Pride Month

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I want to talk about Pride month. I again, I'm just I don't
know. I am usually trying notto stir the pot very much. I
don't like stirring the pot. Stirringthe pot is something I know a lot
of people want me to do thata lot of people enjoy me doing.

(00:21):
But I can't help but notice thatthere's kind of a change in what I
see on social media. And again, this is a conversation. Social media
is kind of where I'm I'm gearingthis conversation for I wonder what the world
was like before social media, becauseI've only been an adult in a world

(00:42):
where there was social media. Itfeels like social media is a great way
to find people on like message boardsand stuff. I remember when I was
thirteen years old. Matt, Idon't know if did you ever do this,
so you have a My grandma haddial up internet at her house when
I was growing up, and that'smy introduction to the Internet. It was
a lot of fun. I playedgames mostly. My dad and my mom

(01:03):
finally got the internet in our housewhen I was like nine or ten years
old, and I learned about theInternet and I would use it to like
go on certain websites, and Ifigured out that all of the sports teams
that I liked had websites, right, and then they had like message boards
and you could like talk to peoplethrough the message board about your team and

(01:25):
like have discussions about stuff. Thatwas really fun. I had a lot
of fun doing that. That predatesFacebook becoming popular or Twitter or I guess
MySpace might have been around. Idon't know, MySpace was like were you
on MySpace? I had a MySpace? Yeah, you remember about when you
got into it. I feel likeI may have hopped into MySpace like oh

(01:48):
five ish, Yeah, that soundsabout right. Yeah, so like mid
two thousand's that was like the firstforay into like what social media would become.
The original social media though, Ifeel like, is those message boards
where you know, you could justtalk like redd It is like a giant
message board now where you can talkabout anything of any topic and that's really
fun to be on and like chatwith people about. But the like the

(02:12):
the old school flash like late nineties, early two thousands version of those websites,
I just there's something nostalgic about that, sure, because people weren't there
to just like spread lives or tobe like they were anonymous, you had
like a user name, and mymom, trust me, my mom.
Until I got on Facebook, Iwas like, oh, here's your real
name. When you're on the internet, you don't want people to know where

(02:32):
you are. It's good advice,I mean nowadays, I mean you can't.
I don't. Like I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of
the people that are under the anonymousprofiles because I know that you don't want
people like finding out who's who.But I do feel like it makes your
argument mean less when it's just likeanything, like you could be a bot.

(02:55):
I mean, yeah, no,that's true. Yeah, it's interest
in conversation for sure, because youknow people what people are willing to say
anonymously versus what they're willing to saywith their name and their identity. And
it's the same thing of like sayingit online as a keyboard warrior, and
you wouldn't say it to my facein person. Oh, it's another level
of that, you know what Imean. But I do think that there's

(03:17):
merit to especially if you're underage onthe internet, like you know, I
mean, protecting your identity, yourparents watching out for your privacy. Yeah,
is a good thing. That's different. Yeah, that's a different thing
though, full grown adults. Imean, that's two thousand and five,
we said that we jumped onto MySpaceor so we're almost twenty years into it.

(03:38):
I mean, the whole generation that'sgrowing up right now. There are
kids that were born in two thousandand five that are in college now.
Okay, I know that's going tomake you feel old, but that's a
reality that exists. They know nothingabout the world except the social media era,
which makes me feel like social mediais something we have to learn how

(03:59):
to live with. There's no wayyou're going to get rid of all social
media platforms and just say, hey, let's go back to the way things
were. It's always going to bethere if you want it. And most
people generally are a part of itin some way, and there are some
people who were a part of itwho no longer want to be a part
of it, that aren't a partof it anymore. It's not a requirement,
but a lot of people use itto stay connected with friends or family,

(04:21):
and some people use it to createproblems, especially under anonymous profiles.
I'm speaking mostly on x X specifically, I talked about this. This riles
people up because they like Elon Musk. I think Elon has not done nothing
to make X better. I knowa lot of people say, well,
he's protecting First Amendment rights. That'sfine, that's dandy. Well guess what

(04:46):
they are allowing adult content on X. I'm not sure it was really being
legislated before you could still see youknow, you know, the things that
you would see when a woman wereto lift her shirt or there's a lot
of bots out there now that arepopping up of people that are pretending to
be very attractive women who are offeringtheir services if you will, to people

(05:13):
who are gullible enough to say yes. Then you know, you get bombarded
with links and stuff. That's whatthey say. I don't know how that
works, but yeah, you clickon like a post on X now and
there's like sixteen posts that are completelyunrelated that like, are just unrelated content.
Trust me, X used to bebetter when it was Twitter. Sorry,
Elon lovers. I don't hate ElonMusk. I'm just saying his management

(05:34):
of that social media platform I don'tenjoy. And he said he was going
to get rid of don't you rememberhe bought and He was like, I'm
getting rid of the bots, andI'm getting rid of like the anonymous name
tags, right, Like, wewant to make sure that people have a
profile and it's not being abused.Because everybody favorite basketball player Kevin Durant got
caught using burners. He created otheraccounts to tweet stuff in support of himself

(05:58):
as someone else, but they wereable to figure out that it was him
because he got stuck trying to gobetween burners and people were able to find
him out Right, that just seemswrong, right, Like, that doesn't
seem like something that's healthy for oursociety. That people are creating multiple accounts
and based on what they're trying totalk about, using different accounts to either

(06:18):
protect their identity or trying to allowpeople to think that there's somebody that they're
not. That to me, createsnothing but problems. I try to stay
in a lot of innocent corners onsocial media, but there's no way to
stay in innocent quarters. In themonth of June, when an organization,
a sports team, a school,the University of IOUAD just posted something about

(06:40):
this celebrating Pride Month, which isthis month. The month of June.
I mentioned on Monday one of thethings that I popped in and Matt,
you weren't here for this, butit's a crazy story. I don't know
if you saw it. Did yousee what happened over the weekend at the
Philadelphia Pride Parade. No, So, the Philadelphia Pride parades go going through
downtown Philadelphia like it always does,and a group of pro Palacidian protesters cut

(07:06):
off the Pride parade and refused tolet it go on. They were like
marching the opposite direction within the parade, holding up size that says there's no
pride with genocide or something like that. And the Internet of course explodes because
they're like I thought a lot ofthese people like the ven diagram of this
group and that group, like theywould have some level of cross over there.

