Kurt Mahlburg
Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture
There are questions that puzzle even the most astute philosophers.
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If the LGBT movement is just about what consenting adults do behind closed doors, why do we keep seeing footage of adults depicting sex acts at family parades?
Admittedly, the latter is a relatively modern mystery; one that has come to the fore, in 2023 in particular, as ‘Pride Month’ parades make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Spare yourself the pain of searching for the viral video and just trust Newsweek’s report that on Sunday, a plump, middle-aged man in white underpants twerked in front of a group of children at the “family-friendly” Twin Cities Pride Weekend in Minneapolis.
Or the Fox News story that caught grown men in the West Hollywood Pride Parade depicting a graphic BDSM sex act — an almost-nude man being choked and whipped by another man in bondage gear. Yes, this too had been marketed as a “colourful and entertaining event for the whole family”.
Or the Washington Times’ account of a dozen naked men riding bicycles past a group of children at the “all ages” Seattle Pride Parade.
Or the Post Millennial’s exposé of the Toronto Pride Parade, in which adults dressed up in puppy fetish costumes; men held signs saying “life is short: play naked”; booths promoted sex education for kindergarteners; and perverts proudly exposed themselves to children.
Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among a host of government officials present at the event, which was proudly brought to you by Bud Light. No, I’m not joking.
If you think all that was bad enough, consider that “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children,” was a real chant heard in downtown Manhattan last Friday from LGBT activists taking part in New York City’s annual drag queen parade.
The march launched the city’s “Pride Weekend”, scheduled for the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, often heralded as the dawn of the gay rights movement.
I’m old enough to remember when, naught but five years ago, conservatives were roundly mocked for warning of a slippery slope downhill from the legalisation of same-sex marriage towards more consequential deviancy.
At the time, some of us even dared use the word “paedophilia”.
The LGBT crowd can no longer claim the events profiled above are isolated incidents or somehow not representative of the rainbow movement at large. In 2023, paedophilia-lite is standard fare at pride parades.
Parents deserve no end of criticism who drag their poor children to these perverted affairs.
But it is the organisers, the activists, the community leaders and their heckling hoard of media sycophants who must be met with the most resounding denunciation.
Let it be known henceforth that if they don’t ban these vicious displays from their parades, they want it there.
One more question often pondered in our secular age is: can and should morality be legislated?
The debauchery displayed this month and rubbed in children’s faces suggests a simple answer to that conundrum:
Yes.
