I always thought the month of June was set aside for June brides.

But the whole month has been usurped by the LGTQ etc. community.  This is one cultural appropriation that is ignored.

And now we have the USMC out with a new symbol to "honor" a particular community.

Sorry, but this USMC symbol doesn't cut it for me.  The Marine hymn that begins "From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli" professes the strength of the Corps and willingness to fight as in the Barbary Wars, where the scimitar was a decapitating tool. 

Did gays and lesbians join to be honored or to serve?  Is their value as Marines determined by their sexuality or their ability to keep America secure? 

Acknowledging queerness+ need not translate into honoring queerness+.  The Marines who stormed beaches did not have time for this silliness.  I honor them. 

There are pedophiles, practitioners of bestiality, sadists, and other various sexual attractions, but I won't honor them.  Apparently, at the rate things are going, any and all forms of sexual behavior will be acceptable, then honored.  To what purpose?

What cannot be denied is that all forms of mammalian life are created by a male and female with interconnecting body parts.  Even the chickens I raised needed a rooster to mount a hen in order to produce a fertile egg, which then hatched into a chick.  Goodness, even plumbing fixtures and sprinkler systems have male and female adapters.  (Of course, the self-appointed woke patrol will get around to erasing that terminology.)

Be who you want to be — in your own home.  

In fairness to diversity, how come no Heterosexual Pride Month or annual Heterosexual Parade?  My heterosexuality is no one's business.  I don't demand that everyone honor it, lest people be labeled heterophobes.  And I don't push it in anyone's face.

Not entirely loving Wikipedia, however: "The demographics of sexual orientation and gender identity in the United States have been studied in the social sciences in recent decades.  A 2022 Gallup poll concluded that 7.1% of adult Americans identified as LGBT. A different survey in 2016, from the Williams Institute, estimated that 0.6% of U.S. adults identify as transgender."  Apparently, it's de rigueur to be a gender-shifter.  Hey, California just ruled that bees can identify as fish.

Bending over to accommodate a contingent of people who are less than 1–7% of a nation reeks of condescension — and wokeness.  As if only this time period, from about 2010 to now, had humans ever been struck by intelligence and awareness.  As if only this special kind of awareness matters. 

In their tweet, the USMC manipulated words into a self-righteous salad that looks appealing to some, but upon eating, it takes a lot of chewing before swallowing — or spitting out.  What other groups will the Corps tackle next?  Expressing diversity, may we expect bullets to honor Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, blacks, biracials, Asians, indigenous peoples?  But no white bullets, because that's toxic.

Wanna bet there would never be two bullets showing тЩВ and тЩА symbols in blue and pink?

Oops, maybe we don't need to emphasize bullets on our helmets.  How very insensitive of the Marine Corps. 

Molly Maffei Baldwin is a retired New Jersey elementary teacher.  She now lives comfortably in small-town Texas.  She may be contacted by email at mollymaffeibaldwin@yahoo.com.

Image: USMC.