President Obama declares June to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month :
LGBT Americans have enriched and strengthened the fabric of our national life. From business leaders and professors to athletes and first responders, LGBT individuals have achieved success and prominence in every discipline. They are our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors. Across my Administration, openly LGBT employees are serving at every level.
I would really like to hear more from the President on this topic. Perhaps he could explain how bisexualsbecause of the their bisexualityhave enriched America and how transgenderedbecause or their transgendered orientationhave have strengthened the “fabric of our national life.” In other words, maybe he could explain why alternative forms of “gender identity or sexual orientation” are something we should celebrate at the national level.
Also, I’d really love to see a few names of the transgendered folkspeople who may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, or asexualwho are “serving at every level” of his administration. By my count he has exactly one example .
Lest you think this is a much ado about nothing, I recommend Hadley Arkes latest article in First Things , ” Vast Dangers in a Small Place “, to get a better idea of where this orientation fixation is heading:
[T]he groups defined by homosexual acts or sexual orientations are marked as groups precisely by the acts they commit. People are described as arsonists, for example, when they commit arson, and the recoil from arsonists is a recoil from the crime of arson.The problem here is that any activity we could name could be directed to a hurtful or wrongful end. Sexual acts, whether heterosexual or homosexual, can be deployed as assaults to injure and degrade. Some people may be oriented to rape, or to sadomasochism or bestiality. Even gay and lesbian activists will argue over the question of whether they regard members of the ManBoy Love Association as standing legitimately in their circle, with a sexual orientation they respect.
Would even the most liberal among us not have serious reservations if they had to judge whether a man committed to sadomasochism or bestiality had the maturity to act as an adoptive father? Which is to say, there may be many instances in the law in which even liberals think it legitimate to draw adverse inferences about people, and their legal claims, based on their sexual orientation.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.