(07:27):
No, the pro Palaestinian protesters stillinterrupted the Philadelphia Pride parade. I
thought that was pretty ironic and veryinteresting that that was something that still was
happening. Well, that had nothingto do with actual me speaking anything about
Pride, which, of course,if you're unfamiliar with Pride, it is
basically the celebration or the acknowledgment ofthe LGBTQ plus community. As time has

(07:51):
gone on, I remember when Iowalegalized same sex marriage. I think that
was like two thousand and eight ornine or something like that. But that's
a while ago now, I meanthink about that, and there's not a
lot of jurisdictions now that are justlike, you can't do this, because
we as a society have decided that, hey, you know, it probably
isn't our place to tell these peoplewhat to do. Now, the Pope

(08:15):
has gone out on record, andyou know, he's of course a high
ranking religious person in the Catholic faith, and he says he will bless individuals,
but he will not bless the unionof individuals of the same sex,
even if they want a Catholic weddingor whatever. Right, And there are
a lot of people that say,okay, well, the Pope has spoken
there. He's blessing individuals, he'snot blessing the union because he says he

(08:39):
can't. That's not what the Biblehad intended. But I think generally,
as a public we have become moreaccepting of people who want to identify in
those ways. We have questions abouthow old they should be able to be
before acknowledging their sexuality. We havequestions about the ages that certain people should
be when it comes to being exposedto certain parts of the LGBTQ plus culture,

(09:05):
you know, specifically like drag brunchesand things like that. I'm not
generally opposed to drag in general,but a drag queen reading a storybook for
a bunch of six year olds,I know, I can see why that
would upset parents or upset people ina community, even though most of the
time that is a completely voluntary exercise. And who are we to tell parents

(09:28):
what they should be doing with theirsmall children. That's kind of where I'm
at. However, I've noticed onsocial media with these organizations celebrating Pride Month,
as we as a society have gottenmore accepting of people in the LGBTQ
plus community, I noticed there tobe a growing number of angry people that
say, stay stick with sports,stop saying stuff like this or replying to

(09:54):
the Pride Month social media posts withthings that are either anti LGBTQ plus or
things that say that their faith absolutelyrefutes their ability to like this organization or
this team or this club or whateverthey post. And because of social media,

(10:16):
it's there for all of us.To see, and then of course
there's backlash to the backlash, andit's just a real toxic conversation. And
I'm just wondering because for me,like it doesn't bother me. I see
that, and just like I scrollthrough it, I don't stop. I
don't like it. I don't commenton it. It just does. It's
not the content that I'm there for. But I see so many people that

(10:37):
it really messes up their day tosee something like this, especially from their
school. I'm seeing it in theUniversity of Iowa post. Now. I
haven't seen a Nebraska post with this, So that's why I keep using Eyowa.
Please don't think that I'm only payingattention to Iowa stuff. But for
example, the University of Iowa saysHawkeye Pride and it's got the pride flag
and all that stuff up there,and there's a bunch of people positively saying

(10:58):
thank you the University of Iowa,of people saying University of IIOA can't believe
that you would post this. Whywould you do this? I just want
to ask you what your thoughts are. I'd like to try to investigate why
this is a growing big deal onboth ends, whether you're one way or
the other way, in one campor the other camp. I would love
to investigate this if you're willing totalk about it. And we're not here

(11:18):
to hate. We're not here totalk about hate. We're just here to
talk about why those specific posts are. Knowing that certain teams are more outwardly
supporting Pride Month or celebrating Pride Monthand the inclusiveness of Pride Month, why
that is affecting the way that peopletalk about this organization or your support of

(11:39):
said organization. Four oh two fivefive eight eleven ten is the number four
oh two five five eight eleven ten, News Radio eleven ten kfab Iowa Hawkeyes
or the University of Iowa post aboutthis and just it says nothing but pride
for our Hawkeyes is the is thecaps. And then the photo is just

(12:01):
like one of those beautiful drone footagephotos that we have now that you can
see like a lot of the campuswith the with their campus on it,
and it says Hawkeye Pride. ButPride has like the Pride flag on like
with the rainbow and the coloring andall that stuff. And the top two
comments this is this is my point. The top two comments. Number one

(12:22):
comment says, some of you needto learn the Golden Rule. The second
comment says, I guess I stoppedwatching Iowa Hawkeye football now, right,
And this is on Facebook, notX. I talked about X because of
the people that are doing this stuffthrough anonymous stuff on Facebook. For the
most part, most of these peopleare real people, or at least they
have real profiles with real names.Now, I just like, I feel

(12:46):
like and if this is a sensitivetopic for people to call in and talk
about, I guess you know,that's fine. I'm not going to go
out of my way to like prodpeople anymore. But I'll just give you,
like my last like big punctuation markon it. I scroll past this
stuff and I don't even notice it. And maybe that's just me being a
younger person, and I've been aroundsocial media and I see a bunch of
stuff that's just kind of random.Right, There's a lot of stuff going

(13:09):
on on social media that I justlike, I don't even notice. Have
you ever gotten into like a habitof just like scrolling and you're scrolling and
you're scrolling, and it's really something'sgot to catch your eye pretty quick.
If you're not gonna keep scrolling.I'm not saying that's good, right,
because that's the exact same thing thatwe tell our kids that they shouldn't be
doing. It's like, stop justscrolling. You're getting nothing out of that.
It's just you're ruining your brain.Your brain is getting like, what's

(13:31):
the opposite the short attention span?Right, Like you're messing with your attention
span. Every time you're bored forthirty seconds, you're just pulling your phone
out and scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling and scrolling. I'm not saying
that that's like the right thing todo, but I've never once stopped to
dislike something, you know what Imean. Sometimes I'll click on a post
it's like pictures of a beaver ina zoo, or a beaver in a

