As we open PrideFest 2019 in celebration of LGBTQ identity, we must also reflect on our continuing struggle and our martyrs. On Sunday morning of Milwaukee’s Pride Parade, June 12, 2016, we learned of the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando, Fla. Forty-nine LGBTQ patrons were shot to death by a religious zealot. Then our grief was defiled by the anti-Muslim rhetoric by a then Republican presidential candidate. The fallen, he said, were victims of a “hateful foreign ideology.” In fact, the hate is domestic as well.
As if to remind us of the daily threat to LGBTQ rights and equality, we have the case of high school senior Nat Werth. The Sheboygan Lutheran High School (SLHS) valedictorian was unable to deliver his commencement address because of its LGBTQ-positive content and its criticism of biblical treatment of homosexuality. When the SLHS administrators saw a draft of Werth’s speech, they refused to let him deliver it. Werth offered to amend the text, but that compromise was met with outright refusal to let him speak at all.
Not unlike the Pulse killer, SLHS leaders sought to exercise irrational dogma to silence a voice of intelligence and reason. Never mind Christ’s admonishment of such distain, “What you do unto the least of mine, you do unto me.” It actually reminded me of a friend who was cast out of Milwaukee’s Trinity Lutheran Church for being gay. (That’s the one that burned…if I were a believer, I might see a connection.)
Speaking of divine providence, as if to add insult and rich irony to injury, a certain Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I., known for his protection of sex offender priests, greeted Pride Month with a tweet imploring Catholics not to participate in LGBTQ events, adding: “They are especially harmful to children.”
Speaking of head-shaking irony, our regime just offered a congratulatory, albeit insincere, Pride Month tweet in which it cited solidarity with LGBTQs in countries where they face oppression and “even” execution. Those presumably include U.S. ally Saudi Arabia that just beheaded five gay men and also, by virtue of a presidential end-run around congressional objections, received billions in U.S. military aid. Meanwhile, on the home front, among other anti-LGBTQ attacks (92 by some accounts), the regime has denied the trans community military service, opposed the Equality Act and endorsed religious-based objections as legitimate cause for discrimination against LGBTQs—whether that means refusal to bake a cake or provide life-saving medical care.
Anyway, good fortune comes from misfortune, as they say. In Werth’s case, the SLHS gay-bashing created a firestorm and a celebrity. The story immediately made national news, with Werth receiving an outpouring of support from various quarters, including U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Northeastern University (also a Lutheran institution, but an enlightened one), where Werth intends to continue his education. A GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for his tuition has also been opened on his behalf.
The reason we celebrate Pride Month is not only to commemorate our rejection of oppression but also to encourage our unrelenting activism. Nat Werth’s resistance embodies Stonewall’s legacy. His act of defiance, although seemingly thwarted, should inspire our continued rebellion.
