By Larry Craig

June is Pride Month, so I tried to think of all the things that I’m proud of, but it wasn’t much.

I am proud of my country, but a lot of people are saying today that there is nothing to be proud of. I think they just don’t know what we really have here.

I have a graduate degree, and I’ve written a few books. I’m happy about that and maybe a little proud too.

I am a white, heterosexual male. I know these kinds of things are important to a lot of people. I am happy that I am a white, heterosexual male. But proud? That doesn’t seem like the right word.

I am proud of my two sons and their families. I could just say that I am happy they turned out well. But they are my sons, so I will say that I am proud of them.

But Pride Month wasn’t created so that people would reflect on things they are personally proud of. It was created because some LGBTQ people felt that they were being marginalized and even persecuted for their lifestyle. Pride was their response. They said that they were proud of their lifestyle, and they have been devoting their lives ever since to making that lifestyle more acceptable to people everywhere, which is certainly understandable.

But there are a few things here I find concerning.

It’s become popular for people and companies to show support by simply proclaiming PRIDE with all the appropriate colors. I think they are sending the wrong messages. People and companies are even being pressured to celebrate Pride Month. When they do that, they are not merely affirming their support and care for a formerly marginalized group. They are essentially applauding a lifestyle. They are essentially teaching our children that this lifestyle is commendable, noble, just, and good.

Everybody is insisting that we must all embrace this lifestyle without any discussion of its merits or demerits. Even raising questions about it or wanting to discuss it is immediately derided as hatred, so we are never able to even talk about it.

We have melded personal identity with lifestyle such that we can’t even discuss lifestyles without the discussion being understood as a personal attack. There are probably some people reading this article who will call me hateful for even talking about any of this.

If I scream at a person in the street who doesn’t see a fast-approaching car, I don’t hate them. I am not even mad at them. I have information I want to convey that they might find useful very soon.

Now here I think there is a slow-approaching car that is just as likely to hit them. I don’t need to yell at them, but, yes, I certainly would like to talk to that person before it does.

The federal government has even weighed in on this issue. New guidelines on sex education for our public schools, beginning from the earliest ages, assert that there is no such thing as normative sex, and all the various forms of sexual activity are like flavors of ice cream. One is not better than another. We must try them all to see which one we like best. And we need to decide on this at a very young age. There’s no time to waste here.

We are asking our children, long before they have ever given any thought about having children of their own, whether they would want or should adopt this lifestyle. One significant problem with the homosexual lifestyle is that it cannot create children by any of the normal means. Only one partner in these relationships can be a natural parent to any children. That means that we are intentionally removing one of the child’s natural parents from his or her life.

This is not good, and we shouldn’t pretend that it is.

They also want us to teach our children that the doctors who assisted in their birth were mistaken to declare a gender for that child. This is something that they must decide for themselves, and the sooner the better.

Schools all across our country are essentially trying to recruit students to this lifestyle when they declare that all sexual activity is equal in value. Sex is not taught as a part of establishing families or even as an expression of love. It is merely a pleasurable experience that children need to be taught about to avoid certain adverse consequences. One form of sex can result in pregnancy, but we have a cure for that, so you need not worry about it if you do choose to have that kind of sex.

And we are teaching our children about this lifestyle long before they have given any thought to the long-term repercussions of their decisions.

I don’t think this is wise or good for our children. I think we can and need to do better.

This is not fair to our children and can even be considered a form of manipulation. This must be removed from our public schools. This is a lifestyle choice that only adults are fully capable of making.

All the major religions that have talked about this issue have been uniform in their disapproval of it, though more and more church leaders today are becoming more accepting of the practice.

At the same time, Christianity, for example, teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to do unto others as we would have others do unto us. All people are created in the image of God and are worthy of our love and respect.

But Christianity also believes that this lifestyle, in any of its myriad variations, is not what the Creator intended, and Christians want to be able to have that conversation in our society. It can be hard at times to discuss the LGBTQ lifestyle without the people involved feeling diminished.

I can’t speak for every individual Christian here, but in general, it is the Christian who understands more than anyone else the intrinsic value of a human being and the importance that God puts on us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We wish we could talk in backyards with lemonade rather than with placards and protests. But, yes, we want to talk.