(13:54):
zoo is like doing something, andthere's like a few people that just are
like, oh, free the beaver, or he's not living his life right,
this is sad. And sometimes I'llhop in and I'll just gently try
to correct these people and say,hey, you know, maybe you should
take a tour of a zoo soyou can understand why the beaver's behaving in
this way. Because they're trying tomimic his wild habitat that he couldn't otherwise

(14:20):
live in. Right, there aremany, many, many different types of
posts that I feel like I havea little bit of knowledge on. For
instance, the Chicago Bears drafting RomaDoonesday with the number nine pick. I
thought it was an amazing pick.I was really excited. But I saw
somebody in a message board somewhere sayI think this is stupid. They should

(14:41):
have got offensive line help. AndI jumped in and said, hey,
brother, it's gonna be okay.Having an extra wide receiver isn't gonna hurt
you know what I mean. That'slike the most visceral angry I'll get these
days. I'm not saying I haven'tbeen a bad person on the social media's
in the past. I just don'tknow. We're wasting our time jumping on
to this kind of thing. Andif it's not something that we are a

(15:03):
fan of. If you're not gonnalike the Iowahawkeyes because they've made a post
about Pride Month, how much didyou like the iowhawk guys before? Do
you know how many people who probablyplayed for the Iowahawk guys in a variety
of sports, or was a partof the Iowahawk Guy family, or or
this goes across the entire for everyorganization you've seen posting about Pride Month that

(15:24):
you had absolutely no idea what theirsexuality was, and you cheered them on
in their moments of victory, oryou booed them the same when they made
a mistake, like we do withfans. You didn't care then what was
going on behind the scenes. Andyou probably don't even know who has who
identifies as LGBTQ plus now because alot of those people aren't going on social

(15:45):
media just shouting it from the rooftopsbecause of people being angry like this for
no reason that they have a differentsexuality than they do. I just don't
know why we're not just scrolling pastit. Life's too short to just get
angry about that has absolutely nothing todo with you, I guess, is
my point. If people want tobe a part of the LGBTQ plus community,

(16:06):
or they feel like they are,I have no problem with them feeling
that they have support. I alsowish nothing but the best for the people
who want to be happy at theend of the day. If that's what
they want to do with their life. That's not my business. If you
have a perspective on this, youcan call us. I know it's a
sensitive subject for some, but youcan call us at four h two five
five eight to eleven ten, andyou can also email me memory at kfab

(16:26):
dot com. By the way,Matt Marcus emails in and says, I
have vastly misinterpreted Pride Month. Doyou know anyone who's interested in fourteen Lions?
Because the Lions and they call thegroup Alliance Pride ah ahha. Marcus
out West is on one today.Appreciate that three point thirty stick around.
You can be a part of theshow four h two five five eight eleven

(16:48):
ten on news Radio eleven ten.Kfab Emrie's songer on news radio eleven ten
Kfab. I was talking about PrideMonth and some of the things that I've
noticed about Pride Month. We dohave a phone call about this subject,
I believe by somebody, ironically enoughthat doesn't want to use a name.
Anonymous is joining us. Well,Anonymous, welcome to the show. What

(17:11):
is your thought on what we're talkingabout here? Hi am Marie Matt,
great show. Thanks, I'm afifties, blue collar dad got an older
daughter. She has come out asgay, you know, several years ago,

(17:36):
right out right out of high schoolor right into college there. And
I was always raised in a traditionalman and a woman marriage type thing,
and you know, conservative values andthis and that, and I've had to
struggle with this now for I don'tknow, ten twelve years. I'd like

(17:59):
the fat that you are. Youwere bringing some light to it. I
you know, I used to feelreal strongly about against the gay community,
and I don't anymore. I thinkthat you can love that you want to
love, and you know, whoare we to question that. I do

(18:21):
struggle with the fact that they thatthose people choose not to reproduce. It's
kind of bad. But I guessthat's the part that hurts me the most,
being a father of a gay daughter. So so, sir can I
It's interesting because you know, thereare some gay couples that are having children

(18:42):
with like the genetic stuff. It'snot obviously the same kind of thing as
a natural thing. But but Iguess from your personal experience, which you've
had, that I think most ofthe people who are listening have not had
something like this where their own childhad this, and you know that has
this lifestyle. For those who arestill struggling, what helped you overcome that

(19:07):
part of this as you feel,you know, much different than you did
a decade ago about this topic.I guess just actually accepting it and putting
that that fact past. You know, my love for my daughter and you

(19:33):
know it's still very dysfunctional and it'sit's going to take a lot of work
to repair that relationship if it'll youknow, if it can ever be repaired.
But I don't know. I justI appreciate you bringing light to the
subject. You know, I Iknow a lot of people don't like it,

(19:53):
but a lot of people have thesehave these feelings and have these relationships,
and you know, where we tojudge? Can I ask, what
does she know that your opinion haschanged over the years. I don't think
so. I don't know that I'veever told her. I don't think I

(20:15):
have. Oh well, I wouldstart there because I think the reaction she's
going to have is going to beone of incredible love and relief with you,
and I think that's going to bea great moment that you could share
with her in the future. Yeah. Great, idea. If that happens,
Anonymous, could you call us backand tell us how that went?

