‘Pride’/LGBTQIA+ a major religious or cultural festival?

I've always loved rainbows (real ones, with a scientific explanation behind them!), and the idea of mythical beings like unicorns (the sort that appear in medieval tapestries) and mermaids (in early manuscripts and folk tales). I feel really resentful of the way that the symbolism seems to have been swept up in gender ideology.

I'm lucky enough to live somewhere in a beautiful part of England which has massive skies and rolling hills and since it rains so much we frequently get rainbows, often double ones, that make me stop and celebrate the absolute beauty of the real thing, not the commercialised, massively overused version. These are my private moments of protest!

Maybe trade is a religious act for the people who go to Pride?

Interesting thread, thanks for starting it. I wish I hadn’t clicked on the “pup” stuff though…

I’ve noticed that an increasing number of books aimed at children, even very young children as per the OP, feature rainbows somewhere on the front or back cover. Sometimes they’re really obvious, sometimes not, but they’re there. It seems as if it’s the current “thing” in children’s publishing 🤔

It’s definitely not equivalent. Pride is a commercial enterprise.

Quite the achievement for the organisers of a commercial event to have their product treated as equivalent to a religious celebration.

It's worth trying to understand clearly what a religion is. It's not really about traditional theism, necessarily, there have always been religious systems that don't include that.

Fundamentally, it's about what a society believes about what things are important, what makes the world turn, what is the right and good way to live, what are fundamental social values.

Not just as individuals, but as a community - how do we inculcate those in children and citizens, provide heroic examples and examples of villains, scaffolding for socially acceptable behaviour, collectively shame transgressions and bring the repentant back into the fold.

Festivals are on of the tools societies use to manage these things, to create a sense of solidarity around some values.

We are social animals, the idea that we would all only have individualistic belief systems was foolish. It will always have collective mechanisms for important social beliefs.

Soontobe60
Is there a page dedicated to Furries? Or BDSM? Or dogs? That would be fun.
Not as much fun as this😂
Gerald the gorilla | Not the Nine O Clock News - A gorilla called Gerald | By Classic Comedy UKFacebook | Facebook

Except now 60 years later if Jane wants to help Mum fix an engine Mum must be a TW and Jane must be morphed into he-girl John. Does Peter enjoy baking and fashion, reject football and boxing? get that she-boy transed into Pippa... Quick. Women, back in the kitchen while menfolk go dog racing, sup pints and play sexual harassment jokes on women who can take a joke, unlike the miserable ones wanting to keep the vote.

Is there a page dedicated to Furries? Or BDSM? Or dogs? That would be fun.
Apols for the DM link!!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3604744/Graduates-CEOs-reveal-addicted-dressing-DOGS.html

So why are you pretending to not understand? Why aren't you directing your confusion and anger appropriately? Oh yeah, because women will forever be the easy targets.

And it's not just the right that is attacking LGBT people, it's everyone.

Your wonderful allies on the left are literally telling us we cannot call ourselves lesbians. That we must redefine what homosexuality is. That we must submit to being assaulted by trans women if we do not want to be called transphobic. That we cannot meet as lesbians without including trans women. That we no longer get to decide who we are, what we represent, what we talk about, and who we want in our spaces, our conversations and our beds. What are your thoughts on that?

Is the Rio Carnival or Up Hellu Aa in this series? Now Rooz?

If you lift one of the flaps does it show Granddad with his husband in BDSM gear?

I've been going to Pride for decades with gay friends. Back when people were worried about being beaten up for attending. Back when women were at the front lines of caring about the stigma about AIDS for gay men. Back when it wasn't a corporate wank-fest of crap. It was a protest and a celebration. And solidarity was important.

But the wants of male sexuality and corporate greed have now taken Pride over. I talk to my DD about the bravery of gay men in Uganda, and lesbians in the Middle East, places where car and oil companies don't change their corporate colours for a month. If it meant anything they would care where it mattered.

And when it comes to 'sticking together' it's always supposed to be women doing that first. We've modelled it for decades. Maybe it's time men modelled it a little.

It's not surprising, though I don't like it.

More and more, Pride seems to have developed into a kind of "diversity and inclusion" festival, with sexual liberation as the main symbol of that.

Among secular progressives, it's also about the biggest festival there is, and it does seem to very much fulfill a similar kind of role as other religious festivals.

Publishing houses are to some extent just following the social trends. Libraries and schools are always looking to fulfill quotas for "diversity" books for all age groups too, so there is a market they want to provide for there.

we're not zoo animals. We're not your projects. We're not your props. We are human beings who are facing a sustained attack on our way of life.
I know.

And look, you're blaming "the right" to boot
The right does attack LGBT issues though.

Oh here we go. A lovely little "ally" who "fucking cares" is here to tell us why we're all doing it wrong. And look, you're blaming "the right" to boot.

Why don't you martyr yourself to someone else's cause and stop with the faux confusion. I know people like you love all the pink and glitter of Pride and it works so well for your socials and your right-on conversations but we're not zoo animals. We're not your projects. We're not your props. We are human beings who are facing a sustained attack on our way of life.

And I won't be told by you or anyone else who I ought to centre in my own conversations about my own identity. No matter how much you "fucking care".

I agree. We are becoming akin to freak shows again, it's so upsetting

Because of the growing hostility towards LGBT rights, regardless of whether people don't agree with a letter whether that be the B or the T whatever - I just don't get why you're all fighting against each other.
I'm not any part of LGBT but I fucking care because it kind of impacts me as a female (bodily autonomy, etc)
Women and LGBT should be sticking together imo

I agree. We are becoming akin to freak shows again, it's so upsetting. I don't want to be associated with overt sexual behaviour, with kink, with pushing this agenda onto the rest of society. We were so close to being treated with detached nonchalance. With being normal and ordinary and boring. With being treated like just any other human. That's all most of us want.

Pride used to mean something. Now it's an embarrassment.

All I ever wanted, was to live my life as a regular person, who happens to be same-sex attracted. That's all it is.
Sorry to single your post out, but it sums it all up - you get that the right, the conservative view is that you're all expendable, right?!
Whether you're gay, or lesbian, or trans, you're all LGBT. They don't differentiate.
I just do not get why some will have issues with some letters but not others.
When it comes down to it they're all expendable, including women once they've weakened gillick competence/bodily autonomy. We're all entwined

Edited as bold quote but failed

Children’s book publishing is well on board for some reason.