Say Anything Blog

Obama’s Secretary of Labor decided that she wanted to honor “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month” by hanging up some posters and pictures in the Labor Department building (at the taxpayer’s expense, no doubt).  Apparently everyone working at the Labor Department was ok with that.

WASHINGTON – Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is denouncing vandals who defaced many of the gay pride posters installed at the agency’s Washington headquarters.

Solis, the first secretary in the department’s history to publicly recognize Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month, sent an agency-wide e-mail last Friday saying she would not tolerate anti-gay misconduct.

“It appears, however, that some members of the Labor Department team have a different view, as it has come to my attention that most of the posters have been continually defaced or removed,” Solis said. “On several occasions, even the poster frames have been torn completely off the elevator walls.”

The posters first went up at the agency’s headquarters on June 1. Solis said they will stay up until the end of the month and would be replaced immediately if they are removed or destroyed.

Vandalism is stupid, and I certainly don’t have any problem with people being gay or transgendered or whatever.  “Live and let live” is my philosophy.  I just don’t understand why the government needs to recognize things like “gay pride.”

Shouldn’t we want the government to be blind to things like gender, race, religion and sexual orientation?  I’d much rather have a government that simply doesn’t care about those things than one that wants to pat me on the head because of who I may choose to have sex with.

Being gay isn’t something to be proud of.  It isn’t something to be ashamed of.  It is just something you are that doesn’t entitle you to any different treatment by the government or under the law than anyone else.

I think this speaks to a deep divide in this country on social issues.  One that doesn’t even really break down along the traditional liberal vs. conservative lines.  Some people want the government to define what constitutes a good, upright citizen.  Those people endlessly fight one another over what the definition of a good citizen is.  The gays vs. the anti-gays are a good example of this.

But then there are others who don’t want the government to define anything for them and simply want to be free to live their lives in the way they see fit.

I’m in that last group.  I don’t want a “heterosexual pride month” to offset “gay pride month.”  I don’t care to have a “white pride month” either.  I mostly just want to be left alone.