{"id":132,"date":"2025-06-30T11:12:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2025-07-03T10:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T10:13:09","slug":"kafer-stealing-pride-flags-is-not-cool-but-also-keep-them-off-government-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/30\/kafer-stealing-pride-flags-is-not-cool-but-also-keep-them-off-government-buildings\/","title":{"rendered":"Kafer: Stealing Pride flags is not cool (but also keep them off government buildings)"},"content":{"rendered":"

What the? A masked man on a unicycle has been stealing Pride flags in Longmont<\/a>. A cursory news search revealed similar thefts in Fort Collins, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma sans unicycle. Although I don\u2019t recognize Pride Month, these thefts anger me. The thieves aren\u2019t just stealing; they are attempting to silence those who do celebrate.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, CNN reported that consumer brands have scaled back Pride Month promotions in fear of consumer boycotts and reprisal from the Trump administration, given its opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. There is nothing wrong with the former — customers can buy or not buy from whom they please \u2014 but the latter is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

Governments should neither support nor oppose Pride month activities. That means not arbitrarily denying promoters parade permits, which occasionally happens, or hosting government-sponsored celebrations like President Joe Biden did. The purpose of government is to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens, not to weigh in on cultural conflicts one way or the other.<\/p>\n

Individuals should be able to participate or abstain without pressure or harassment from government or other individuals.<\/p>\n

Which sums up my entire feelings about Pride — the nationwide effort to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community every June, that culminated in a parade, 5K and festival in Denver this weekend.\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t endorse the movement but support the right of others to do so.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t you have any gay friends? No, actually. I have plenty of friends who are attracted to the same sex, but they\u2019re not my \u201cgay friends.\u201d\u00a0 How someone identifies sexually means nothing to me unless I wish to date him.<\/p>\n

Besides, I\u2019ve known people who were straight and are now gay, and people who were gay and are now straight, people who are living as the opposite sex and people who have \u201cde-transitioned\u201d back to their biological sex. What category should I put them in? The plus?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t your gay and trans-identifying friends disagree with you about politics and religion? Probably. I have yet to meet anyone who agrees with me on everything. Fortunately, there are 7,852 potential topics of discussion, so it\u2019s easy to steer clear of the controversial. But if we do decide to discuss sensitive issues, we can do it with respect.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you want people to feel pride in who they are? Not necessarily. Frankly, I find the word \u201cpride\u201d troublesome. Pride can indicate personal satisfaction in an achievement. I take pride in my gardens and gardening ability, for example. Or it can mean confidence in an identity, especially one that feels assailed. Back in college, my girlfriends and I often said \u201cI\u2019m proud to be a woman\u201d to signify defiance against gender stereotyping. Right after September 11, Lee Greenwood\u2019s song about being proud to be an American got more radio play than when it was released in 1984. We were all singing it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understandable that people who feel unaccepted because of their sexuality use the word \u201cpride\u201d in this way. The trouble with identitarian usage, however, is that only some people are allowed to apply it that way. One can be proud to be a woman but not a man, proud to be Black or Hispanic but not white, proud to be gay but not straight.<\/p>\n

For this reason, I\u2019ve stopped using the words \u201cproud\u201d or \u201cpride\u201d and adopted more inclusive terms regarding group identity. \u00a0I do not say I\u2019m proud to be a woman or American. Rather, I say I love being a woman, and I\u2019m grateful to be an American. My nationality and sex are attributes and not a matter of pride since I have not earned them. They contribute to but do not make me the unique person I am. I am a category of one. That goes for everyone else.<\/p>\n

Krista L. Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.<\/em><\/p>\n

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What the? A masked man on a unicycle has been stealing Pride flags in Longmont. A cursory news search revealed similar thefts in Fort Collins, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma sans unicycle. Although I don\u2019t recognize Pride Month, these thefts anger me. The thieves aren\u2019t just stealing; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}