(Warning: This op-ed concerns hate speech, which is impossible to discuss without using it. Reader discretion is advised.) As America hurtles deeper into July, Pride Month shrinks ever smaller in the rearview mirror. This is the perfect time to wave goodbye to the word “queer.” That word is at the heart of the identitarian letters that are strung together like a shabby pearl necklace, in all its blinding squalor: LGBTQQIA2s+ For the understandably baffled, this stands for (take a deep breath) “Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Questioning Intersex Asexual 2-Spirit+.” While it is hotly debated, the + might represent a partridge in a pear tree. As with many gay and bisexual men, my stomach turns at the Left’s hijacking of nearly one third of the alphabet to bulldoze into a giant pile everyone who is not 100% heterosexual—including (amazingly enough) some heterosexuals. The most rebarbative letter is Q, as in “Queer,” a hideous word that previously had sunk between the waves as Americans became more tolerant of homosexuality and less likely to hurl homophobic expressions at others. These terms varied in their severity, much as “blackie,” “darkie,” “spade,” “spook,” and the N-bomb increased in direct relation with the animus that propelled those slurs from haters’ mouths. Likewise, “homo,” “fag,” and “faggot” tend to erupt in proportion with a speaker’s anti-gay bias. Worst of all is “queer,” the ugliest anti-gay epithet. This always has been the term that made me think, “Uh-oh! Someone is about to get gay-bashed.” As a gay man, “queer” rubs me the wrong way, just as “n—–” hits me as a black man. The former I hear far, far too often. The latter I hear almost never, save for fellow black people using “nigga” as a term of endearment that’s verboten to non-blacks. (Sorry! As John F. Kennedy once observed: “Life isn’t fair.”) The inter-black expression “Nigga, please!” may be the American language’s most potent delivery system’s for good-natured dismissal of someone else’s childish nonsense. As for “Queer cinema,” “Queer studies,” “Queer history” … Stop, stop, stop! Gay rights radicals have argued that “reclaiming” the word “queer” somehow disarms a key arrow that anti-gays could fire at us. This reclamation is a bit like excavating an old, ripped, filthy college sweatshirt and proudly wearing it at an elegant dinner party. There are better ways to avoid mockery over one’s alma mater.  Other “marginalized” groups rarely, if ever, follow this idiotic example. Please forgive the inescapable ugly language as I reflect that Jews do not celebrate “Kike cinema.” Hispanics do not enroll in “Spic studies.” And the Smithsonian does not operate a National Museum of N—– History on the Mall in Washington. The public would deride any such endeavor as deeply offensive, and deservedly so. And yet normal gays are supposed to smile as the Wokistanis slam the homosexual equivalent down our throats?  No, thank you! Not only is “queer” jarring and grating. It increasingly means little more than sexually unconventional, angry, and left of center—often tumbling-over-the-edge left. “Queer” has become amorphous to the point of incoherence. “But today, the word Queer has been appropriated by mainstream (heterosexual) culture to mean absolutely everything and nothing,” Substack contributor Nevline Nnaji observed on June 18. “When someone says they’re Queer, you can never be sure if they mean that they’re into BDSM, Polyamory, Kink, or whether they’re just good ol’ bisexual.”  The invaluable Douglas Murray observed likewise in Great Britain’s The Spectator: “Queer” is a strange one. Not so long ago, it was solely pejorative. But in recent decades some gays decided to reclaim it for themselves. Not everybody agreed. In time, though, it proved a handy divide. On the one hand were the gays, who just wanted to get on with their lives. On the other hand were the “queers,” who wanted to use their sexuality as a way to bring down everything in society—from the patriarchy to capitalism. Revolutionaries, in other words. Any sensible gay person should want to keep a million miles away from these people. And the singer of the Irish Eurovision entry proved why. A hideously scrawny, mangy-looking swamp creature, she had a voice like sandpaper and a personality that was rougher. She was a self-declared “witch” and also “queer.” In fact, she is straight and has a boyfriend. Nevertheless, she kept poking her tongue out and screaming, “The queers are coming” and the like. Which is lovely for the actual gay teenagers and their parents. To crank the “Queer” absurdity one notch higher, June 30’s Pride Parade in New York City featured the usual collection of revelers. They ranged from low-key gay guys all the way up to and beyond the motorcycle-straddling, self-proclaimed Dykes on Bikes. The flamboyance of some drag queens made Western wildfires resemble scented candles. Somewhere in between were the Queers for Palestine, an organization more confounding than Salmon for Sushi or Roaches for Raid. (Screenshot: FreedomNews.TV) Question: What do you call Hamas marching two male lovers toward execution? Answer: The Gaza Gay Pride Parade. The mere presence of Queers for Palestine was not good enough for pro-Hamas protesters. They attacked the Pride Parade as it rolled through the West Village. Behind a banner that read, “NO QUEER LIBERATION WITHOUT PALESTINIAN LIBERATION,” demonstrators sat down on Christopher Street and ground the procession to a halt. Other miscreants, clad in T-shirts that read “Queer as in Free Palestine,” sprinted forth and then vandalized the Human Rights Campaign’s float