We are in the season of Pride Parades. The LGBT turn out in their millions whether it be in New York, Sao Paulo or London their upbeat colours brightening up the street-scape. Our Dublin effort grows larger by the year but you really know things are changing when in Belfast the Pride Parade is the biggest in that land of parades!
What does the acronym LGBTQI+ stand for? It’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex. The plus sign covers a multitude of sins! It can stretch to 16! It’s a movement looking for a name. The name must mean ‘being different’.
The LG part of the acronym has come of age with some of our foremost law firms and banks making major strides at creating inclusive cultures and publicly proclaim it. No one need feel they are left out. All human beings are equal irrespective of sexuality. In fact, Ireland is something of a global leader in equality. Our vote for marriage equality was the first country to do so. We also have a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, herself a lesbian, who has set up a LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy – another first for Ireland.
It is in the field of youth that the biggest increase in the BT is expected. To really ensure cultural change, it’s wasting time focussing on the elderly and mature, the effort has to be directed towards youth. It’s there that fluid gender and the absence of boundaries have the strongest appeal. Add in the decoupling of parental control, which has been used in the UK, in the furtherance of trans-gender work.
There seem to be overtones here with Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’. In the book Huxley sees the future with child production taken out of the hands of would be parents and assigned to laboratories. This was written in 1932!
The rainbow has become the flag of the LGBT. It has been hi-jacked from the Bible where it symbolises God’s promise, after the flood, that the earth will not be subject to another global flood. Such a mighty symbol waving in the hands of the unaware!
Cultures, of course, are fluid themselves. No matter how hard people try to effect permanent change they can only make a surface one. Moses was up against it when he tried to change the culture of the Egyptians to let his people go. Pharaoh introduced his magicians who turned their staffs into snakes. The magic did not last long as Moses’s staff also turned into a snake and eat all the others. Only God can effect permanent change! (Exodus Chapter 7 verse 12).
Some may feel that the present changes go to the foundation of the old verities. The Psalmist also asked this question, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Keep going and God will do his part (Chapter 11 verses 3/7).