Is this really progress?
Pride, values and social change in New Zealand.
A quick look ahead at the year’s Rainbow Events calendar shows pride festivals featured every month, from January to December, with events slotted in to celebrate individuals’ anti-heterosexual inclinations, such as homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, same sex marriages - an extraordinary variety of departures from what most people would regard as normalcy – the attraction between a man and woman which advances the human race.
And although many thousands were estimated to have attended the Auckland Rainbow Pride Parade some time back, this was by no means a sign of support for what some viewed as basically an attack on traditional family values. Have we really reached the stage where drag queens - in garish dresses and exaggerated, dramatized makeup with over-sized breasts, deep cleavage and piled-up hairdos - can lampoon women without this being considered offensive? Are concerned parents not supposed to mind that what many regard as basically exhibitionists are now freely invited to read to children in libraries, disturbing and confusing many? Is this mockery of women really just all good fun? And do Hero Parades really feature heroes?
It is possible that many New Zealanders will wonder why David Seymour and Chris Bishop led contingents from the ACT and National parties, together with a rainbow-decorated police car spearheading the New Zealand Police contingent, all in support of this Pride Parade. Police officers hoisting the Progress Pride flag, joined by representatives from Fonterra, Foodstuffs Woolworths, the Burnett Foundation, Fire and Emergency services, and even, sadly, Scouts Aotearoa. Yet as it basically celebrates sexual behaviour contrary to what nature intended - the heterosexual union between a man and a woman intended, where possible, to produce the children which ensures society’s survival - it seems reasonable for puzzled people to ask what is happening to us as a country? If there was a similar parade held to celebrate the Christian beliefs underpinning our society, would the police, these MPs and all these firms be so keen to march in support of our valuable heritage? Is it time to ask what is happening to us as a society and whether this a good thing – reasonable questions, most would agree.
At any rate, for some obscure reason, physical relationships between members of the same sex which traditionally - and in many countries worldwide – have been and are frowned upon, even punished, have been so cleverly media-promoted in the West that apparently they now appear to be regarded as a source of great pride, so that we have got to the stage where we have such marches, recently even called Hero Parades.
No explanation is actually given as to why individuals wedded to what many regard as deviant activities should have these celebrated as heroic, or a source of excessive pride. In fact, those puzzledly asking how such a situation could have arisen in a country founded upon and underpinned by Christian values – homosexuality is explicitly condemned in the Bible – would no doubt be immediately accused of homophobia - or promoting hate speech. Such pejorative accusations are always a useful weapon deployed to intimidate those raising genuine concerns.
It is certainly true that until comparatively recently, as epitomised in the well-publicised trial of Oscar Wilde, those caught engaged in a homosexual act were treated cruelly. So today, very probably the majority of people throughout the West, mindful of the lack of tolerance so long shown towards those faced with same sex attraction - in some cases causing the individuals concerned bewilderment and shame - are rightly anxious to ensure this cruelty never happens again.
In countries such as Japan, homosexual marriage is banned, and same sex acts are illegal in over 60 countries, with penalties ranging from imprisonment to the death penalty. The West, of course, cannot condone this. Extending tolerance to those adults whose consensual practices we may not approve of may well be regarded as axiomatic. However, when behaviour challenging our social and moral mores comes to be apparently regarded as something to be especially proud of, then this is another issue entirely. We have gone past minding our own business to promoting what is as now presented as somehow superior – hence these Pride Marches and the Hero Parades through towns and cities.
What concerns many parents is the promotion of homosexual behaviour in schools with, for example, School Pride Week in June, Aotearoa (the radicalised term Aotearoa is in itself a giveaway) aimed at supporting Rainbow (LGBTQIA etc ) individuals, staff and students, with Pride Banners flown and specific activities involved. Many would regard such concern as reasonable. This attempt to both propagandise and recruit defenceless young children may well be regarded as scandalous by those who question whether we have, in the West, lost our moral compass. It masquerades, of course, as promoting “diversity “- that weasel word so usefully used by those attacking traditional values. It is no wonder that some parents keep their children at home during this particular week.
The tolerance New Zealanders have as a matter of course long extended towards those drawn to same sex relationships is not reciprocated when questions are asked by those concerned at the inordinate promotion of homosexual or lesbian lifestyles. It can elicit the kind of aggressive animosity we see also commonly directed by pro-abortionists against those marching in support of the unborn child. The sheer venom, if not physical attacks directed against those doing this is deeply concerning. So, too, is the fact that our government - persuaded by those who have what many now regard as undue influence in our political, social and educational areas - actually passed a law against professional help being offered to any of our young wanting help in turning their backs on the same sex attraction that they feel.