and the truck that dragged it through the streets. These criminals splattered both with red paint. As Tucker Carlson frequently reminds us: “The revolution eventually eats its own.” (Angela Van Der Pluym (@anjewla90) via X) As for LGBTQQIA2s+, let’s dial this back to GB: Gays and the Bisexuals who love us (sometimes). We have nothing in common with the other Alphabet People. Gay men enjoy men. Lesbians enjoy women. Asexuals sleep alone. As for TQQI2s+ … WTF? In short, there is no overlap in this Venn diagram. This does not mean that anyone should be abused or oppressed. Consenting adults should be free to live as they wish, especially behind closed doors. However, the Transgender and “Queer” activists who seem desperate to sex up children must be watched as relentlessly and vigilantly as nuclear power-plant operators monitor reactor cores. Any of these freaks who so much as attempt pedophilia should be handcuffed immediately.  Also, vaginas, not penises, should fill female athletic teams, locker rooms, swimming pools, and playing fields. And let’s stop pretending that there is some giant community in which gay men and lesbians hold hands and step out at night together to meet other gay men and lesbians who also hold hands and wait to meet us—all while the Bs, Ts, Qs, Qs, Is, As, 2Ss, and +s wave their pom poms. This is a collective hallucination. Fred Sargeant had it right. At a September 2022 protest in Vermont, the Stonewall Uprising veteran waved a sign that read: “Gay, not Queer.” Excellent sentiment! Too bad Transgender and “Queer” extremists robbed and beat him for carrying that placard. Surely, they greeted him with fists of love. Until the joyous day when “Queer,” once again, is just an old-timey word for odd or weird (and why aspire to either?), we all can amuse ourselves with this Venn diagram. It overlaps plenty and seems about right.  The post Time to Wave ‘Queer’ Goodbye appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Homelessness, unfortunately, has become a persistent and growing problem in the United States. The Supreme Court, in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, just dealt with one big issue associated with this problem — the ability of cities to prohibit camping on public property. Per the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, the answer has been that the municipality can prohibit such activity. Violators are subject to fines and jail time. This prohibition was challenged by homeless advocates, arguing that, per a 2018 decision of the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court, such prohibitions violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The court, in an ideological breakout of the six conservatives against the three liberals, ruled in favor of the right of the city to prohibit such activity, whether done by a homeless person or anyone else. The reasoning on both sides highlights the very different way conservatives and liberals see the world and understand our constitution. The majority opinion, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, argues that the Eighth Amendment is not relevant here because the issue is about prohibition of, and penalties on, a given activity and not about the appropriateness of a given punishment following a criminal conviction. That is, the issue is camping on public property. It doesn't matter who is doing it or why. Writing for the dissenting minority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argues that the decision criminalizes homelessness and penalizes someone for essential activity for which they have no choice, and hence the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment is relevant. Per Sotomayor, “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. For some people, sleeping outside is their only option. ... For people with no access to shelter, that punishes them for being homeless. That is unconscionable and unconstitutional. Punishing people for their status is 'cruel and unusual' under the Eighth Amendment.” Sotomayor continues that the majority, “focuses almost exclusively on the needs of local governments and leaves the most vulnerable in our society with an impossible choice: either stay awake or be arrested.” I work in Washington, D.C. Per a recent compilation by U.S. News and World Report, Washington, D.C., is 15th among cities in the nation in incidence of homelessness. I leave my building in the morning and return in the evening. I have to encounter the unpleasantness of homeless individuals who with some frequency attempt to engage me. When Sotomayor says that the court “focuses almost exclusively on the needs of local government,” she speaks as if local government is an entity unto itself, independent of the local citizens it represents. Perhaps Sotomayor needs to reread our Declaration of Independence that, after noting the rights with which individuals are endowed, notes that “to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their Just powers from the Consent of the Governed.” Local governments represent local citizenry. The public space they create and protect are for local citizens, not for government. When the city of Grants Pass, or any other city, prohibits unseemly camping on public property, they are protecting local citizens from visual, and sometimes physical violations of their life and rights. What we do know is homelessness keeps growing. California, which has almost 30% of the nation's homeless, has spent $20 billion on the problem over the last five years yet still saw an increase of 6% in 2023, and the incidence is 53% above where it stood in 2013. Per HUD, homelessness nationally stood at 650,000 at year end 2023, up 12% from 2022. Hopefully this important decision will help move homelessness away from the failed one-size-fits-all government answers and return the problem to private charities, who are equipped to deal with the complexity of this issue and the unique problems of different individuals. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” Her recent book, “What Is the CURE for America?” is available now. To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Wearing a shirt that said “Queer,” Alex Stein once bravely ventured into the New York City Pride Parade and asked attendees a question that, unsurprisingly, almost none of them could answer. That question was: “How many genders can have a baby?” “There’s a difference between gender and sex,” one man wearing a flamboyant outfit responded. “It takes two sexes in order to have a baby.” Stein, clearly entertained, continued his line of questioning. “How many sexes can have a baby out of their womb?” he asked, before the man responded, “Any individual that has a womb,” adding that “if you have a womb, your gender can be in spectrum.” “A birthing person,” Stein confirmed, before the man agreed. As Stein meandered around the parade, he found another man who claimed “the limit does not exist” regarding how many genders are capable of giving birth to a child. Really, the “limit does not exist” to how many Pride attendees are willing to double down on their delusion — but that’s for them to figure out. Many more attendees answered “all of them,” while one angry man dressed as a woman simply said, “Go away from me.” Shockingly, two women he stopped on the street claimed not to know the number of genders there are, but they did answer that “only one” can have a baby. “If you’re talking about biological sex, there’s more than two sexes because what about intersex people?” another woman answered smugly. “I’m saying intersex people can’t have a baby, though, right?” Stein fired back. “That’s not necessarily true, intersex is a spectrum,” she responded, before Stein said, “It’s a confusing question, I know.” Want more from Alex Stein?To enjoy more of Alex's culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

While there will be a lot of eyes on the activities inside the Fiserv Forum when the Republican National Convention takes place next week, there will be some action outside the security zone as protesters are promising to march close to the event so Republicans can hear and see them. Far-left groups protesting in the streets have been invigorated by the Israel-Hamas war that was started after the terrorist group launched a wide-scale attack in Israel. The additional prospect of former President Donald Trump formally becoming the Republican nominee for a third time is adding fuel to the fire for people to show up in Milwaukee. 'There will be no tolerance for anything in regards to destruction or violence.' March on the RNC, an organization at the forefront for the multiple groups that will be protesting, laid out "points of unity" to "stop the Republican’s racist and reactionary agenda": Fight the racist and reactionary agenda of the Republican Party. Defend women's, LGBTQ, and reproductive rights. Defend and expand immigrant rights. Peace, justice, and equity for all. Stand with Palestine. The group's speakers and activists will likely also voice their opposition to Project 2025, an agenda put together by the Heritage Foundation for a second Trump term. The agenda has become a focus for Democrats who otherwise must face President Joe Biden's ailing health and questions about whether he'll remain the nominee. Protesting groups have gone to court against the city of Milwaukee for the ability to get as close as possible to the RNC. Protesters, through the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, tried to get their parade route to pass through the pedestrian security perimeter to be close to the Fiserv Forum. A federal judge ruled they can't march through the zone. “We are disappointed by today’s ruling and the lack of an authorized parade route within sight and sound of the convention. We still believe that the City’s failure to act concerning our client’s permit application, its delay in establishing a protest zone and a parade route until weeks before the convention, and its decision to push protesters even further away from the convention site with the expansion of the credentialed zone chill freedom of expression and restrict the exercise of First Amendment rights," said Tim Muth, staff attorney for the ACLU of Wisconsin. Père Marquette Park was originally not included in the pedestrian security zone, giving protesters a very close location for a staging area. After lobbying by the RNC, the park is now within the protected zone. March on the RNC will instead be rallying across the river in nearby Red Arrow Park at 10:00 a.m. CST and march at 12:00 p.m. with a route that takes them right up against the security perimeter. Organizers are promising that the march will be peaceful. "There will be no tolerance for anything in regards to destruction or violence," Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said, according to WISN. "There is a right to have the freedom to express yourself and as we are dealing with this, we'll see what actually will be done in regards to their route or with behaviors out there." The final decision on the Milwaukee Police Department's use of force during the protests will be made by Norman. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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