The LGBTQ+ community claims many identities. For the purposes of this article, let’s focus on the “LGB” part of this group. LGB stands for lesbian, gay, and bisexual, and those who subscribe to this worldview base their identity on being born with an inclination to love those of the same sex (or both sexes, if they are bisexual). This community is generally older and more active than the latter add-ons, and they also have a long and colorful history — a lot of which is sad. This community, like all special interest groups, contains two sides: those who strive for assimilation and living quiet lives of freedom in their community, and the more aggressive sect of activists. The activists tend to be the ones pushing the agenda beyond the realm of toleration and peace to that of indoctrination and bigotry.

LGB activists place the sexual preference of the individual above everything else, which is both too broad and too narrow. People are complex. They have too many gifts, talents, and ideas to offer the world to be happy in such a narrow box. An LGB-identifying activist is choosing to make this part of themselves the hill worth dying on. It is a death indeed.

When you make sex and sexuality your identity and your god, then of course you inflate your pride. And pride is the war cry of the LGB activists. Pride, as the LGB community means it, is about loving and embracing who you are, but it more accurately means having too high an opinion of oneself. Author C.S. Lewis says in his book Mere Christianity, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” He’s describing loving something about yourself so much that it builds a wall of vitriol and hate against those who disagree with the worldview. It inhibits the capacity to look for a greater purpose beyond your self-ascribed identity.

These activists take what could arguably be standing up for their constitutionally protected freedoms and rights to an extreme that is antithetical to the American identity.

First, let’s talk about freedom of association. It is the constitutional right of all Americans to associate with whomever they desire. But LGB activists do not have the right to force their ideas and agendas on those who don’t agree with them. A few common words that are often shouted by these activists are “tolerance” and “respect.” Well, tolerance and respect are a two-way street. Their version of these words seems to mean, Let me do and say whatever I want to whomever I want. This can prove to be a dangerous slippery slope.

It’s a slippery slope that has been taking over culture in the form of new holidays on the American calendar, i.e., “Pride Month” and special days of mourning and remembrance for their martyrs. There is nothing inherently wrong with marking special days for certain groups. America has a long history of celebrating all the various people that make up its history and culture. However, these holidays have become pervasive and taken to the most extreme.

Which leads to perhaps the most egregious violation that these activists have perpetrated: indoctrinating children in the name of “tolerance and fairness.” For starters, young children through middle school are not mature enough sexually to even be introduced to these concepts. Young children (hopefully) have no concept of sex and sexual identity. It is a part of their innocence. Protection from information that they are not ready for and cannot properly process should be a goal of all adults who care about them.

This year in particular, though, it seems that children are up for grabs.

Throughout the month of June, there were gay characters in children’s shows celebrating Pride Month, rainbow flags were everywhere, and there was even a song that the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus made about literally converting your children. This is not only a violation of the freedom of association but also a flagrant disregard for the rights of the parents and the innocence of the children in question. In other words, the song definitely comes across as a threat. More recently, Patriot Post contributor and Tennessee resident Patrick Hampton had to pull his children from a Christian school summer camp — where he believed they were more or less safe from this ideology — because counselors showed a video featuring a same-sex couple. At the end of the day, the activists have crossed a line. Children should be off limits.

Lastly, the American identity operates under the condition that we use the same language and assimilate into the greater culture through the use of this agreed-upon language. Language is a living thing and does change over time, but the Left as a whole has hijacked this and in recent years has been using language to convolute and obfuscate truth. The LGB activists are no different. Gay vs. straight. Bigoted vs. tolerant. Frankly, they use common language to spread hate and label those who agree with them as “good” and those who disagree with them as “bad.” So much for tolerance.

Until we can collectively use language in the correct way as a tool to build rather than destroy, it is only going to continue to crumble our country, people, and identity.