Gay Movement Should Separate From Extremist Fringe

In honor of Gay Pride month, I am proud to say that I have no “gay” friends.

The reason is simple: I don’t base friendships on a person’s sexual preference, but character. Do some of my friends happen  to be gay? Yes, and I count them among my closest comrades. But their being gay is irrelevant, which is why they are friends and not “gay” friends.

Likewise, a person’s skin color, ethnicity, or religion never plays a role in how I view people, and whether I call them a friend.

(Caveat: since I am in in the media, I actually have no friends — the way it should be. That way, you’ll never sell out, nor be a shill for any side. If a journalist wants company, he should buy a dog.)

Unfortunately, extremists on both sides continue to hijack the “gay” issue, creating needless animosity and government intrusion.

Given that Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden declared that, if elected, LGBTQ rights would be his top priority, let’s look at the issues surrounding this contentious topic.

Joe Biden is pandering. In sucking up to the hard-core base who makes the LGBTQ agenda their only issue, Mr. Biden aims to gain a plurality, while the remaining votes are split among the other Dems in the field. To be fair, other candidates are also pandering, on everything from slavery reparations to impeachment, but that’s for a different day.

Here’s the problem: in the general election, the LBGTQ-platform-as-first-priority is DOA, and could blow a Biden candidacy out of the water. And that’s not because a majority of Americans are anti-gay. Quite the opposite. Most people favor gay marriage, for example, but demand priority be given to more pressing issues, such as job outsourcing, immigration, skyrocketing college tuition, and sub-par educational achievement. As 2016 proved, a candidate’s failure to understand the electorate will be to his or her peril.

The problem arises when the Left’s social-engineering propaganda is shoved down people’s throats. From commercials to TV shows to celebrity advocacy, demands for political correctness and bowing to the liberal agenda have become in-your-face politicking. A backlash occurs when people feel beaten over the head, and worse, when excoriated as “bigots” should they happen to disagree.

Unfortunately, the gay community is in a tough spot because its leadership unwisely allied the movement with every letter in the LBGTQ umbrella, an entity exponentially growing with fringe groups. So what used to be a gay/lesbian/bisexual movement has morphed into “LGBTQIAPKDAFHITLGNC,” which now represents “transgenders, queers, intersex, asexual, pansexual, kink, demisexual, ally, fetish, leather, gender-non-conforming,” and other groups even some advocates surely don’t know.

And gays also get lumped with the “personal pronoun police” who demand people be addressed by their “preferred pronoun” — ze/zir, ve/vir/verself, etc. — and the 31 recognized genders of New York City’s civil rights code, so it’s not hard to realize why the gay movement’s credibility has been damaged. (And yes, The Big Apple legally recognizes such genders as “Cross-Dresser, Pangender, Two-spirit, Third Sex, Non-binary Transgender, Adrogyne, Gender Blender, and Androgynous.”) Enough said.

To recover its reputation, the traditional gay movement would be wise to jettison all ties to the Leftist Trans movement, since the two have little in common.

And it would be a big mistake to use identity politics when analyzing the gay community. Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro was elected president with substantial support from the gay community, despite slandering gays. Translation, especially to Joe Biden: assumptions are dangerous, as most gays don’t fit their “stereotype.” In fact, most exhibit significant diversity in everything from occupations to politics to interests.

Yet both sides shamelessly politicize the gay movement.

Some on the Right proclaim homosexuality to be a “mental illness” requiring “re-education” to “fix;” some don’t understand that homosexuality and pedophilia have nothing to do with one another; and others damn the “offenders” to hell since “God is against gays.” Unfortunately, in their quest for absolute piety, many have forsaken mirrors, as they are incapable of reflecting upon themselves to become better people.

And the radical left demands special privileges for fringe groups by invoking the gay movement when, in reality, their agenda has nothing to do with gays. The push for so-called “bathroom bills” are led by LBGTQ forces (which, by definition, encompasses gays) but the legislation being promoted would only serve people who “identify” as the opposite sex.

Let’s stop acceding to every whim of the radical “trans” movement, and end the divisiveness that comes with identifying neighbors, friends, and family by their sexuality. In the end, we’re all Americans, and that’s the only label that matters.

Chris Freind is an independent columnist, television commentator, and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, Freindly Fire Zone Media. Read more reports from Chris Freind — Click Here Now.