Refuting Recruiting

This year's gay pride parade was the best one ever. It was well organized, dignified, colorful & diverse.  I rode in the first CSW Parade in Hollywood in 1970 and several thereafter and have never seen such a crowd in my life. It's easy for me to believe that the estimated 400,000 is accurate, in fact I would believe an estimate of 500,000 or even more.  It was amost a picture perfect celebration.  I was a little taken  aback, however, to see gay men carrying signs that said "We Are Here To Recruit You!"  It took me back to about 1977 and reminded me of Anita Bryant's hate filled campaign against gay people & their fight for equal rights. Bryant said "As a mother, I know homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children to increase their numbers."  In 1992, the writer Judith Reisman cited a clear agenda for the "recruitment of our children" by gays & lesbians in her public support of Oregon's Ballot Measure 9  She said "Homosexual recruitment is loud, it is clear, it is everywhere, and it must be stopped." The Traditional Values Coalition said in a public statement in 2004, "There is an ongoing concern among parents over the use of our tax dollars to fund homosexual recruitment programs in public schools ." The word "recruit" has been used repeatedly by the far right fundamentalists to try to convolute the message of gay rights and turn people against them.  Even Boston University Chancellor John Silber, in 2002, ordered that a gay-straight alliance be disbanded.  Silber accused the club of being a vehicle for "homosexual recruitment".  There are probably many young people who do  not remember many of these things, but gay people fought back against these false accusations  and the Christian fundamentalist message that gays  were "recruiters of children" somewhat diminished in more recent years, but I'm sure they would like reignite the fire and would use any excuse to do so.  Gay men carrying "I Am Here To Recruit You" signs at this public celebration was very inappropriate, in fact I found it personally offensive.  These signs may serve the purpose of the military, but they had no place at an event celebrating the progress  the GLBT community has made during the last four decades of so, and the freedom they feel to publicly be themselves.  But this does not include the recruitment of children, straight adults or anyone else.  Those too young to know our history must be educated and those old enough to remember should have known better.  This parade was an awesome event that took the public expression of "gay pride" to new heights and I enjoyed every minute of it.  But I was not there to "recruit" anyone, and I don't think anyone else was either. This is a word commonly used by the far right extremists through the years to brand gays as predators & child molesters.  I certainly hope there will be no such signs with such a potentially damaging connotation next year, or in fact at any gay celebration or event in the future.