noun
1.) An animal or plant exhibiting hermaphroditism.
2.) Something that is a combination of disparate or contradictory elements.
3.) A human being in whom the sexual characteristics of both sexes are to some extent, really or apparently, combined; also, one of the higher animals which is similarly deformed.
— The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
All human embryos start out female, and have tails. The boys should be boys and girls should be girls believers have never heard of this?
The dude says
I kinda feel the same way about “Fuck Biden” flags… yet they fly “in my face” all the time around here.
Really I don’t care, but I’ve got a child in elementary/middle school now that sees those things. She asked about one after riding home on the OKES bus in the 4th grade, some dude with “Elite Custom” something or another was driving around flying one from his truck.
But I’m not gonna go all snowflake about it. Or start doing military cosplay over it.
Sherry says
@ The Dude. . . Thanks so much for bringing up the “Fuck Biden” flags. It is outrageously ludicrous to me that we’ve heard ZERO uproar about those disgusting, obscene flags and signs, but innocuous colorful rainbow flags trigger such anger and hate.
Dave says
@Dude…”Military Cosplay”…bravo good sir.
Sherry says
@ brian. . . regardless of what you choose to “believe”, scientifically an estimated 1 in 2,000 children born each year are neither boy nor girl — they are intersex, part of a group of about 60 conditions that fall under the diagnosis of disorders of sexual development (DSD). Once called hermaphrodites, from the handsome Greek god who had dual sexuality, they are now known as intersex.
Willy Boy says
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.
Mary Fusco says
Mr. Tristam. I have to say that I find the analogy between a pride flag and a MIA flag disturbing. Every male in my family served their country. My son went into the Navy right out of high school as a wet behind the ears kid. He became a search and rescue diver, did a stint as a seal, was a fireman as well as an electrician. He did 3 tours in the Persian Gulf on a war ship. I was fortunate in that he came home. Lots of parents can’t say that and the worst would be not knowing what happened if he did not return home. While I may not agree with a lifestyle and it is not my cup of tea, I would never disrespect it. Saying that those MIA are mystical seems disrespectful to me. I really do respect your opinions and thoroughly enjoy your commentaries. Except for this one. LOL.
Pierre Tristam says
No one is questioning the reality of MIAs in every war in every country since the beginning of time. The reference is specifically to the black and white POW/MIA flag that arose out of a propagandistic fabrication by Nixon that Vietnam was holding on to missing soldiers and to prisoners after all prisoners were repatriated, a fabrication Reagan perpetuated, to the point that as late as 1991, a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found 69 percent of Americans still believing that Vietnam and Laos were holding on to American prisoners. Those are the mythical missing. That’s all been debunked, yet the flag, a product of that myth, still flies. That’s the stuff of conspiracy theories. It has no place on our public grounds. The victimization of LGBTQ people, on the other hand, is real, its casualties are no fabrication, and legislation is making it all worse.
Denali says
Pierre my friend, I believe that in this case you have erred by limiting yourself to one-half of that black and white flag. As of today, 06/05/2023, 1,579 Americans are listed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) as missing and unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. https://www.dpaa.mil/Our-Missing/Past-Conflicts/ These people are not ‘mythical’. Yes, all the POW’s were confirmed to be repatriated but many others remain Missing in Action. It is those men that the referenced flag recognizes.
In his 1974 State of the Union, Nixon (who I am in no way a fan) stated “all our troops have returned from Southeast Asia—and they have returned with honor.” Unfortunately he was referring to the POW’s and not the MIA’s. Nixon did not fabricate anything, it was the American public who felt that their government was not telling them the truth. The public was wrong as all POW’s were released within months of the signing of the Paris Accords. But at the same time there were about 2,500 listed as MIA.
Pierre Tristam says
Again, there’s no debating the fact that soldiers are missing in Vietnam as in every war, as in unaccounted for. But they are not prisoners of war. There never was an emblem about POW/MIA until the Nixon fabrication, my point being that it perpetuates a myth about individuals who either have or cannot possibly be accounted for, by maintaining the allegations that they’re alive, somewhere. Thankfully The DPAA does not make that claim, from what I see, nor does the military’s Defense Intelligence Agency (see below).
As the New Republic reported even in 1985, when Reagan was still keeping the Nixon talking points alive, “ In fact, of the 2,477 men categorized as MIA, nearly half (1,186) are known to have been killed in action, but their bodies were not recovered. Of those, 436 were Air Force pilots shot down over the sea, whom the Pentagon lists as “non-recoverable.” In 647 other cases a presumptive finding of death was made at the time of disappearance. Thus 1,833 of the 2,477 MIAs are known or presumed to be dead. That leaves 644 men who theoretically could still be alive and in Vietnam. The POW/MIA lobby exploits this uncertainty for all it’s worth. […] Emotional appeals aside, there is little credible evidence that any of them are still living. Of the 3,508 reports from Indochinese refugees about alleged sightings of missing Americans since 1975, the Defense Intelligence Agency discounts all but five. Only 751 of these alleged sightings were firsthand accounts from Indochinese refugees who claim to have seen—not just heard about—captive Americans. In congressional testimony last August, the director of the DIA, Lieutenant General James Williams, stressed the ambiguity of even these reports. “A lot of these people who talk about live sighting say they have seen an individual who was a Caucasian who they think was an American … [and] who looked like he was under guard. According to the DIA, 77 percent of these firsthand reports have been resolved, either by correlating the sighting to men who have since been accounted for, or by determining that the sightings were fabricated.”
