What's wrong with Pride
a conversation with Joseph Sciambra
Joseph Sciambra is an ex-gay man (I don’t know if he’d use that term, but the concept it describes is accurate) who is one of the few writing about the connection between child abuse and homosexuality.
He invited me for a conversation about the origins and changes of “Pride.” Both of us are old enough to remember several generations back.
The summary:
-Though “Pride” started as an actual legal/civil rights project, it was also infused with gay male debauchery
-The gay world by its very nature was ripe for infiltration by the most extreme trans and queer set. This was not an outside takeover, but a predictable evolution
Thanks for posting this conversation, Josh—I missed the subscriber conversation you had with Joseph a few months ago.
One thing that didn’t come up while you guys were talking was the developmental impact on gay adolescents of never having to interact with sexual behaviors of the opposite sex. E.g. gay teenage boys are basically in a market with people who are as out-of-control-horny as they are. I’ve recently started to wonder if that lack of development is part of why so much of the gay community is subject narcissistic hubris associated with Pride Month.
Fascinating conversation to listen to. Thank you both for having it publicly.
I'd be interested to know more about your personal path, Josh. You mention that you're single / chaste by choice... what brought you to that decision, when did you come to it, what has it been like?
I'm curious because I know so many lovely gay people who seem deeply troubled. Learning more about probable abuse rates at first shocked me (and made me so sad for those guys) but later led me to uncomfortable questions. If we acknowledge that the clicheed porn star whose uncle abused her sexually as a child is self-harming through her actions (maybe grounded in some sort of repetition compulsion), then shouldn't we *entertain* that some vaguely similar dynamic might be at work here? In which case blanket affirmation is maybe something we ought not to be doing? But blanket demands of celibacy also seem like too much to suggest (at least when made by the straights).
Anyway, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts if you're willing to share them. Best to you.