Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.
June marks LGBTQI+ Pride Month — a month honoring those who are “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex.” This ever-expanding rubric revolves around a particular value system entirely embraced by the modern Left: the notion that a person’s core identity ought to lie not in the relationship between individual desires and societal duties, but instead ought to revolve around a subjective sense of self, unverifiable by the world at large and justified against all societal roles and rules.
President Joe Biden has said as much from the White House. In a proclamation urging Americans to “wave their flags of pride high” — it is worth noting that an entire side of the political aisle in the United States now finds the so-called pride flag far less controversial than the American flag itself — Biden stated, “This month, we remind the LGBTQI+ community that they are loved and cherished. My administration sees you for who you are — deserving of dignity, respect and support.”
Of course, seeing people for who they are typically requires some sort of objective standard; it is literally impossible to see someone for who he is based on his own internal self-perception. This means that Biden is using perfectly Orwellian euphemisms to say that we all ought to validate the self-perception of any he, she, xe or catself.
This perspective is absolutely incoherent. Ironically, this incoherence is exposed by the conflict between the different letters within the alphabet soup of the supposedly sexually marginalized. The case for tolerance of lesbian and gay Americans used to be that biological drives should not be regulated by society at large, because such drives were inborn and innate; that idea at least had the merit of internal consistency.
Now, however, that idea has been jettisoned for its logical opposite, the belief that biology has no hold on us whatsoever, and that we ought to be free to define ourselves in opposition to our own biology, changing our gender and sexual orientation at will. Homosexual orientation relies on the continued distinction between the sexes — after all, why prefer males or females if those sexes are mere social constructs? Transgenderism relies on the absolute malleability of sex. This is the reason that so-called TERFs — “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” — are so bewildered by the suddenly mainstream view that women’s rights ought to be extended to biological men.
And yet here we are, told by the White House that we must ignore the internal contradictions of Left-wing sexual ideology, and simply pretend the incoherence away. We are told that we ought to stand for women’s rights by the same people who insist that Lia Thomas is a woman; we are told that one need not be a biological female to be a lesbian; we are told that biology dictates behavior, but that biology must never be used as an identifier. None of this makes one whit of sense. But we ought to be proud of it, because after all, it liberates us to celebrate our inner sense of authenticity, free of society’s strictures.
There is only one problem, of course: this sort of illogic quickly devolves into anarchy. There is no way to speak coherently with one another absent objective meaning, let alone to reach consensus. Suggesting that the world at large owes each of us validation for our innermost desires is a recipe for complete chaos. Unity can only come from opposition to something — and in this case, that means opposition to tradition, institutions and the roles that actually facilitate human flourishing.
Ben Shapiro, 38, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and Editor-in-Chief of DailyWire.com. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.”
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15 thoughts on “Ben Shapiro: The anarchic philosophy behind ‘LGBTQI+ Pride Month’”
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I just read a few moments ago that the LBTGZXYC-ETC people are now in a tizzy about the release of a new postage stamp that features Nancy Reagan. The LBTGZXYZ-ETC people think this is a crisis because the Reagans were “indifferent” to them. Boo Hoo.
It must be hell to suffer from clinical obsession regarding your sexuality. The more their obssesive rantings increase, the more they distance themselves from rational people.
Toxic narcissism!
Well, the predecessors of the current crop of deviants did enjoy using the term “Queer Nation”.
They have literally gone off the deep end. The sky is green.
It is simply a: “Biden and Dems pandering to any entity or group that could possibly represent as a ‘group voting block'” The Dems are so exceptionally insincere that way…
It makes more sense than one might suppose. People with messed up orientations couldn’t legitimately justify themselves with an appeal to biology. That opens them up to the old understanding that they were deviant, even if they were born that way. Because biology has certain ends, and the “mis-oriented” weren’t aiming towards them as they should. Biology had to go, and people were already starting to throw it out after the Lambeth Council in the 1930’s. What doesn’t make sense is trying to go only part way down a slippery slope. But that’s what most conservatives are trying to do right now.
Not sure what you mean by conservatives going part way down a slippery slope? Can you elaborate?
We want to take biology seriously to understand the true identity of any given individual. But if we want to do so, we have to take it seriously everywhere it can impact our lives. That’s a matter of consistency, and a matter of understanding why our biology matters to who we are. By definition, that’s impossible if we insist our sexual design doesn’t have to mean something. And we at least invite that view into our lives pretty frequently.
Every time somebody decides he doesn’t need to treat sexuality’s raison d’être with its due seriousness, he makes that invitation. Aborting for bad reasons is one broad class where this holds, and the hook-up “culture” is another. Conservatives don’t support those things, but my experience is we tend to take a rather lax approach to contraception. Whether anyone here sides with me about other contributing factors, we should all be able to agree that contraceptives are too easy to abuse. And whenever we abuse them, we open ourselves to throwing out the very thing that makes sexuality intelligible in the first place.
The monstrosity called gender ideology, of course, is based on denying that same finality’s importance.
I think you can see where I’m going.
I have a hard time supporting sick people trying to brainwash our youngest into their cult. Adults that change are one thing but trying to change 5, 6, 7, 8,and etc. children should not be aloud and those that promote it, teachers, forced to find new careers!!
Welcome to Sodom & Gomorrah.
Remember the good old days, when the sick, deviate, perverted Alphabet folks were in the closet, afraid of persecution & prosecution and the world seemed like a better place.
I am not for persecution and prosecution but I have had enough of this LGBTQ stuff being shoved in my face. When will we have a Heterosexual Pride Month? The answer is “never.”
Well, we don’t need these events, though. (Still, I have some mixed thoughts about one group that held a Straight Pride event some time back…) The perverse insist on theirs because they know they’re in the wrong. It seems we have a deep-seated need to be right the first time around; so either you admit you were wrong, or you double-down until you win, or can’t go on anymore.
I’m not for persecution, either. They’ve invented enough martyrs and victims for their wicked cause as it is, and as it is, I’d rather do my part to spare them from what comes after unrepentant sin. The world was better off when the gateways to madness were barred with clear laws and strict measures.
Exactly!
I don’t want them to hide in the closet–Like most people, I just want them to stop their irrational rantings, live their lives, and quit trying to force us to accept their lifestyle as “normal.” It is not. It’s one thing to make your personal choice, and quite another to try and force others to think the way you do.