(20:36):
Absolutely well, Anonymous. I appreciateyou calling in. I appreciate you for
listening, Thank you for all thekind words, and good luck with that.
And tell your entire family we sayhey and we care about them.
Thank you very much. All Right, have a great day. Interesting Matt
is across again. I just haveto bounce this off. Do you think
that that's probably a majority of peoplein the last years, in kind of

(21:00):
the journey that he's been on personallywith us as a society. It feels
like that is probably a story manypeople could talk about with their own timeline,
not necessarily over ten years or whatever. But you started feeling one way
about that the LGBTPQ plus community,and now we're kind of in a place
in society where it really just isn'tthat big of a deal, And like

(21:21):
he said, who are we totell them who they can and cannot love?
It kind of feels like that's kindof society story as well as a
whole Yeah, I think so.I think so. That was Yeah,
it was a good call. Itwas wow. Yeah, I mean that's
kind of it's a powerful thing,especially when he says he hasn't talked to
her about it, because you knowhow people who are not out of the
closet, if you in the terminologythe stories that we hear once they do

(21:44):
come out of the closet, thathow tough that was for them to keep
that a secret because they were afraidof the reaction. And then in some
cases, and I'm sure this wasthe case for Anonymous his daughter, but
if there was a you know,I'm sure the case of her coming out
to him him, I'm considering howhe has talked about this. You know,
I'm sure that was a difficult situationand I'm sure with the reaction that

(22:08):
he certainly would have. Remember thatguy I was telling you about yesterday when
I did the U get an fthe guy who ran up on stage and
like pushed out the superintendent because hedidn't want his daughter Oh right, Yeah,
you know, it's just like thatis a relationship changing moment for that
daughter and that father. And youcan see in that video that I talked
about yesterday, it's from a Wisconsingraduation ceremony and the guy runs up on

(22:32):
stage and just kind of escorts likegrabs the superintendent, who happens to be
African American. I don't know ifit's a racial thing but who or if
they had a bad relationship in someway, but he kind of basically puts
his hands on the superintendent, runsup on stage, puts his hands on
the superintendent, kind of pushes himout of the way as his daughter is
crossing the stage. And that's howshe's going to remember her graduation. That's

(22:56):
gonna be that dad, that father. I'm sure that relationship is not going
to be the same for a reallylong time, and he's going to have
to reconcile with that for the restof his life. That you know,
he made a really poor decision thathe thought was right in his head,
even if it was an incredibly terribledecision for everyone else. It was an
incredibly selfish thing to do, especiallysince it looked like nobody else knew he
was doing that. I'm sure thata father daughter like Anonymous explain in his

(23:22):
situation that strained that relationship to apoint where he had a hard time overcoming
that. But it took a while. And here he is, he's calling
us and he's saying, I reallyfeel differently about it than he did a
decade ago. Yet he feels likehe can't go back to her and explain,
hey, I'm sorry, I waswrong. I feel very differently now,
but knowing the type of society thatwe live in now that sort of

(23:45):
thing and this is not just aPride month thing. This isn't anything situation
when you can say to somebody,I messed up, I was wrong,
I apologize. Can you forgive me? I think now more than ever,
that's an incredibly powerful thing to do. Admit that your behavior or something you
did was incorrect, ask for thatforgiveness, show that you want to be
a better person, or you wantedto adjust something that you've thought about or

(24:10):
you did in your life at somepoint. That's about as powerful a thing
that you could do. And Ithink hopefully his daughter has it in her
heart to forgive him for what hefeels like he's done wrong to her.
Wow, what a good call.If you want to talk about this,
you can four two, five,five, eight, eleven ten. We're
taking any and all perspectives on this, and we appreciate anybody for being a
part of the show. On newsRadio eleven ten. Kfab Emory's songer on

(24:32):
news radio eleven ten kfab Rick's onour phone line. Rick, thanks for
joining us on the show today.What's your thoughts on this? Hi,
Emory, I was just listening myway home from work and and the topic
today really kind of struck me.And you know, the advice to you
know who when we say who arewe to judge? No, we're not

(24:55):
the ones that judge. I believethat our God is the one that you
judges. And and you know hesaid, in the last twenty years,
a lot of things have changed andmore people have came forward with their their
new lifestyle and everything. And that'sthat's a very scary trend to me.
And I worry myself. I worrymore about that person's soul being saved than

(25:18):
than what their love life was.Yeah, because good, go ahead.
Well yeah, it's not it's notour position to judge, but it is
our our position, I think asChristians to to try and save their souls
and say, hey, if youyou know, this isn't what God wants
you to do, and if wewant to save your soul, you know,

(25:42):
we want you to live eternally andGod's love, and I just it's
a very scary thing the trend tome. I'm sixty two years old.
I've seen a lot of things changedin the in the last years, and
it's just I think we need toworry more about that some soul, right,
well, Rick, Rick, Yeah, Rick, there's I guess my

(26:06):
My biggest thing about that would belike, who are we to kind of
infringe on the free will of peoplewho aren't asking for our help kind of
thing? Right? If they're askingfor our help, then I think that
we have a right to tell themthat. You know, if we if
are a conviction in our religion andin the scripture is that hey, you
know, this is something that Godhas frowned upon and said that this is

(26:26):
not the way, then we canshare that information with them. But if
that's not the kind of thing thatthey are looking for, then I just
don't feel comfortable going up to randompeople that are just being themselves and saying,
hey, your lifestyle is wrong,because I'm sure there's something I'm doing
that they could say the same thingabout, you know what I mean,
Yes, but I don't. Idon't think that we can silence ourselves.

(26:49):
We're all we're all sinners, youknow, nobody here is not a sinner.
But if people are turning away fromGod and this is their chosen lifestyle,
then I think we have to beproud of our opinion, no matter
what skeleton we have in our closet. I mean, we have to.
We have to speak for what Godreally wants, you know. And we're

(27:12):
all none of us are perfect,none of us are without sin. But
it's the message we can't just acceptthis happening well without voicing and standing on
the rock and voicing our opinion ofwhat right. So so Rick if if

(27:32):
like I guess my my, Ikind of started the conversation with you know,
like certain organizations and I've used theIowa Hawkeyes as an example because they
just posted it today, but theysaid Hawkeye Pride basically, and it's a
picture of the Hawkeye logo and thepride flag underneath it says pride. It
says nothing but pride for our Hawkeyes. And uh, I mean there are

(27:52):
people in the comments to say,well, I'm never going to support Iowa
athletics now. Is that kind ofDoes that extend not just to the people
who are l g B t Qplus but also to the organizations that show
their support for them. No,I don't. I don't think we should
turn our backs on those people.I mean, I don't think we're boycotting,
boycotting anything. Is we'll do anythingfor our message that our God wants

(28:15):
out there. I think that wouldbe a negative negative impact on that on
that I have family members and anduh, and I say, I'm going
to say the word unfortunately. Uh, some of them are are gay,
and and I really really really worryabout their souls because uh, that's just
the way I am, That's theway the way I was raised, you
know. Sure, And again andagain, I'm not gonna I'm not going

(28:37):
to stand on a pedestal and sayI'm better than you because you're doing that.
But I'm I'm still going to pointout that that that this is not
what our God will accept and ifwe don't repent or try to repent from
our sins, we're not going tosee that eternal life. Well, Rick,
that's certainly a very interesting perspective thatI'm sure there are a lot of

(28:57):
people out there that agree with thatperspective, and I'm sure there's going to
be some people that have a rebuttalto that belief. But at the same
time, Rick, if they havea right to voice their lifestyle in the
way that they do in including theseorganizations, we should also have a right
to have our own both thoughts andbeliefs on that specific thing as well.

