I almost got through June without encountering Deadly Sin month.
My family takes a road trip around Memorial Day to visit other family and see the interior of the country, connecting to its people and places, not just flying over it. We spent part of June in a tiny Kansas town where the only flag flown for the most part was the American flag. Stores had standard, attractive displays to draw you to their merchandise, and conversations surrounded the things of everyday life. Political topics and all they entail were rarely the center of conversation.
That changed a week later when we stayed in the Chicago area. In most cities there was nothing but rainbow flags and Pride displays. “When you live in a place where most people don’t give a rat’s ass, you forget how in your face it all is,” ran my text to a friend and colleague.
For the most part, Alabamians really don’t care. One of the reasons both generational families and transplants like living here is because having a quiet, understated life is a blessing and a bonus. When attempts are made to compromise or destroy that life, conflict starts.
Sadly, Pride month injects conflict, not because a particular group wants to have a parade celebrating who they choose to be, but because they make a concerted effort to wrangle the children into it.
As 1819 News’ Daniel Taylor reports, Huntsville has a series of Pride celebrations planned at the end of June, some catering to … children.
A new LGBTQ group is planning to hold a gay pride parade through downtown Huntsville to ‘celebrate the Stonewall Riots’ of New York in 1969.
The Community Pride Alliance, which is a ‘private club’ comprised of ‘supporters, leaders, performers, youth, and organizations,’ is putting on the Vincent Rutherford Equality March starting at 11 a.m. on June 29, followed by the Cedaria Rion Pridefest Social 2025. The group has been active recently during the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests.
[…]
A ‘family-friendly celebration of Pride’ is planned at Butler Green @ Campus 805 following the march, featuring bands, food and drag performers.
To volunteer for the parade or to be a vendor at the social, applicants must pledge not to be involved with ‘waging a culture war’ against the LGBTQ+ ‘community’ or be ‘politically affiliated with those who do.’
Well, that’s not very inclusive. Let a Christian or right-leaning group put in that type of language in their volunteer requirements, and it would be all over legacy media and the lawsuits would be queuing up.
Compared to states like California, Illinois, and New York, Alabama’s Pride celebration is muted and appears inconsequential. But a look under the hood shows the concerted effort to make the celebrations more in your face, and to rope in children as active participants.
One such insidious campaign is the “Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health.” Founded in 1999, the organization began seeking to address the teen pregnancy crisis in the state, but quickly “expanded [their] mission to address adolescent sexual health more broadly.” In other words, LGBTQ+ information must become a part of public school sex education curricula.
The campaign is using Pride month to push its agenda of “inclusive sex ed” and they may be making their presence known at this Huntsville “family friendly” Pride event.
Was this the original intent for Pride month? According to gay Republican Ric Grenell, no. But the need to hold on to power and money, while having undue influence over the next generation appears to have taken precedence. In an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns, Grenell unmasked what the gay left now seeks.
“I mean, you go to a Pride Parade, and it's embarrassing, to be honest. It's real fringe and it's too sexual,” Grenell said, making a distinction between normal gays and radical gays.
In response to Burns’ question about what is a “normal gay,” Grenell replied, “It's not a radical gay that says that a six-year-old should have their boobs cut off or get hormone replacement therapy.
He continued:
Look, I think the reality is that we have to have normality. That's what we were fighting for in 1993, we kept saying, 'We're normal, we're just like you, we just love somebody of the same sex.’
Now, I think—and this is an extremely controversial statement, but I believe it wholeheartedly. I think that we have largely achieved equality in this country for gays and lesbians. And I think that the gay left knows that and so therefore they're coming up with new gimmicks and fringe stuff to keep the money flowing and to keep the power going within the Democrat Party.
Grenell concluded:
If you are within the Democratic Party as a gay person, what you've brought to the table is organizing efforts, money, and votes, in the past. That's all fallen apart.
So, the real reason LGBTQ+ advocacy has increased in Alabama is to bring in new followers, new allies, and most pivotal, new money. If you haven’t noticed, people, including LGBTQ people, are fleeing the typical centers that used to fund their movements. Now the movement must redirect or suffer total demise.
“The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began,” C. S. Lewis writes in “Mere Christianity.” “Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But pride always means enmity—it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.”
That about sums up the state of Pride month in Alabama. It works to be at enmity, and the biggest divide is the targeting of children, whether we like it or not.
Jennifer Oliver O'Connell, As the Girl Turns, is an investigative journalist, author, opinion analyst, and contributor to 1819 News, Redstate, and other publications. Jennifer writes on Politics and Pop Culture, with occasional detours into Reinvention, Yoga, and Food. You can read more about Jennifer's world at her As the Girl Turns website. You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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