Who didn’t see this coming?
And why did it take so long?
Naturally, the reaction was explosive on both sides of the, uh, well, both sides. “News about Heterosexual Awesomeness Month has spread worldwide!,” the bar announced in a follow-up social media post. “Many people have asked how they can support us. Owner Mark Fitzpatrick is excited to build a 25,000 sq ft community event center nearby to host events, provide amazing and wholesome food, support conservative ideas, and help true conservatives get elected. So, we started a GiveSendGo fund. For the haters spewing venom, perhaps you feel bad and want to contribute a few dollars now? For the rest of you reasonable people, if you feel inclined to give, please do! May God bless you!”
The Old State Saloon in in Eagle, Idaho, not far from Boise, and its promotional stunt is the work of new owner Mark Fitzpatrick, a South California transplant who bought the bar in 2023 and who describes himself as “a Christian, conservative, Constitution supporter, retired police officer, and family man.”
Ew!
The fact that this promotion is taking place during “Pride Month,” when everyone is supposed shout out hosannas for minority sexual practices while festooning everything in rainbows, means that it is also being taken as a shot across the hallowed bow of wokeness. LGBQ Nation snarks, ” Fitzpatrick claims to have banned a couple of dozen hateful negative Facebook commenters for ‘using horrific words, expletives, using the name of the Lord in vain, etc,’ but it’s hard to tell one heterosexual man’s hate from another’s unbridled excitement.”
Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…
Is “Heterosexual Awesomeness Month” unethical?
I’m open to being convinced otherwise, but I think it is a divisive tactic, essentially tit for tat, but inevitable and perhaps necessary. Once upon a time “days” and “months” designated to celebrate particular components of the American melting pot were benign and opportunities for all to signal appreciation for our component cultures. The practice quickly curdled into group chauvinism and anti-majority bigotry with the continued celebration of Black History Month, Women’s History Month and Pride Month. Those groups once arguably needed their “months” to restore self-esteem after long being discriminated against, but now they just resonate as “Who needs whites and men?” exercises in division.
As an aside, anyone who is “proud” of their sex life has problems. I remember when Grant was tiny and we watched “Sesame Street” together, I was consistently amused by a oft repeated number in which a bovine Muppet sang, “I’m proud, proud, proud to be a cow!” “Pride Month” strikes me as similarly excessive. OK, so you’re gay. I don’t care. I’m bald. What do either of us have to be “proud ” about?
If it is unimaginable to have a “Heterosexual Pride Month” or “White Achievement Month” or “Hooray for Men Month,” and it is, then it’s time for those other month-long celebrations to be retired as past their pull dates, and now doing more harm than good.
To that end, I suppose “Heterosexual Awesomeness Month” has a certain “So how do YOU like it?” appeal. Nevertheless, two wrongs don’t make a right.
Added: I have to include that “Proud to be a Cow” song. Here you go…
Ethics Alarms 
I guess I’m old enough to remember when pride was one of the seven deadly sins. Are they all gone, or have they exploded exponentially with inflation?
Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a really, really grim analysis of The Great Big Stupid, that is, what’s been going on in the U.S. since the end of World War Two.
https://www.thefp.com/p/ayaan-hirsi-ali-we-have-been-subverted?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=260347&post_id=145282846&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=k7lno&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Scary and strong stuff.
Featured at Legal Insurrection today.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/06/ayaan-hirsi-ali-explains-her-opposition-to-the-anti-american-message-of-far-left-protests/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ayaan-hirsi-ali-explains-her-opposition-to-the-anti-american-message-of-far-left-protests
I read it yesterday when you posted it.
Nice catch Ed. It’s amazing how viciously she is villainized, but Palestinian expat intellectuals are lionized (See, Jack’s post about the Harvard and Columbia law review editorial story.)
Before Sunday’s service, our priest asked me if I’d attended the “Pride Eucharist” the day before in Alexandria, VA.