James Rosenthal in that article put it a lot more pointedly and eloquently than I did: “The POW/MIA issue is unique to the Vietnam War. After World War II, 78,751 American soldiers were missing or unaccounted for. Their number exceeds by 20,000 the total number of American servicemen killed in Vietnam. The Korean War resulted in 8,177 MIAs. Yet neither prompted widespread protests and demands for government inquiries. In part, of course, the reaction to the Vietnam MIAs is because we lost the war. The U.S. has no access to places where missing soldiers were last seen alive, and MIA families felt that the country, in its desire to quickly forget the war, was also forgetting their sons, husbands, and brothers. What’s more, the MIAs have become a matter of American honor, and their return a symbolic restoration of that honor. The POW movies, especially Sylvester Stallone’s current box-office smash, Rambo: First Blood Part II, appeal to these sentiments.
“But there is another explanation. Far from forgetting these sons and brothers, the government has put them to undisguised political use. Successive administrations have alternated between actively suppressing the families’ requests for information and assisting them in publicizing their cause. The results have been disappointing diplomatically, and cruelly misleading for the families.”
Laurel says
I am always puzzled by those who fly the POW flag right along with a Trump flag. Bone-spurs Trump, said of war hero John McCain, “I don’t like people who get caught.”
Sherry says
Excellent Point Laurel!
KS says
I take offense to your term mythical missing. My father fought in World War 11 and came home wounded. Many I knew never came home. I have many other family members who have served including my daughter. They did it to keep us safe including you. The MIA flag should never be taken down. We should always be reminded of what those men sacrificed for us.
Samuel Miller says
As much as I love the ad lib editorial stories, I have to express my disappointment for a request to take down flags that represent a loss of life while protecting our freedoms and this country. Y’all need to travel abroad and I guarantee you wont take any of our flags down including LGBTQ. The in-fighting is ridiculous. It would be nice if everyone cared about the United States being special instead of finding a way to make yourself feel special.
Ray says
This is probably the last year that a Florida pride celebration will be allowed and still lawful, for now….
Pogo says
@A reminder — lest we forget
https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+bone+spurs
A Republican’s idea of a hero — they voted for this draft dodging POS — and take pride in it…
https://www.google.com/search?q=I+like+people+who+weren’t+captured
Bill C says
Ever notice that all the hate is coming from the right which uses any excuse to act out? Used to be nobody cared, loved Liberace and fell in love listening to Johnny Mathis, danced to Boy George.
Sherry says
Excellent points Bill C! Unfortunately, the most watched media outlet by Republicans is FOX. FOX is responsible for intentionally ginning up the anger needed to turn our cultural differences into hate filled wars!
This from Media Matters and E&P
Fox News has perfected the art of curating anger-inducing stories of liberal excess, unfortunate tweets, and narrative-reinforcing outliers from around the country for its audience. As the network navigates an era in which beliefs in baseless right-wing conspiracy theories act as litmus tests for one’s Republican bonafides, Fox’s reliance on cherry-picked narratives has become increasingly apparent. This trend, which has been a long time in the making, has shifted the focus from manufactured wars on seasonal holidays to an actual war on reality through misrepresentation. Local news outlets and social media posts are mined for minor controversies and outrage bait.
Local reporters across the country have been forced to deal with an increasingly alarming trend in our media ecosystem — the nationalization of news led by outlets like Fox News, which often grab local stories, strip them of their context, and use them to push political agendas or conspiracy theories aimed at keeping their viewers angry. That anger trickles back down into communities, infects local politics and forces reporters at small news outlets already stretched thin to grapple with larger issues of misinformation and polarization.
Bill C says
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=IWA6rDGXgcE
KathyS says
I assure you that those of us in our 60’s and 70’s have very fond memories of dancing to this man’s music and our first awareness of the opposite sex without any regard to this man’s sexual preferences.
Laurel says
Bill C.: Yeah, and Little Richard!
Bill C says
And after listening to their music did anyone suddenly go gay? What a joke!
Bill C says
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=JmcA9LIIXWw
Sherry says
@Bill C.. . Love It! Thanks!
The dude says
A federal judge just bit$h slapped Meatball Ron and his band of bigots in the FL legislature over their trans ban.
Good that.