RE!NBEAU:

You see, I used to think I was an ally of the Pride Movement, and then I realized it did not represent me.

You see: I think a lot about symbols; the more they recur, the more fervent my curiosity. The rainbow flag: now what’s that all about? I had a pretty good idea back in my youth. The rainbow is a SPECTRUM. And it’s BEAUTIFUL. When light breaks down, it comes in streams of vivid hues and frequencies, only a fraction of which we can see. 

And that’s US. Every human being rests upon a rung within the spectrum. Not a hierarchy, but a multiplicity.

Well, now: you can imagine how crestfallen I was then to recognize that not a single colour on that flag was mine. MY sexuality remained irrelevant to THEM, the preachers of INCLUSION. And how come? To THEIR minds, MY sexuality is a walk in the park in daylight hours. At first, this motivates them. It moves them to improve their station in Life. It makes them feel entitled to the privilege which *I* enjoy.

But it’s a lie. And they can’t handle that fact. They need to believe they’re stealing back what’s rightfully theirs. But it was never even MINE.

MOST love stories are tragedies. Sexuality itself is one of the murkiest of territories given by Nature; homophobia is but one of innumerable attempts to tame the Beast. I’ve been single for ten years, celibate for twenty-nine, and I would like to say that it’s just for a lack of trying, but it isn’t.

Now: if you PRESUME upon my FAULT in matters of the flesh, you have become a fundamentalist: irrational and cruel, presuming God would grant me access if I’d earned it, though we all know that women are not quite Goddesses.

Now, I can take your side and PROVE to YOU that I am WORTHY, but would you believe me? Well: according to the Old Norms of the World, you’d have to, given evidence. What once people called “virtue” is that which a man has earned from his society. Yet do the members of the Pride Parade describe it thus? No. To them, an “entitlement” is a disease, though not too long ago so was the entirety of their romantic orientation.

And let us be perfectly clear that this was NEVER a matter of protecting the oppressed INSTEAD of venerating sodomy. Responsibility makes clear to us that no one FORCES you to own your sexual identity. That is the work of PRIDE. That’s why they call it that. And let’s be clear as well that there’s no Safe Space in this mortal World; the only way to stay secure is to be readily informed. But you don’t GET informed by censoring a deviant opinion. Much less for censoring informed opinions. You don’t like History? That’s fine. But that does not excuse your ignorance of it.

Being a straight white man is hard enough. You only make it harder by forgetting it. That’s how it came to pass that I became the scapegoat in this modern frenzy. Because what started as a FUTILE attempt to adapt the forgotten voices to MY standard of living, once its constituents encountered the difficulties that my life was heir to, became an excuse to TARGET me to my marked DISADVANTAGE, only to satisfy some petty envy. THAT is why I’m not an Ally. I don’t fight for those who work against me. Once the Flag INCLUDES me, and once I know what sex FEELS like, then I can say: you were right. Your modern ethic WORKS.

[(DM.A.A.)]