As a proud American who happens to be gay, I say it's time to end gay pride month.
Last week the Los Angeles Dodgers came under intense criticism, including from a number of the team's players, for inviting a group of "queer and trans nuns" with a long history of anti-Catholic activities to its "10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night" on June 16th.
This is just the latest controversial virtue signal on gay alphabet-soup identity politics, following close on the (high) heels of Bud Light's decision to promote a flamboyant transgender influencer on its cans and Target and Kohl's stores marketing transgender children's wear in observance of gay pride month.
This annual frenzy of rainbow flag waving has shifted into overdrive in recent years and has reached the point of self-parody and irrelevance at the same time. The best way to honor gay Americans would be to wake up and end this dated annual tradition once and for all, recognizing that the decades-long battle for parity is already won and we are simply proud and patriotic Americans, full stop.
In American society today, it is impossible to find a single corporation, small business, farm, any branch of the military, or any other place in government or the private sector where anyone would be fired or discriminated against for being gay or married (now legally) to someone of the same gender, and that's a great thing.
Also, in the exceedingly rare instances where that is not the case, holding a gay pride month would do nothing to change such old-fashioned views, and today that shopworn bigotry represents a real professional and personal liability for anyone who harbors it.
Gay Americans like myself salute all the leaders, lawmakers, and others -- gay and straight -- who, in a few short decades, brought us to the point of complete impartiality on this incidental private, personal trait when it comes to military service, marriage, employment, and on every other societal front.
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Three decades ago, I had to mask my sexuality to serve my country in the Marine Corps, before the advent of "don't ask, don't tell," and way before gay Americans were accepted entirely in the military. In my era, fit, professional, and upstanding Americans would be discharged from the Marine Corps and every other branch of service simply for being gay, and that was not only wrong, it was unpatriotic.
A quarter century later, the ground had shifted seismically on the issue, and President Trump appointed me to two senior positions in government -- National Security Council spokesman and Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs. In doing so, he made me, as a matter of incidental fact, one of the highest-ranking gay officials in history from either party.
Yet to his credit, Trump never mentioned that I was gay, even when he and his administration came under predictable and regular fire from liberal media on the general issue of "diversity and inclusion." Instead, he said I was the best-qualified candidate for both jobs as a Marine veteran with a lengthy background in national security communications.
This is because Trump and most of society believe, correctly, that we are all Americans, no matter our background, race, gender, or sexual orientation. We are not special identity groups to be split up and pandered to for political gain.
For most Americans, gay or straight, our sexual orientation is no more or less relevant than whether we are right- or left-handed as long as no one is denied fundamental rights, which is irrefutably the state of play across society today. Sexual orientation is not a big part of our identity, personally or professionally; frankly, it's just not that interesting. I identify as an American, a veteran, a son, a brother, and a (mediocre) golfer who loves the occasional steak and Martini. I do not consider myself a "proud right hander."
Given the state of clear and indisputable fairness in society today across the board, why do a fraction continue to bang the drum on identity politics when it comes to sexual orientation, as well as on race, gender, disability, and other immutable characteristics through "celebrations" such as gay pride month and the additional so-called heritage months?
Not only are these divisive monthly identity festivals beyond old-fashioned, they diminish us as a country. These days they are used primarily, or solely, as a shoehorn to drive far-left initiatives from the professional grievance-grifters, and for Woke virtue-signaling from corporations and sports leagues, in this month's case on promoting transgender education for young children and attacking religion.
It's time to shelve identity politics and fly the American flag, not a rainbow flag or a BLM flag. Let's get back to viewing each other simply as Americans, no matter our background, race, gender, or sexual orientation. In the words of President Obama some two decades ago, "There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."
Today, Obama would never get his party's nomination with that message of unity, given the mania of identity politics in 2023. But we can return to this ideal by recognizing the strong state of parity across the board in America today and giving the heave-ho to gay pride month and all other such polarizing heritage months once and for all.
John Ullyot is a U.S. Marine veteran and served as chief spokesman for the National Security Council and Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
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