(29:21):
Rick. I appreciate you sharing thatwith us today, and have a great
day, all right, thank you. Yeah, we can talk about this
if you'd like to be a partof our show four two five five eight
eleven ten four two five five eighteleven ten. You can also email in
Emory at kfab dot com and we'lldo the best that we can to get
as many opinions on this out there, because I do think that it's a

(29:42):
healthy discussion to have regardless of whereyou're at on this spectrum, because there
are a lot of people out therethat feel very strongly one way or the
other, and I think that there'sa lot of room to kind of explore
in the middle there. And we'llkeep doing that on news Radio eleven ten
KFAB. Why is our discourse seeminglygetting more and more angry against each other?

(30:03):
For the people who do care aboutthe Pride Month supporting for the good
reasons, or they dislike it andthey don't want their organization or their sports
team or their school to be promotingPride Month at all, and how that
kind of affects our society. Eventhough I think we're moving in the right
direction, but we're still stuck ina place of just wanting to be mad

(30:26):
about everything. This has seemed tobe like one I felt like we were
getting past this being like an angrything, but I obviously, at least
on social media, I am wrong. So hello to everybody listening, and
we would love you to be apart of the conversation. At four h
two five five, eight eleven ten, Reeve is on the line. Reeve,
welcome to the show. Thanks forbeing a part of it. What's

(30:47):
on your mind? Yeah, Iwas kind of late to the conversation.
I guess they didn't realize exactly whatit was all about. I guess what
you just said. Basically, Ikind of feel like the reason it's it's
being paid upon so much is Ifeel my opinion is I feel like it's
kind of being jammed on our throatall the time, every time we turn
on a television or something like that. It's not just in June or nothing

(31:10):
like that. This is it isconstantly being shoved down our throat. Now
I want to That's just how Ifeel. Ever, you know, being
out here talking to people, that'show we feel. Now. I do
want to say, this is uhfrom from your last caller. You know,
he was talking about how God feels. You know, God is a
judge and where we're called to be, you know, leading him in the

(31:30):
in the right direction. And Ihardly believe that. But this, I
think the problem that I see inthe church is this is they are not
They're they're coming at it from away of we hate you. When these
people don't want to be hate upon, you need to it needs to be
expressed to them that we hate yoursin, but we love you. And

(31:52):
if we could just get you tounderstand how much we love you and how
much God loves you, you couldmaybe geet you know, in a different
direction, just quit jam And Idon't want to say jam in our religion
down in their throat because I don'tbelieve in that either. I think that
if we could just talk and basicallythe whole racing, if we could all
just sit and talk and have acordial, cordial conversation, it may come

(32:13):
up with different you know, adifferent response. Now, I'm an old
man, and so it I didn'tcome to this lightly. I mean I
was raised, not say raised,I was raised by a minister, but
I was. I had friends andeverything that bass gays and done stuff like
that. So I don't I don'thate any gay person whatsoever. It be

(32:35):
the same way if they found outI was cheeked on my wife or I
was looking at porn or whatever.It is like that, they would hate
my sin, but they would stilllove me. Does that need that makes
sense? What I just say?Yeah, Reeve, I think I'm picking
up what you're putting down, andI tend to I understand as somebody who
was raised in the church as well, this topic is a bit complex because

(32:57):
it's taken on a completely different termbecause, I mean, twenty five thirty
years ago, people really weren't comingout of the closet. I mean they
felt in a lot of lifestyle ora lot of communities that they just couldn't
do that. So I think that'swhy this conversation has changed and morphed over
time when we understood a little bitmore about it, because people like you
and me, Reeve, like wehave no reason to understand exactly what the

(33:20):
LGBTQ plus community goes through because wearen't one of them, right right.
I never. I didn't make achoice to not be one of them,
I guess is the right way togo. So I've never, like,
it never even entered my mind,Like, I just have never thought about
it because I never It's not likeI chose to like girls. Like one
day, you know, my bodywas like, oh, I kind of
liked what that girl looked like,you know what I mean, And you

(33:43):
know, I just that was,Yeah, that was kind of my thing,
you know. And I don't know, I can't speak on how other
people felt about that stuff, andso I just never even thought about it.
And now, obviously as a personon a talk show host, I
wanted to delicately talk about this becausethere are so many different opinions within this
and this is why I'm glad thatI have this forum so we can all
share our perspectives on it. AndReeve, I appreciate you sharing your perspective

(34:05):
with us today. Thank you verymuch. Darren's on our phone line of
four O two five five eight eleventen. Hello Darren, what do you
think? Hey? I'm rays Darren. Hey, I just wanted to respond
to Rick's comments. So, firstoff, me and Rick probably see eye
to eye on a lot of things. But I have one brother and he's
gay, and he didn't choose thatlifestyle. We grew up the exact same

(34:30):
manner. I grew up playing backyardfootball. He grew up in you know,
the theater room, right, Soto say that, you know,
to save his soul, God createdhim, and I don't think God would
create someone who he doesn't want tolive in heaven with him. Yeah.
So, so Darren. For peoplewho didn't listen last hour, we had

(34:51):
a caller named Rick, and Rickbasically said that his religion kind of makes
him feel like we need to fullyeducate people who fall into the LGBT you
plus or arena or umbrella. Sofrom from your perspective as you are somebody
who knows someone like this who wasin this community, can you kind of

