PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER
Victoria Schneps-Yunis
CEO & CO-PUBLISHER
Joshua Schneps
FOUNDING EDITOR IN-CHIEF
& ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Paul Schindler
editor@gaycitynews.com
DIGITAL EDITOR
Matt Tracy
matt@gaycitynews.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Duncan Osborne
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Donna Aceto (Photography)
Christopher Byrne (Theater),
Susie Day (Perspective),
Brian McCormick (Dance)
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Kelly Jean Cogswell, Andres Duque,
Steve Erickson, Andy Humm,
Eli Jacobson, David Kennerley,
Gary M. Kramer, Arthur S. Leonard,
Michael T. Luongo, Lawrence D. Mass,
Winnie McCroy, Eileen McDermott,
Mick Meenan, Tim Miller,
Donna Minkowitz, Christopher Murray,
David Noh, Sam Oglesby,
Nathan Riley, David Shengold,
Ed Sikov, Yoav Sivan, Gus Solomons Jr.,
Tim Teeman, Kathleen Warnock,
Benjamin Weinthal, Dean P. Wrzeszcz
ART DIRECTOR
Marcos Ramos
ADVERTISING
Ralph D’Onofrio
PH: 718-260-2524
rdonofrio@schnepsmedia.com
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Gayle Greenberg
Andrew Mark
Jim Steele
Julio Tumbaco
Miriam Nieto
Jay Pelc
Laura Cangiano
Kathy Wenk
Jeannie Eisenhardt
Lenny Vigliotti
Elizabeth Polly
CO-FOUNDERS EMERITUS
Troy Masters
John Sutter
Please call (212) 229-1890 for
advertising rates and availability.
NATIONAL DISPLAY ADVERTISING
Rivendell Media / 212.242.6863
Gay City News, The Newspaper Serving Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual, and Transgender NYC, is published
by Schneps Media. Send all inquiries to: Gay City
News, One Metrotech North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn,
NY 11201. Phone: 212.229.1890 Written permission
of the publisher must be obtained before any of
the contents of this paper, in part or whole, can be
reproduced or redistributed.
All contents © 2019 Schneps Media
Gay City News is a registered trademark
of Schneps Media
Fax: 212.229.2790
© 2019 Schneps Media
All rights reserved.
FOUNDING MEMBER
P E R S P E C T I V E : M e di a C ir c u s
Post-Pride: A Potpouri of Crazies
BY ED SIKOV
I thought I would close off what
was by any reasonable measure
an enormously successful
Pride Month with a veritable
smorgasbord of wack-jobs — those
perverted morons who looked at millions
of joyous LGBTQ celebrants and
saw nothing but a sea of sin. First up:
Breitbart, the premiere go-to source
for right-wing crankery :
“Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
in Hoboken celebrated a special
‘Pride Mass’ on Sunday, highlighting
a growing rift among the Catholic
community over homosexuality,” the
story begins. “Despite the Catholic
Church’s condemnation of homosexual
activity, local media reported, the
Pride Mass signifi es an acknowledgement
of dramatically shifting views,
not only within the Catholic community
but Hoboken itself.”
So far so good, right? Ah, but as
our dear departed Karen Carpenter
sang, “We’ve only just begun.”
After some obligatory nods to liberal
Catholics, the author of the piece,
one Thomas D. Williams, PhD, moves
on to quote the (literally) sainted Pope
John Paul II: “Other Catholics recalled
how Saint John Paul II reacted
to the fi rst gay pride parade organized
in Rome in the year 2000. ‘In the
name of the Church of Rome, I cannot
refrain from expressing bitterness for
the affront to the Grand Jubilee of the
year 2000 and for the offense to the
Christian values of a city that is so
dear to the hearts of Catholics across
the world,’ the pope told the faithful
gathered in Saint Peter’s Square.
‘Homosexual acts go against natural
law. The Church cannot silence the
truth because it would not live up to
its faith in God the creator and would
not help discern what is good from
what is evil,’ the pope said. The Catholic
Church teaches that homosexual
activity is intrinsically evil,” Williams
adds, noting that “Sacred Scripture
underscores the ‘grave depravity’ of
homosexual acts.”
“Dr.” Williams is on a roll: “Saint
Paul, who wrote of those whose ‘glory
is in their shame,’ denounced the way
people the people of his day abandoned
themselves to their ‘shameful
lusts’ in reference to homosexuality.
