Pride Month a reminder that all are due respect
By Alonzo Weston
It’s been long enough to pretty much forget Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s much-maligned graduation speech at Benedictine College a few weeks ago but some of what he said still reverberates.
Most of Butker’s speech was inspirational. However, when the kicker got to the part about women staying home and having babies, among other outdated things, the criticism and vitriol started.
Butker first congratulated the young women for defying conventional odds. Then he lapsed into some 1950s spiel in part about them hoping to stay home and make babies.
“Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
That’s a speech that would make Ward Cleaver or Riverdale High proud. Wishing for things of the past is usually reserved for old goats like myself but a young, rich professional kicker? To each his own but did he forget that he was speaking to a bunch of college kids rather than a senior center?
Claiming in part that women’s roles are better suited to the kitchen and bedroom brings me to the thought that his speech could not come at a better time.
June is Pride Month, which recognizes the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have made on society. We are to respect these folks as we do any other race, color or creed.
A lot of folks weren’t free to be themselves in the 1950s and 1960s. Not every woman or man was born to adhere to strict sexual norms. That in no way makes them wrong or deviant. They just have different views on “normal.”
I’m married to a white woman, something unseen on black-and-white TV or tolerated in society until miscegenation became legal in 1967. Only today do you see mixed couples on TV commercials.
Do you think Archie Bunker and Fred Sanford would have taught us better in the 1970s? We laughed at those bigots as if we weren’t them ourselves.
I’m not saying to go out of your way to hug and kiss a gay person (if you must, first ask permission). All I’m asking is for us to recognize these individuals as human beings and not aberrations of nature. They are someone’s son, daughter, mom, dad, uncle, cousin or friend. Respect them as such, please.
