A local newspaper recently contained an article from the Associated Press entitled, "Gay Pride Parades Mark Strides In Several Areas." The article was referring to recent so-called "Gay Pride Parades" that occurred in (Gee, go figure!) New York and San Francisco. Having read the article three times, I found it to be poorly written. I am deliberately withholding the reporter's name in all fairness because I don't know if the blame for the article's ambiguity can be rightfully attributed to her or to her editor, but beyond the gay marriage issue, the article neglected to list any other areas or strides (plural). To the extent that marriage is supposedly an "area," or a "stride" for which gays are to be "proud," I am still bewildered.

My chagrin to these insidious events reaches out in several directions. First of all, when I was a kid in school, we learned in Social Studies (before they became "Socialist" Studies) that America was a "melting pot." Those days are gone. We are now more of a stew, not only distinct, but incongruent. The Irish have their St. Patrick's Day Parade. The Italians have their Columbus Day Parade. The Puerto Ricans have their parade, which might explain all those cars I often see with a miniature Puerto Rican flag hanging from the rear view mirror, with no sign of Old Glory to be found anywhere. In New Haven, blacks even have their Freddy Fixer Parade. Now the Gays have their own parade. If someone knows the date of the American Pride Parade, please do give me a heads up so that I can mark it on my calendar. (No, sorry, but the Memorial Day Parade just doesn't cut it for an American Pride Parade. While Memorial Day Parades very much touch upon American Pride, our best and bravest should still have their own parade. Whatever the other ambiguous causes may be for these various other so-called "pride" parades, dying for our country seems to have nothing at all to do with it.)

I am speculating here because the AP failed to fulfill a basic Journalism 101 premise, answering the questions of "who, what, where, when, why and how." (Not to be confused with "Do We Cheat ‘Em & How," which I believe may have been Hillary's former employer when she was still just newly practicing the law instead of breaking it.) As I am left clinging to a void of "what," you'll have to endure my "no guarantee" speculation. Blacks, for example, now have "Black History Month," which used to be called "February." I still don't like the whole trendy "stew" concept, but at least "Black History Month" is upfront about defining itself right in the title. But what are gays so proud of? Do they have a history? Did they invent anything? Peacefully negotiate the end of a war? Cure an infectious disease? (As opposed to spreading a few.) Win a big ball game? An Oscar, maybe? (Actually, probably a few, at least!) The Nobel Peace Prize? (Actually, given the past few recipients, that isn't much to brag about any more!) What exactly have gays done or accomplished to be so proud?

I can't help but think that all roads lead to marriage and coming out of the "closet." Since the AP (which we all know has no agenda, wink, wink, nod, nod...) has left us alone in the "whatless" wilderness, yours truly will have to fill in the blanks with the possibilities of marriage and coming out of the closet. Actually, the two issues are more or less intertwined into one.

Of course, there is the Biblical aspect in that the homosexual act is an act of selfish lust, fornication, adultery and an abomination before God. Those who typically argue the whole separation of Church and state usually don't even know what it is or how and where it originated. In the context in which gay proponents project it, it's an irrelevant argument. Also, like it or not, our nation was founded on a Judeo/Christian set of principles, principles mind you, not any specific religion, and in either case, homosexuality need not apply.

There are also the social and biological arguments. Even some of the most primitive cultures have historically banned homosexuality and recognized marriage as an institution necessary for the strength and unity of the culture, and it's procreation and survival. If none of that tells you anything, then the mechanical structure of the female and male anatomies should. That's a pretty big clue right there to pretty much anybody, including but not limited to the mildly attentive, the semi-observant, or even the grossly dimwitted.

Then there is the psychological argument. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) had literally been bullied at its conferences for several years by radical gay activists before finally, in rushed, closed door proceedings that would have made the Clinton Impeachment proceedings almost look genuine, the APA capitulated, against the outcry of many of its members, and removed the clinical diagnosis of homosexuality as a mental disorder from its professional text, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), in 1973. Under constant pressure from the gay lobby, which, like the sharks that they are, rightfully smelled blood in the water, the APA also prohibited its members from treating patients for homosexuality in 1994, despite the fact that several patients have been successfully treated for homosexuality. Newsflash: homosexuality is a mental illness. Truth is still truth. As Father John Corapi of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) once said while giving a televised lecture, you may choose to consider the microphone in front of him a pepperoni pizza, but it is still a microphone, despite whatever you think. Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said of the truth that it still exists, regardless if everyone believes it, if only some people believe it, if only one person believes it, or if nobody believes it. Meanwhile, as time passes, history ferments, minds fade, and their owners eventually die, the gay lobby continues to try to incrementally "mainstream" homosexuality until future generations simply don't know any better.

Medical doctors know that several typical maladies directly associated particularly with anal intercourse can be expected. I'll spare you the graphics. Shrinks will tell you that mental and emotional disorders such as poor self esteem, depression, anxiety, dysfunctional relationships, substance abuse and even suicide often go hand in hand with homosexuality, and sometimes, the chronology of the chicken and the egg are not so easy to distinguish, but the link too often seems to exist, nevertheless. Anybody feeling proud yet?

