There’s an undeclared battle going on in the popular culture over the month of June. In a few weeks, Black people and others around the country will celebrate Juneteenth, the often-misunderstood commemoration of what has been called America’s second Independence Day.
Meanwhile, the entire month of June has been designated by American presidents and members of the LGBTQ community to be “Pride Month,” a time to honor and support those who live so-called alternative lifestyles.
Few of us recognize that both these commemorations leave a lot to be desired when examined though the lens of American history and Biblical thought.
Juneteenth came to be a celebration only after enslaved Blacks in Texas hadn’t yet heard about the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 that freed all enslaved people in Confederate States. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865 – nearly two years later – that a Union contingent of troops overran Galveston, TX, and announced that Texas slaves had already been made free.
How do you free a people who are already liberated? Or can a person really be liberated if they don’t know they’ve been liberated?
While I’m all for holding up Black culture, it seems to me that celebrating Juneteenth might not be the reaction I’d naturally choose. My initial reaction to having been denied freedom some two years after it had been declared might make me more angry than celebratory. President Lincoln’s executive order was designed only to free enslaved people in Confederate states. It was designed to weaken Confederate forces, and not so much a reflection of Lincoln’s views on racial equality.
Not to mention the fact that an Emancipation Proclamation would not have even been necessary had the nation lived up to its earlier decree that “all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”
Speaking of the Creator, that brings us to the celebration of June as Pride Month celebrating LGBTQ+ lifestyles. How is it that the rainbow, which Biblically represents the fulfillment of God’s promises, has come to symbolize this commemoration of LGBTGQ pride?
Pride Month started after a June 28, 1969, police raid on a Manhattan, New York gay bar. What’s interesting about this history, is that Black people were excluded from the early Pride marches, but LGBTQ activists have historically aligned themselves with Black struggles for civil rights.
The movement adopted the rainbow flag in San Francisco in 1978 when an openly gay designer came up with the idea after being inspired by the diversity he saw at a drug induced party.
Describing the moment he came up with the rainbow idea, Gilbert Baker said the following:
“We rode the mirrored ball on glittering LSD and love power,” he wrote in his memoir, Rainbow Warrior. “Dance fused us, magical and cleansing. We were all in a swirl of color and light. It was like a rainbow. A rainbow. That’s the moment when I knew exactly what kind of flag I would make.”
The rainbow has been linked to LGBTQ lifestyles ever since. In recent days, corporate retailer Target has been in the crosshairs of controversy after Christian activists objected to the retailer stocking rainbow-themed products in support of Pride Month. After the protests, Target summarily removed the rainbow items, only to garner the ire of the LGBTQ community and its allies.
But much like Juneteenth, the rainbow flag is built upon a foundation of sinking sand. The rainbow had become an icon long before that 1978 San Francisco party. God “created” the rainbow as a symbol to Noah that God would never again destroy the world by water.
“I do set my (rainbow) in the cloud, and it shall be a token of a covenant between me and the earth … and I will remember my covenant … and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.”
The rainbow is a reminder of God’s promise, yet society has turned it into a symbol of an alternative lifestyle; and the commemoration of Black freedom has become a celebration of a message not received.
Maybe we should just celebrate Father’s Day in June and call it a month.
