Are Virtue-Signaling Politicians Actually Helping Gay People?

No. The answer is no.

Alberta NDP posing with a three-story pride flag. Source: X/@shoffmanAB

I’m grateful to live in a time and place where homosexuality is not criminalized and is in fact so accepted that I can live my life openly. As much as I lament the excesses of “Pride,” let me at least start by expressing my gratitude. But it’s precisely because I know how rare this state of affairs is and because I am acutely aware of how easily it can be lost that I do speak as often as I do about how all things gay, trans, and queer are being shoved down everyone else’s throats, and how this is a bad thing. I think it is actually our current biggest threat, and I think politicians are among the guiltiest of doing this.

Take, for example, the Alberta NDP’s Pride Month stunt of hanging a three-story pride flag (if this bastardized version can even be called that) from the Queen Elizabeth II Building in Edmonton, and then gathering around it and reaffirming their commitment to all things queer. It also presented a fantastic opportunity to take shots at that dastardly Premier Danielle Smith.

The stunt provoked a flurry of criticism on social media, including from myself. Most of the commentary—that I saw at least—was not homophobic. For the most part, people expressed their distaste for this kind of constant virtue signaling and their exhaustion at “Pride.” They also made fun of the various additions to the flag, which just keeps getting uglier and more ridiculous.

But I have to say, some of the only times that I do see comments that begin to hedge into hatred and homophobia is in response to stunts and virtue signaling like this. I see people start talking about “perverts” and “groomers,” especially when they are tired of the type of material that their children are being exposed to in schools. I agree, what’s happening in schools is very much grooming. But this rhetoric often extends to gay people as such.

The people leaving these comments often don’t make any sort of distinction between “LGB” and “TQ+”, which so many gay people I know desperately want them to make. But, to a certain extent, I almost can’t blame them, as it is a large portion of gay people either actively pushing this stuff or tacitly letting it happen. But many of us do not agree with it at all.

(Personally, I feel the important distinction is between gay and even trans-identified people who accept queer theory—whether they recognize that fact explicitly or not—and those who reject it).

Nowhere do I run across more overtly hateful and actually homophobic comments than in response to virtue-signaling Pride posts by the Liberal Party of Canada. These posts always get solidly ratioed, but that doesn’t stop the good ol’ Liberals! They’re going to keep on provoking without an ounce of self-reflection because they are the good guys, dammit!

Let me be clear: I am not excusing hateful and homophobic comments. Just because people are being provoked doesn’t mean it’s right for them to react that way. Just because a politician you hate keeps obnoxiously championing a minority group, it doesn’t mean it’s perfectly okay to feel hate and vitriol toward that group simply for being who they are.

(At the same time, I am firmly against the criminalization of “hate.” It is a legitimate emotion that people are allowed to feel and yes, even to express, even if I don’t personally agree with their choice of target.)

The reason I talk about this and the reason I am so concerned is because I am convinced, because of what I see happening right in front of me, that these politicians are creating enemies for us. Both more enemies and more passionate ones.

There have always been and will always be people who do not approve of homosexuality. I am okay with this fact. I would drive myself crazy worrying about trying to make the whole world approve of this one aspect of my life. All I can reasonably ask is to be left alone to live my life. We had that truce. Gay marriage has been legal in Canada since 2005. Nearly two decades! And since then, there has not been a concerted, organized, or effective effort to change that.

But with all things Pride and Queer being pushed further into society and onto younger and younger children, many people feel that the truce has been broken by the gay side. I’ve seen more talk lately about how gay marriage was a mistake than I ever have before. It also seems that the slippery slope has been proven right.

(Personally, the slippery slope idea as applied to this issue is not something I believe in. You can read more of my thoughts about this over at Reality’s Last Stand: Who or What Is to Blame for Gender Ideology?)

And no, these sentiments don’t just exist online. They are a reflection of what I see around me out in the world and of surveys revealing changing attitudes toward “LGBTQ+ issues.”

At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if an organized movement against gay marriage does spring up within a few years. It’s the Liberals who keep bringing up the idea in the first place, with their incessant need to paint Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre as a homophobe who is coming for gay rights. Recently, Poilievre had to clarify that “same sex marriage is legal and it will remain legal when I am prime minister.”

I’m annoyed that he even deigned to give a response to the question, seeing as the repeal of same-sex marriage is not something he has campaigned on nor championed. Yes, nearly 20 years ago he voted with his party against it. And then we had almost a decade under a majority Conservative government that he was a part of which didn’t touch it.

My dear Liberals, if gay marriage comes into significant question in this country, it will be you who put the idea into many heads.

Again, to be clear, people are ultimately responsible for their thoughts and actions. If they decide to hate someone else simply for their sexual orientation, I’m not going to excuse them just because clueless politicians provoked them. I won’t think much of such a person.

But yes, a lot of my anger and frustration is directed at those, especially politicians, who couldn’t leave a good thing alone and who pushed and pushed until they started eroding at the goodwill the gay movement had built up. They are actively creating new enemies for us, but most of them won’t have to deal with the fallout.