Justifiable Recognition

Spectator

What did Socrates, Michelangelo, Emily Dickinson, Alexander the Great, Leonardo da Vinci, Richard the Lionheart, and Joan of Arc all have in common? They all may have been gay. (At least as historians can best guess.)

This comes to mind as we near the end of Pride Month, first officially recognized by the federal government in 1999 when President Bill Clinton declared June to be Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. The idea was to recognize the achievements and contributions the LGBTQ+ community has made over the years.

It also comes to mind as some openly wonder why this community needs their own month. Some have even suggested they don’t “deserve” a month or a week or even a day, which is exactly why they need such recognition.

This is especially true since there are still 71 countries in which homosexuality itself is illegal or homosexual acts are. In Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Uganda in some situations, homosexuality is punishable by death. In Iraq, Somalia, and Yemen, the governments look the other way while militias take care of the executions.

It’s all plenty discouraging, but before we dislocate our own shoulders patting ourselves on the back about how much progress we’ve made in this country, we should take a long look in the mirror.

So far in 2024, 522 pieces of anti-LBGTQ+ legislation have been introduced in more than 20 states. Some 70 bills have already passed, been signed into law, and are now awaiting their day in court. They include bills to stop medical care for certain minors, bills to remove books from school libraries that have an LGBTQ+ theme or feature an LGBTQ+ character, bills that prohibit references to sexual orientation while discussing historical figures, and on and on.

We’re not exactly squeaky clean here in Michigan, where at least nine anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced, mostly involving transgender minors.

These proscriptions are almost always based on some religious text or belief. It is true enough, for example, the Bible makes negative references or condemnations of homosexuality seven times. (Interestingly, Jesus does not offer such words against homosexuality, though he is overtly harsh when it comes to divorce.)

We are free to believe whatever we believe in this country, but the folks relying on the Bible to justify homophobia are being remarkably selective. The first five books of the Old Testament alone contain at least 600 laws including what to eat, what to wear, how to worship, where to live, how to treat women (it’s more than a little surprising women still tolerate those sections), how to treat children, and, in general, how to behave.

Yet, none of these laws ever seem to even be mentioned by those seeking such guidance. Homosexuality doesn’t even make the top 10 of Christian offenses, and for reasons that are not clear, many choose to focus on and condemn that behavior while supporting at least one adulterous, thieving, lying, swearing sinner.

It’s likely to a point of near certainty that those now condemning or wishing to banish all things LGBTQ+, including the people, are themselves in violation of several laws in either the Bible or the Quran. If religious texts are divinely inspired, then the faithful shouldn’t pick and choose what to believe and what to ignore.

We have a Pride Month for the same reason we have other celebratory months acknowledging groups of people we have long marginalized and even criminalized. It’s our acknowledgment, a kind of verbal and emotional reparation for past societal wrongs.

Those so offended by it, like Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s wife, Martha, who finds the multi-colored Pride flag to be “shameful,” can look away now and go back to their blissful homophobia next month.

By the way, do you know who Alan Turing was? Turing was a British mathematician credited with being among those who helped crack the Nazi’s mystifying enigma code in World War II allowing the Allies to intercept German plans and shorten the war in Europe. Post WWII, Turing was identified as gay and arrested for “homosexual acts,” lost his security clearance and his job, and chose chemical castration rather than prison. Rarely recognized for his accomplishments during and after the war, he died at 41 from either suicide or accidental cyanide poisoning. He was finally pardoned by the queen in 2013, 59 years after his death.

What about Jane Addams? Addams is considered the godmother of social work and a founder of the settlement house movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. She was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Her 40-year relationship with Mary Rozet Smith was mostly a secret and had to be.

We celebrate Pride Month because we abused, reviled, arrested, imprisoned, beat, and ignored a significant cohort of our citizens for most of our history. A month of recognition is small compensation.

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