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

[ScrollingLeaves]

Sainsbury’s is selling a charming lift-the-flap children’s ‘Ramadan’ book on their shelf dedicated to this festival.

It is published by Penguin as part of a series titled ‘First Festivals’ under the ‘Ladybird’ name. I wondered what others they had so looked it up.

As well aa Ramadan there is also,
Easter,
Christmas,
Hannuka,
Diwali,
Lunar New Year and ………………….
Pride

Penguin writes:
Discover the celebration of the Pride with this bright, interactive lift-the-flap book!

Featuring simple text, gorgeous illustrations and satisfying lift-the-flaps, this book explores the festival of Pride and helps young children understand the importance of this special LGBTQIA+ celebration.

Lift the flaps to reveal homemade costumes, the different identity flags and see what happens during a Pride parade.

The First Festivals series invites children to explore the world's culture from the comfort of their home, encourages the development of hand-eye coordination and is recommended for children aged 2 and over.

How has Pride been elevated to the status of the major religions of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Newar Buddhists, or a cultural tradition with spiritual meanings like Lunar New Year?

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.

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.

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

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

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 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

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.

That is grim, but interesting as I hadn’t realised it was that big a deal for some. It explains the evangelical element too.

You see the sea behind on the Pride cover so presumably that is Brighton, the new version of Jerusalem or Mecca.

The illustration of the white man educating the Muslim and the black woman someone pointed out to me is particularly irritating for its smug, patronising, ‘let me teach you the right path’ attitude.

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.

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

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.

Beautifully put though I would add that religion includes a sense of there being a spiritual dimension to physical life.

Perhaps, from what you say, Pride is now seen to exemplify that to lots of people; but I personally do not see it as being equivalent.

In practice some churches will include/allow Pride groups. I know there is Catholic Pride around where I live for example. But this is inclusion within the established religion rather than a replacement of it.

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.

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 🤔

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

You could make that argument, like selling devotional goods in Rome, say.

The question is, what is being worshipped? Maybe something more hedonistic from Ancient Rome?

Rainbows for children are everywhere especially for little girls. They are all over their clothes and accessories. Then there are the NHS rainbows, for adults and children alike.

The rainbow image to my mind has become one great hazy symbol that has been force teamed with Pride, which itself has been force teamed with TQ+ through branding and manipulation.

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!

How lovely for you to see so many of these real ones.

The book series is called 'First Festivals' . Pride is a festival. If it's not relevant to people, they won't buy it...some people will buy it including the many same sex families with young children out there

The rainbow has been a symbol in a number of contexts, from Noah in the bible to environmentalism to the NHS. In all these cases, it was the rainbow with its real colours
I always struggled to understand the word 'hubris', until people started adding colours to the rainbow...

My childhood (70s) was full of rainbows and smiley faces.

Then in my teens the rainbow flag took on a new meaning - I remember being stupidly excited when I saw a rainbow flag flown outside a house in a back street in Amsterdam. We didn’t have many of these in Glasgow! It was edgy, cool, meaning it was a cool place where you wouldn’t be hassled.

Now you see many a day (in all variations) and I’m sure my eyeball will fall out of my head one of these days.

Banks, lawyers, DIY shops, pet stores, zebra crossings, building sites, sandwich packaging, nursing organisations, universities, schools, nurseries, sweeties, Dreamies cat treats, wine shop, pension managers, investment company, local market, coffee shop, supermarket, hairdressers, recruitment agencies, tech firms, software companies, politicians bios, anime dressed teen button badges… rainbows rainbows everywhere! Rainbows as far as the eye can see!

Straight person butt out 🤣🤣🤣

Kind of rude and childish

i remember PIE too. I was only little but knew that these were Bad Men who ‘did things’ to children. They were called the Pedophile Information Exchange ffs. They wanted to lower the age of consent to child age… there was no mistake - they didn’t disguise their goals.

Why on earth would anyone these days have silly little ‘in the know joke’ nods to these creatures - and in a kids book of all places?

Of course, it is a book some people might want, but the thread was not essentially about the book in its own right, but about this book in relation to the other festivals.

Although all the titles in the series relate to ‘festivals’, the others - Ramadan, Hanukkah, Diwali, Christmas, Easter, Lunar New Year - have their roots in religion.

So this thread is about how Pride is the odd one out of that otherwise common denominator.

The question is, is Pride part of the series because it has religious overtones for some people?

If the series is about festivals over and above religion, then (as another poster said too) there could be others like The Eisteddfod, Hogmanay, Mothers’ Day, Festability, Father’s Day, Glastonbury, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, Notting Hill, Cherry Blossom …. so many.