The liberalization of our culture, as well as radical feminism, the drug culture, the breakdown of the family, the so-called "sexual revolution," and the overall moral decay of our culture and the societal "wimpdom" of a dying breed once known as "real men" have all attributed to a wide range of rapidly increasing societal ills and deterioration since the 60's. Homosexuality ranks near the top of the short list of various causes.

Gay marriage has been passed nowhere in this country legislatively or by referendum, only by executive order or judicial mandate in an attempt to willingly usurp the will of the majority of the citizenry. Gay marriage also leads to adopting children into what can often be cruel and dysfunctional social nightmares. Its foisted mandate is also increasingly opening the door for those promoting agendas of polygamy, polyamory, pedophilia, etc.. When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and then US Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) predicted such and similar other potential outcomes, people laughed at them.

If you're one of the twisted few people who were or still are laughing, this one will make you hysterical. Considering that homosexuality is a mental disorder or deviance of some kind, and if gays are "proud" about being able (so far) to marry in some places, then why stop there? If a young boy is suffering from the Oedipus Complex, and he finds his mother particularly alluring in more of a conjugal manner, then perhaps Junior and Mommy should be allowed to marry, and then, they can be proud, too. How's that for a "stride"? You go ahead and keep laughing. I'm still struggling to hold down my still undigested and now disturbed remnants of supper. Where exactly does this end, and why is this utterly putrid and abject evil depravity any source of pride, either real or imagined? In understanding both the root, and the ramifications of this issue, the false argument too often promulgated by the suave gay lobby and its advocates and sycophants, be they ignorant, naïve or devious, that gay marriage is a "civil right" is clearly and rightfully exposed as no argument at all, and in fact, even a ludicrous suggestion.

More than one person has commented to me recently that they now know of more and more incidents of people close or known to them suddenly "coming out of the closet." For the sake of full disclosure, the closest thing I have to a shingle to practice either medicine or counseling is an honorary bestowal of "Schmuckka Cum Laude" from the Department of Common Sense at the University of Daily Life, but I'll take a stab at that intuitively astute observation anyway. As I cited before, we have changed, culturally speaking. We like to collectively think of ourselves as kinder. We're not. In fact, we're just softer. There once was a time, not all that long ago, in which pregnant teenagers went away for a while until they had their babies, and gays in the closet stayed there. (For that matter, even among "straights," "bedroom matters" pretty much stayed in the bedroom.) To the extent that these hideous and inane "Gay Pride Parades" even would have existed just 50 or so years ago, if they did at all, they would have been called "Gay Shame Parades," and while there would most likely have been far fewer marchers than today, they still would have been larger in number than the spectators present. A popular series of videos, advertised on late night TV is called, "Girls Gone Wild," and typically shows the wild partying antics of college age girls, presumably inebriated, exposing themselves and carrying out various imaginable sexual acts, including lesbianism. Back in the day, such girls were called "whores," and were ridiculed and avoided except by boys seeking them to borrow for a while, simply as "friction dummies." (Think "human sex toys.") Now, instead of "whores," these girls (and women) are "liberated," and anything goes, and with whomever, whenever. The question of a possible kiss on the first date has instead exacerbated into "hooking up" on the first date, and there no longer even is a question. Newsflash: they're still whores! (And by the way, fellows, you're no better!) To comprehend the growing immorality and increased audacity of the gay community, look not just at the gays, but also at society as a whole, including the behavior of heterosexuals.

Shame, much like the dying virtue, vaguely still remembered in some circles as "parental discipline" is a form of immediate unpleasantness that serves as a protective barrier for later and more catastrophic unpleasantness. Many young kids don't like the taste of their first cigarette or their first beer, but with practice and perseverance, often from pressure and/or acceptance from their peers, these vices soon transcend from horrible, to tolerable, to enjoyable. So too, it is with increased exposure to every imaginable form of sexual depravity, as easy to access as your home personal computer. Clearly, there are those who, for a myriad of emotional and/or mental reasons are clinically homosexuals, but with society's increased tolerance and even growing acceptance of evil, so as not to "judge," (By the way, the often erroneously interpreted Biblical reference about "not judging" actually refers to the person, not the act.), and its abandonment of the obsolete taboo once called shame, younger (and older) people are now more open about sexually experimenting, and in some cases, having already been exposed to so much sexuality, need to outdo the last rush, in much the same kind of way a drug addict does. After a while, even heterosexual youth, or simply amoral adults, dive into the homosexual practice, and/or so-called "lifestyle," while not even naturally being clinically homosexual. Contrary to popular belief, Pandora's Box does not have just one door. It actually has two doors that form a vestibule. Once you slam the door of shame closed behind you, it is much easier to open the door of promiscuity, and from there, only Hell, be it here, or in the afterlife, is the limit.

Suddenly, that little light has just turned on above my head. Perhaps now I know why the allegedly "unbiased" AP was so vague in the article I mentioned. As for these absurd farces called "Gay Pride Parades," which I presume are, at least in large part, tyrannically subsidized by the bureaucrats of the respective host cities from the local taxpayers' dime, they should be renamed more appropriately, if they are even to continue existing at all. There is no basis for pride in these sordid parades whatsoever.

Then again, the far more accurate but non-sugar-coated descriptive labels of deviance, denial, divisiveness, and last but not least, shame, tend not to sell real well from a marketing standpoint, do they?

Doug Wrenn