(35:12):
explain the challenges they've had and hasit been challenging for your brother and to
get his to feel like he canbe open about his lifestyle in our society
one hundred percent. So for background, I grew up in Lincoln, I
now live in rural Nebraska, growingup in Lincoln. I mean, it

(35:34):
was tough for him in high school. I know he now lives in Washington
State and has a good life outthere. I think it's a little more
accepted out there. I would hatefor one of my kids to grow up
gay, you know, a smallcommunity. I just think it's tough on
him. But my main thing wasis that if you haven't grown up with

(35:55):
someone that way, these people,they don't choose that life. Lifestyle.
It's it's not an easy lifestyle.It's it's unfortunate that you know, it
is what it is. But Godcreated him. It's up to him to
build a relationship with God and shavinghis soul. I think he's he's a

(36:16):
way offline there. Yeah, Andthis is kind of my thing about the
business part of this. So,Darren, when you see these organizations posting,
you know, Pride Month celebrations oreven just a simple you know post
on social media, and you seea lot of the discourse, both for
positive and for negative, what's yourpersonal reaction to the people who are generally

(36:37):
against these organizations or these schools orthese sports teams posting their support for Pride
Months. I like, like whatReeves said, there. I don't want
to shoved down my throat either.You know, I'm a conservative Christian with
family values, and that's what Icare about, right, I mean,
that's their life to live. Idon't appreciate when that's the first thing they

(37:00):
tell me about themselves, because thatreally doesn't matter to me. It shouldn't
be the point. Yeah, rightright. I want to know you for
who you are and what you bringto the table more so than your sexual
orientation. Will be my view onit, Darren. I really appreciate for
listening and calling in with this story. Really appreciate you sharing your perspective with

(37:21):
us today. Hey, thanks,take it easy. Let's go to Grant
Grant's on our phone line at fourO two five eight eleven. Grant,
how do you think about this?Yeah? So if I could, uh,
I'd like to speak with them andthen I'll answer your question to Anonymous.
My situation was opposite. I youknow, my daughter who high school

(37:43):
will be in her I couldn't understandwhy she was always unhappy. I mean,
she gaated boys, got good grades, but she was always unhappy and
it caused a lot of friction tous. I did about a year after
she got out of high school.She called me up one day and she
said, Dad, I gotta tellyou. She said, I'm gay,
and I said, okay, soand then I made a little stoke and

(38:05):
I said, you know what madeyou got a lot more in common than
you realize, which's like she wasconfused. She's all, you're not dead.
And I went, oh, youlike girls like that, and said
again memory. Our relationship has becameincredible. She calls me about anything.
Now. She's not afraid to callme. You get what I'm saying.
If she needs to be picked uplate at night because maybe she, you

(38:28):
know, had a few too many, she's not afraid stuff like that.
So I'm just trying an anonymous goto your daughter and tell her that you
love her and you don't care.And I'm just telling you it will be
amazing, Uh, the relationship thatwill happen now on the fact of now,
this is where I'm I'm like withthe last caller. I you know,

(38:49):
I've been Mary twenty eight years,grow up in a Christian home.
I don't I just I don't thinkanybody should have a book, you know,
I think that who cares what youare, what you look like?
Just be a good person, youknow, like the like I believe a
majority of people are, and that'show we should be looked at. Like
like like Garret said, I don'tand I agree with him, and I

(39:14):
won't get into the god thing becauseI just try to respect people's religions no
matter what they believe. But so, yeah, so I know that's kind
of weird, because which kind offunny is my daughter actually we were we
went and got ice cream last nightand she told me she wasn't even aware
it was pride. But now thinkabout that. Yeah, yeah, no

(39:36):
for sure, Yeah no, no, I mean, you bring up so
many great points, Grant, andI'm really happy that you have a great
relationship with your daughter on this.But it's it's very it's fascinating to see
kind of what the you know,and I tried. I had one emailer
that's just like I don't need theparade thing. Like the parade thing to
me, it makes no sense andall this stuff and the best thing I

(39:59):
could say to like, explain itfrom my perspective. And I'm not saying
it where everybody has to feel thisway, but this is a group of
people, this community that has feltlike they were unwanted or oppressed or told
that they shouldn't like live their lifethe way that they could. I mean,
heck, there were laws against themarriage of same sex couples for so

(40:20):
many years, and we're just nowgetting to a point where those people feel
like they can even exist with theirnormal lives and live the way that they'd
like. You know. I guessif I was in a group, and
I'm not. I'm a straight whitemale who looks generally normal and there's nothing
minority about me. But I wonderif I'd feel differently if there I knew
there was a group of people inour small minority that we wanted to get

(40:44):
together and celebrate how we are andfeel accepted amongst each other. Maybe I'd
feel a little bit differently about that, you know, because obviously there's no
month for me. Good point,you know, so I'll give you a
very good point. Ever, Iguess ever looked at it that way.
So, but like I said,I was sure mainly trying to call and

(41:06):
talk to anonymous. We need Yeah, and great grant, I really appreciate
you calling in. Thanks so muchfor listening and sharing your story too,
because yeah, you have a greatday and a great afternoon as well.
These are great calls. This isgreat conversation across the entire gambit. These
are powerful stories. There are peoplethat are not on the phone, that

(41:27):
don't want to share their name,that don't want to share their story,
that both directions. I think thatthis conversation is one that's interesting in one
of discovering you can call in withyour thoughts four oh two five five eight
eleven ten. Four oh two,five five eight eleven ten. We continue
the conversation next on news radio eleventen kfa B. I'll get to some
of these emails here, Darren says. I'm guessing I don't know if this

(41:50):
is the same Darren that called in. Different Darren maybe, But here's the
deal. He says, you're you'reright. Sexual preference does not matter.
It doesn't bother me either. However, when one right to voice opinion and
thoughts encroaches on another's right to notcare, you immediately allow the other the
opportunity to voice their opinion or evenanger on the subject. If you don't
put it in my face, Iwon't put it in yours. I for
an I voice for a voice.And if one side has to scroll by