This attraction of course is perfectly normal in those early adolescent years when it is almost de rigeur for girls to get crushes on other girls, and boys to hero-worship those with sporting prowess, or who excel in other fields. With adolescence left behind, so do these times, except in the case of a minority, some of whom remained fixated in same sex attraction. Those who are concerned and would like counselling have been deprived of this, even when backed by parents offering their support, by a majority of MPs conned into believing that so called Conversion Therapy would be dangerous for these youngsters’ mental health… very possibly the same MPs who would support the notion of those adolescents self-identifying as other than their biological sex…and in some cases demanding drastic surgery or drugs to attempt to become what they envisage.
From the sixties onwards, the so-called sexual liberation, regarded by some as progressive, has seen in the West what has been described as a new morality – viewed by many as the old immorality. While in so many parts of the world today homosexual behaviour is frowned upon, even, appallingly, punishable by death, perversely, the West’s decline into permissiveness has given those openly and extravagantly promoting homosexual, lesbian, and transsexual behaviour (as somehow superior to normalcy) the opportunity to present it as somehow superior. As we now see, it has come to be promoted as something to be celebrated - a source of pride with these marches and rainbow pride flags, challenging the relationship between a man and a woman, although we know it is this which ensures the continuation of the human race.
So influential has this radicalised gay pride movement become that lesbian or homosexual teachers, noting that their charges have developed crushes on others so prevalent in these adolescent years - and almost always outgrown - now seek to recruit them, trying to persuade them that they may actually not be heterosexual, sowing concern and confusion among our young at a time when they are so very vulnerable.
Moreover, many will maintain that concerned parents have every reason to object to our Ministry of Education supporting the gay pride days in our schools and encouraging children to wear pink on these days. Nor does it help to reassure conservative parents when our police officers are encouraged to also join pride parades with a police car painted in rainbow colours. But why?
For the question puzzling many is: why the excessive pride? With birth rates plunging worldwide and the horrors of abortion - killing unborn children whose tiny hearts unmistakeably start beating at six weeks after conception - the future for many countries is bleak. Yet in an act of great folly, our always permissive government has legislated for what many regard as a great nonsense, same-sex marriages. This epitomises the saying that governments can make something legal, but that doesn’t make it moral.
We know the pride movement is essentially antithetical to family values - although the family – father, mother and child - is the most important nucleus of any society. For a country founded on Christian values, the reminder is there in the Bible that homosexual behaviour is regarded as immoral. Moreover, some sexual practices undeniable promote the spread of disease and infection.
In almost all countries outside Africa, fertility is in rapid decline. The future for many countries - now seriously concerned about ageing populations and a rapidly declining birth rate - is more than sombre. It is little wonder when about 73 million unborn children are aborted annually according to WHO (the World Health Organisation), 200,000 a day. Yet a declining population has to support an ever-heavier burden of retirees with tax rates rising and hope for the future falling. And although one of the three main duties of government is defence of the realm, this defence is imperilled if an army cannot meet its recruitment targets. Marriage is the context in which people have children, and once the population slips below a fertility rate it can reach a point of no return. Even in New Zealand, the birthrate has fallen below replacement level,
It is little wonder then that the heavy promotion of homosexual and lesbian activity, through the centre-staging of gay pride - in opposition to the formation of that normal relationship between a man and a woman - is of concern to many, wondering about the reason for its celebration.
We should by all means feel compassion for those who have chosen or have been precipitated onto a path nature undoubtedly did not intend for the continuation of the human race. But what has possessed us to promote this now openly flamboyant movement, sowing confusion in and propagandizing our young?
It is argued by some that sexual permissiveness is helping to bring about the disintegration of society. Hence many querying what is happening to this country when we centre-stage occasions like Pride Parades, and promote gay activism to our children, as well as inviting drag Queens to read to them in libraries. And why is our Ministry of Education celebrating these activities in our schools? Do we really need the heavy promotion of this movement through rainbow crossings on our roads and the flying of rainbow flags? Is this really progress?
Why are our taxpayer dollars funding this? Is this what Chris Bishop, David Seymour and their party followers - let alone the police contingent and other major organisations - really support? Or have they been propagandized, and have not thought through the implications of their support for this and other parades?
New Zealanders deserve answers to these questions.
© Amy Brooke.
An earlier version of this article was originally published at www.100days.co.nz.
New Zealand children’s author, poet, and socio-political commentator can be found at www.amybrooke.co.nz