‘Even their women exchanged natural
sexual relations for unnatural ones,’
he said, while ‘the men also abandoned
natural relations with women
and were infl amed with lust for one
another.’”
Saint Paul, by far the crabbiest of
the early church founders, was never
known for his liberalism, and his condemnation
of homosexuality stands
in marked contrast to Jesus’ words on
the subject, which is to say that Jesus
had nothing to say about it at all. Oh,
wait! There was that one little thing
about throwing the fi rst stone…
Moving right along, w e head over
to LifeSite News for this remarkable
headline and story: “LGBT ‘pride’ parade
advocates say children like to
see ‘nakedness’ and ‘kink.’” Of course
they do! Porky Pig wears no pants,
Bugs Bunny is entirely naked, and
Yosemite Sam is obviously a frustrated
sadist with masochistic tendencies.
(How many times does he attempt
to shoot the Road Runner only
to have his gun blow up in his face?
If he didn’t like it, he’d obviously stop
doing it.)
LifeSites’ Martin M. Barillas begins
his screed with a bang: “A sex therapist
claims she cannot imagine ‘a safer
place for families to bring children’
than an LGBTQ ‘pride’ celebration.
According to HuffPost Canada, Pega
Ren brought her grandchildren to a
homosexual ‘pride’ parade in British
Columbia. When asked about the appropriateness
of children participating
in the LGBTQ event, she said, ‘I
can’t imagine a safer place for families
to bring children.’ Pride parades
in Canada and around the world feature
not only public nudity and sex
acts, but also various other forms of
perversion and deviance on display,”
Barillas notes helpfully.
“While even within LGBTQ circles
there has been debate over whether
or not children should be exposed to
displays of adult nudity and sexuality,
HuffPost quoted a retired sexual diversity
professor, David Rayside of the
University of Toronto, who said, ‘Pride
has always had a kind of outrageous
edge to it. And should we alter that?
It is not the Santa Claus parade, and
it never was. It shouldn’t be. It can’t
be.’ Rayside said it is ‘important for
parents to bring their kids’ to ‘pride’
celebrations, adding that he has never
seen people ‘fuss about what they
see there.’”
To be clear, not to mention accurate,
Rayside was in the Political Science
Department, where he developed
a sexual diversity curriculum.
“According to HuffPost Canada, sex
therapist Ren believes that children
somehow benefi t from seeing ‘people
loving one another, from seeing diversity
and inclusion,’” Barillas wrote.
I love the “somehow.”
Barillas continued on his merry
way, leading eventually to… well you’ll
see: “In contrast, pediatrician and
child welfare advocate Dr. Michelle
Cretella responded to LifeSiteNews,
noting via email: ‘We know from decades
of research on the impact of
all forms of media books, radio, TV,
internet etc etc sic on children that
they will act out what they see and
hear.’ Dr. Cretella is the executive director
of the American College of Pediatricians.
Saying this is true of sex,
violence, and substance abuse, Cretella
wrote: ‘Parents should no more
take their children to a Pride parade
than they should sit them down to
watch pornography...’ Cretella asserted
that a ‘segment of the LGBQT
sic movement has long wanted the
normalization of pedophilia as an inborn
sexual orientation. The National
Man Boy Love Association still exists.’
According to NAMBLA’s website, the
organization’s goal is ‘to end the extreme
oppression of men and boys in
mutually consensual relationships.’”
For the record, here’s Wikipedia’s
assessment of the American College
of Pediatricians: “The group’s
primary focus is advocating against
the right of gay or lesbian people to
adopt children, and it also advocates
conversion therapy.” The Southern
Povertry Law Center describes it as
“a fringe anti-LGBT hate group that
masquerades as the premier US association
of pediatricians to push anti-
LGBT junk science.” As for NAMBLA,
here’s what Mike Pearl has to say
about it on Vice.com : “Membership
numbers and group activities are diffi
cult to pin down, but based on online
research and conversations with
alleged former members as well as
opponents of the group, both appear
to have dwindled to nearly nothing.”
In other words, you know you’ve won
the argument whenever anybody digs
up good old dead NAMBLA.
Follow @EdSikov on Facebook and
Twitter .
July 4 - July 17, 2 36 019 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
link
link
/Vice.com
link
link
link
link