(42:15):
the other side has not to post. Okay, So I think I understand
most of this. It's this goesback to the kind of the point I
made before the break, as faras Pride Month goes, I as a
straight white male, a person Ididn't decide to be straight, by the
way. And that's my biggest thingis I couldn't point to you a time
when I was like, I justwant to like girls. I just kind

(42:36):
of did. I don't know whatthe story is for for people who are
heterosexual like me, I maybe theyhad some sort of misunderstanding, or you
know, they were unsure. Idon't know. Same thing with people who
identify as LGBTQ plus or whatever.Right, it's like, I don't know.
I'd like to know if there wasa point for them that they just

(42:57):
knew that they were and they justdidn't want to tell anybody, or it
it took them a while to figureout that they were because they were following
society standards and they just didn't knowuntil they let themselves experiment a little bit.
I don't know. I don't know, and I'm not here to pretend
like I know. I just knowthat that group has been marginalized, has
been oppressed from being able to beout of the closet, if you will,

(43:17):
has not been allowed to live theirlife in the same way that the
rest of us have, including evenlegally until the last fifteen twenty years in
the entire country with same sex marriage. Right, Like, same sex marriage
wasn't a thing in most states untilthe last ten to fifteen years. So
you know, I guess I wouldfeel differently if I was of a different

(43:38):
nationality, or if I was amember of a community that was small,
marginalized, and then we had abig celebration, right. I mean,
when there's like a Greek food festival, I don't see anybody getting angry that
people are shoving Greek stuff down theirthroats. But then again, there's not
a lot of people posting about Greekfood festivals. I guess my biggest thing

(43:59):
is I anybody who wants to feellike they belong in the world, I
would. I'm not going to tellyou how you should feel about that.
If it makes you happy to bewith a lot of people like you,
or people that you know support you, like in these pride parades or in
these pride days or all that stuff, and they make it feel like you
can be in there's an inclusion,or you have the ability to feel loved

(44:23):
by people around. Then I thinkwe have the ability in a lot of
ways to understand why those matter.Right, Oh, you mean I can
go to the football game on PrideNight and feel like I belong there with
a bunch of people that are likeme and I'm not going to get you
know, cursed at, or peopleyou know, getting mad that I am

(44:45):
like the way that I am.Maybe that's maybe that's why that's there,
so they feel like they can beincluded and it's a safe space for them.
Again, that's me spitballing. Idon't have full evidence on that.
I'm just that's my understanding of whyPride Month and my Pride parades and Pride
Knight's our thing to make those peoplespecifically feel included. We the rest of

(45:06):
us, the normal, the peoplethat I would say normal normal is probably
not the right term. But peoplelike me who don't feel marginalized at all.
Again, straight white male talking here. Nobody's ever marginalized me about anything.
I kind of feel like I'm includedno matter what I show up,
and nobody has ever once said anythingbad about me or made fun of me,
or I never once felt like Icouldn't be myself because there's nothing about

(45:27):
what I do that should be marginalized. I am just kind of a normal
person, a regular old guy.I don't know if I should be the
kind of person that tells other peoplehow they should feel when they either are
or not feeling included in something.If you have opinions, the forum is
still open. You can call init. Four h two five five eight
eleven ten four h two five fiveeight eleven ten. News Radio eleven ten

(45:51):
KFAB had a couple of very interestingemails. First one is from Sean and
this again, this conversation isn't aboutdebating the merits of homosexuality or transgenderism,
like that's not what we're here for. It's about Pride Month. And there
are a lot of people that justdon't like it when Pride Month is mentioned,
or they are apprehensive to the ideaof Pride Month. And we're kind

(46:13):
of exploring those emotions that certain peoplehave had. And we've had several very
good calls with personal experiences with peoplewho have had their minds changed about the
LGBT plus LGBTQ plus community over theyears because of a family member that belongs
to it, and those are reallypowerful stories. I'm glad that we are

(46:34):
able to do that and provide thatforum. But here's some emails that I
wanted to read. Sean says,I'm a proud gay man. I waive
the American flag because I'm proud.I've always said homosexuality is God's way of
population control. Love your show well, Sean, It's very interesting. I
found this out too, like Harrison, Butker's speech kind of put a light
onto it and that it's like it'sa Catholic thing. The Pope said this

(46:59):
to that, you know, petparents are going against God's will something like
that because we are like I don'tsay that I'm my dog's dad. I
didn't never call myself a dog dador a dog daddy. I'm a dog
owner. I own dogs, Ihave adopted greyhounds. Okay, So I
don't see myself as a parent.I don't celebrate Father's Day, not for

(47:21):
myself. I celebrate my dad's Father'sDay and my father in law's Father's Day,
right, But I don't call myselfa father because I don't have real
human children. Well, Matt,here's my thing here is is it?
Like? Is it wrong? LikeI'm not Catholics, so I guess I
would have to talk to a Catholicperson about this. But I didn't know
that it was like like I stillneeded to be like of the pro creating

(47:45):
type to be accepted by the pope, you know, like population control.
I don't know if God is creatingpopulation control as much as just people are.
Like, man, it's expensive tolike get married and like start having
kids. Now, that hasn't stoppedthe lot of people I am friends with.
I mean, almost all my friendshave a child at this point.
My sister has three children. She'sthree years younger than me. She had

(48:07):
her third child when she's like twentyseven. That's a handful. But I
just hung out with him this weekand they're doing great. I mean,
the different strokes for different folks iswhat I say. Yeah, everybody takes
a different path. You know.I didn't know there was a rule book
I had to follow here. ButI appreciate Sean that email AJA emails in
ag is always very opinionated. Iwanted to read this one. This is

(48:29):
a good one. I had thesame story as Anonymous. Now. Anonymous
called in earlier in the show andtalked about his experience with his daughter,
whom he does not have a greatrelationship with, but he feels like he
has changed his mind on the LGBTQcommunity because his daughter is gay, she