(Yup, it was real: https://episcopalvirginia.org/event/cc-pride-eucharist/)
Of course, he was just pulling my chain (I’d recently sent him the link to the EA article on the new Episcopal pride logo) and he would be one of the last Episcopal clergy members who would ever support such a politically-correct heresy – Pride Eucharist? Really? Yet, for some inexplicable reason, his congregation is one of the fastest growing in Virginia.
Gotta wonder why that is.
Philosophically I agree that all pride activities should be discontinued. However, how are you proposing this culture shift will occur? It certainly won’t be led by politicians, woke champions, or progressive acolytes.
I can see making a mockery of pride celebrations as one way to force the change. “Heterosexual Pride Month” could be followed up with, “US Citizen Pride Month”, “Legal Immigrant Pride Month”, “Pro-Life Pride Month”, “Two Parent Home Pride Month”, and “Never Been Arrested Pride Month”. By celebrating traditional cultural qualities, we might start a dialogue to eliminate all pride celebrations as being divisive.
Like so much in life, intent is important in determining if an action is ethical. Making a mockery of the proliferation of pride activities with the intent to eliminate pride activities is not unethical.
I agree 100%. Could not have said it better.
Thanks Chris.
We seem to frequently be on the same page.
“US Citizen Pride Month”, “Legal Immigrant Pride Month”, “Pro-Life Pride Month”, “Two Parent Home Pride Month”, and “Never Been Arrested Pride Month”
I like all of these, and don’t even view them as satiric. Also “Never Been Stoned” pride month, “Don’t walk around staring at cell phones” pride month, “Never Watch MSNBC” pride month….
To that end, I suppose “Heterosexual Awesomeness Month” has a certain “So how do YOU like it?” appeal. Nevertheless, two wrongs don’t make a right.
Consider that making a right isn’t the point.
Memorial Day, Pride Month.
Discuss.
It’s as ethical as pride month, that is to say, not at all. However, anyone who supported pride month is ethically estopped from complaining about heterosexual awesomeness month, and any person who previously spoke out against pride month, yet now supports heterosexual awesomeness month is a hypocrite and is ethically estopped from complaining about pride month in the future.
One month is just not enough. Make it Heterosexual Awesomness Year.
Then “making hay” can be another cheeky euphemism.
One of the comments quoted in the article had a gay guy saying heterosexuals should be honored because, among other reasons, if it weren’t for heterosexuals “we wouldn’t be here.”
Let’s not forget that this is a promotion at a bar. If you are a bar owner and realize there is a big backlash over the nonstop in-your-face pride month propaganda, then this is a clever gimmick to get business. It isn’t hurting anyone any more than ‘It’s OK to be white’ posters. You can say it is divisive, but that is the fault of the people who are upset by it. No rational person would be upset by this. Some people may think it is juvenile and/or stupid, like people celebrating ‘Festivus’ or Kwanzaa. Bars have stupid and/or juvenile promotions all the time. For a bar promotion, I don’t think this crosses the ethical line, especially since this probably started as satire. The satirical nature makes it less unethical than ladies’ night and far more ethical than wet t-shirt competitions.
You may think it is stupid or juvenile, but who actually has the time an energy to get upset about this? I mean, we have been launching missiles into Russia, we have authorized the use of F-16’s to attack inside Russia, and we are about to launch some ICBM’s to try to intimidate Putin all without pushing us into WWIII somehow. So, this week, you would only get upset about this if you thought it was mocking YOUR celebration AND you didn’t really believe that your celebration was justified OR you were a totalitarian who believed that no one is allowed to have a dissenting viewpoint under penalty.
People mock Christmas and Christianity all the time, but I don’t try to get their businesses shut down by pressuring their vendors to stop selling to them. I don’t go online and leave fake reviews on their businesses or make fake reports to the authorities to try to have legal action taken against them. Now, if I believed Christianity was a scam and this would put my scam at risk, then I would try to stop them at all costs. However, I don’t think my beliefs are false or unworthy. I also don’t have a faith that is totalitarian. If I was a devout Muslim, I would believe that people who mocked my religion were worthy of death, but I don’t have such a faith.
So the question is, do the LGBTQ++ supporters think their cause is a scam or is LGBTQ++ ideology a tyrannical threat to society? I guess it could be both.