(48:49):
likes girls, and when she madethat announcement to him, they like he.
It wasn't a great relationship then,but over the last decade he feels
like he's morphed and adjusted his perspectiveon the matter. And I feel like
if he could just go and tellhis daughter how he feels now, that's
going to be a great moment forthem, hopefully well. Aj says,

(49:09):
I have the same story as Anonymous. She's twenty five. She came out
about ten years ago. We havea great relationship, and she still lives
at home with me because the economyis so bad she can't afford to get
her own place. F JB.We know what that stands for. Anyways,
he says. Anyway, my wholefamily is Christian and conservative. She
came out at a Christmas dinner andstood up and told everybody, probably expecting

(49:31):
a bad reaction. My sister lookedat her and said, we know,
we all went back to eating ourdinner and it was no big deal.
During high school, she had issueswith cutting herself, suicide, attempts,
depression, other mental issues. I'mangry at the so called professionals that prescribed
her drug after drug to try tomake her feel better or actually feel nothing
at all. She once says somethingabout Christianity being pushed on everyone, and

(49:52):
then I said, it's isn't thatthe same thing that with the gay pride
stuff everywhere? That gave her arealization moment. She was brainwashed by the
left and has actually come around andrealized being gay isn't what defines her.
She's on her way to being redpilled, and the left has been lyned
about people on the right. Anyway, She's doing great and has a great
relationship with their girlfriend, good job, stable mentally, and a great relationship

(50:15):
with the whole family. This isvulnerable stuff. I'm really thankful that people
are willing to share this because I'msure it is making a difference in the
way that you know, people areunderstanding the subject. And that's why i
wanted to talk about it today becauseI'm trying to understand how I feel about
it too. That. I thinkthe idea of being normal is what we
have been told over the years iswhat people in the LGBTQ plus community want.

(50:39):
They don't want that to be theirdefining aspect now a lot of people
nowadays, and this has to dowith you know, the pride parades and
that stuff that becomes a major identifierfor them. They want to be known
as I'm the gay person in thisfamily, or I am gay, I
am lesbian, transgender, and youknow, they fly the flag and everything.

(51:01):
They want people to know that.I think flying the flag, the
gay the pride flag with all thedifferent colors that in all that stuff,
like, I see that as away you could support people in that community
as also a way to like identifyyourself as part of that community. If
achieving normalcy for these people to wheretheir sexual orientation, their sexual identity doesn't

(51:25):
make a difference, and they don'twant people to like look at them differently
because they're with somebody of the samesex, or they look differently because they
you know, dress like you know, they're more comfortable dressing like somebody else.
Like I just I like actively identifyingyourself and saying, hey, I'm
this way and if you don't likeit. Tough kind of thing goes against

(51:47):
a little bit of just wanting thatto not be what defines them. And
I think that's what Aj is saying, is she's learning that being gay does
not define her his daughter. She'sa person, she's a total functional person
in society, and the fact thatshe's happy and she's doing very well.
That's all you can ask for,isn't it. Last one I wanted to
read here is from Rob in Lincoln. Rob says, Emory, I'm gay.

(52:09):
I believe I was born that way, as I remember being as young
as six years old and being differentand being drawn to boys. I grew
up in rural Iowa, in atown of three hundred, very conservative.
My school was about two seventy fivetotal enrollment kindergarten through twelfth grade. We
never had even a black student.Well at sixth grade, I started letting
people know that I was gay.Sure there were some remarks and things,

(52:31):
but so did every other kid,whether it was over their shoes or their
weight or whatever. Kids can bemean to each other, and that's part
of growing up, no matter what'sgoing on. Being in that rural Iowa
conservative community. I was the gaykid. But for the most part I
was treated well. I was classpresident three separate times on the student council
and was very popular. I quitefrankly, am one gay guy that sees

(52:52):
no need though for Pride Month.You don't see me wearing garb or flying
the flag. I'll just be myself. People either like me or they don't.
I think many times people get treatedbadly because they try to shove their
own agenda down other people's throats.I just live and let live, and
it works for me. And Ithink what Rob said there, it makes
a lot of difference as far asa lot of people's thoughts on Pride Month,

(53:12):
it's why is it there? Ifwe're trying to achieve normal scene.
Again, I'm going to this mightbe the weak move, but I just
I defer that thought to the peoplewho belong to that community, because that
has been a community way more marginalized. In fact, I had Thomas who
said, well, if you're notmarginalized, what about your height? Are
you shorter or you're tall? Matt, you can attest to this. Am
I normal sized? I'm just kindof normal sized, aren't I? I

(53:36):
would say so in the height range, Yeah, like five eleven maybe six
feet with shoes on. I usedto be super duper skinny, and I
felt kind of self conscious about that. But I'm not even super skinny anymore,
right, Like, I look prettynormal. I'm about as normal looking
and normal feeling a person you possiblycould have. There's absolutely no I've not
had any type of what what's theword. There's never been a hurdle in

(54:01):
front of me because of something that'sgoing on in my life. I've been
as regular a person as it possiblycan be. And I just don't want
to put words in the mouth ofthe people that have been in super small
minorities like the LGBTQ plus community,which I know that minority is growing,
but it's still a very small minorityof people. I never want to put

(54:22):
myself in the shoes of a womanwho has certainly been marginalized over the decades.
I never want to put myself inthe shoes of people of color,
people of different ethnicities, because theyhave had challenges I'll never ever have to
experience in this world. And Idon't want to speak on behalf of them
or for them. I would rathertalk to them about their stories and understand
them. The way they can tellthem. But that's just how I feel.

(54:43):
I'm not saying other people can't haveopinions on this stuff. It's just
something that I don't want to havean opinion on. When a person like
Robb who says he's gay, buthe thinks that Pride Month is overplayed and
there's no reason to be shoving thatagenda down people's throats just without warning or
without being asked to, I tendto think that maybe he and a lot
of the other people that we've heardfrom today, they're right. Pride Month

(55:05):
is just something to push an agendaand not necessarily to celebrate a minority community.
And if that's the case, thenit is what it is. Four
forty nine. If you want tocall, you can four h two five
five eight eleven ten It's news radioeleven ten KFAB