Remember when gay activists told us that they just wanted tolerance—and that their agenda wouldn’t affect the rest of us?
They lied.
What was sold as tolerance for a small minority of Americans who just wanted to quietly live their lives has become a new, mandatory civil religion. The Pride flags fly over us like the banners of a conquering army, and we are supposed to shut up and do as we are told: bake the cake, use the pronouns, repeat the creeds (e.g. “trans women are women”), allow men into women’s space, and—especially—allow them to catechize and claim our children.
Their real goal was never just tolerance, it was always to reshape every aspect of American life to reflect and affirm their own “queerness.” They have succeeded in many ways, but the battle is not yet over. And so Joy Pullmann’s new book, False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America aims to explain what has happened, why it has happened, and how it can be resisted. Pullmann is the executive editor at the Federalist (full disclosure: I frequently write for the Federalist and am cited several times in this book) and she has provided an accessible account of how America is being remade in the cause of queerness.
Her thesis is that “Western society is being erased by the purposeful destabilization of the institution that creates society: the natural family…the less Americans seek and display the virtues required to sustain families, the less capable they make themselves and the next generation of self-government.” In contrast to the virtues needed to sustain families and therefore America, the “Pride flag stands for the Cultural Marxism seeking to destroy America. According to its own philosophers, Pride isn’t about private bedroom behavior. It’s about regime change.” Indeed. As she documents, rainbow activists didn’t want the government out of what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms; they want to bring what they do in their bedrooms into the government, with everything from public schools to foreign policy partaking in Pride.
Pullmann provides extensive examples of this as she develops her argument, which begins by describing queerness as cultural Marxism. She is right about this, insofar as current queer theory and politics have a Marxist intellectual pedigree, but it is a clunky label that doesn’t quite capture what we are up against. However, there is no settled term that encapsulates current cultural, and especially sexual, Leftist ideas and politics. Whatever we call it—wokeness, identity politics, intersectionality, sexual liberalism—it is conquering and destroying our culture. And it is being imposed upon Americans by judges and bureaucrats who believe that constitutional rights must give way before queer demands.
Yet these demands are based on the most absurd lies, especially their attempted denial (though they can never really fully stick to it) of the sexual dimorphism of the human race. As Pullmann bluntly puts it, “You simply cannot substitute a naked man for a naked woman in the sex act and call it the same. It isn’t, because men’s and women’s bodies are different.” This simple truth explodes the lies on which the queer agenda, from same-sex marriage to transgenderism, is based. The realities of human embodiment make it impossible to really substitute a man for a women (or vice versa) in sex, marriage or parenting. Nor can a man ever really become a woman or a woman become a man—at most gender-transition procedures can make a person into a somewhat passable facsimile of the other sex.
Nonetheless, the cultural, economic and political powers of our nation increasingly seek to compel us to bend the knee to these lies. This is a rainbow regime change, in which rights to free speech, association, and the free exercise of religion are discarded whenever they conflict with Pride. And this is often, because the American constitutional order is incompatible with an administrative regime that has made the powers used to break segregation into a permanent and still-expanding feature of American life, one which now governs everything from the classroom to the boardroom to the locker room in the name of “LGBT rights.”
Yet this new regime is intrinsically unstable. Not only is its hierarchy of privilege and oppression liable to change, the sexual identities that are incorporated into it are not innate. Sexual desire and “gender identity” can change over time; there is no “gay gene,” let alone a “trans gene.” And so Pullmann appeals to those who identity as LGBT to accept limits in order to preserve our constitutional order. If they want to maintain the West, they need to accept the natural law limits that the West was built on, especially the indispensable place of the natural family in society.
Unfortunately, as Pullman’s exploration of the queering of the military demonstrates, this appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears. The rainbow revolution in the armed forces has been marked by lying and lawbreaking as Pride has taken precedence over military discipline and competence. As Pullmann notes, making a nonmilitary, trans-identified man such as Rachel Levine a nominal four-star admiral is “a clear signal that the Pride regime rewards sexual decadence above competence, dedication, sacrifice, honor and truth-telling.” It is unlikely that a movement that is willing to sacrifice national security in exchange for affirming lies will have any sense of self-regulation.
Indeed, this lack of self-control is intrinsic to a movement that glories in indulgence while weakening the relationships and institutions that instill virtue. The Pride agenda feeds on and encourages dysfunction in families, communities and the nation. Its educational program consists of sexualizing and instilling gender confusion in children while separating them from their parents.
Pullmann does not shy away from diagnosing the self-worshipping, idolatrous roots of this evil. Observing the many recent examples of pop cultural satanism, she writes that “these LGBT-identified artists are openly stating that if they have to choose between God and the Devil, they’ll take the Devil. They want Satan’s sexual activities, not God’s, and they know exactly which belongs to whom.”
This is also why the devotees of Pride are uninterested in using the vast power they have for the ordinary business of competent government. If they appear uninterested in the actual work of governing well, it’s because they are uninterested in the actual work of governing well. Pullman argues that for the cultural Left, identity politics (and perhaps especially rainbow identity politics), “is not a distraction from government; it’s the highest purpose of government.” They care more about protecting Pride flags painted on roads than they do fixing potholes. In their view, keeping a road in good repair is mundane and optional, but keeping the holy symbols of Pride inviolate is essential.
Thus, though Pride seems to have carried all before it, its destructiveness provides many opportunities for those who would still resist. Pullmann’s suggestions range across politics and culture with varying utility, but she is certainly right that because “just about everything in our country is a freaking dumpster fire, that means the opportunities for social entrepreneurship are wide open.” We will, as she warns, face opposition, difficulty and even suffering, but the enemy produces only incompetence, misery and a refuse-choked cultural wasteland. Thus, there is hope for those who can build, preserve or grow anything beautiful, useful or nourishing amidst the desolation.
This reclamation will require telling some hard truths. For instance, Pullmann does not pull her punches when discussing LGBT-identified personalities such as Bari Weiss, Guy Benson and Dave Rubin who claim to be conservative (or at least anti-Left) but who order up motherless or fatherless children so they can play house with their same-sex partners. Stiffening spines on such matters is essential to provide a real alternative to the sexual and relational chaos and confusion surrounding us.
Beyond cataloguing the sins of Pride, Pullmann attempts to provide a theoretical framework for understanding it that will be accessible to the ordinary American. This is an ambitious task, but she generally succeeds in making her case clearly, though this also risks new difficulties and disagreements. For example, I found myself shaking my head at much of her Straussian (West Coast variety by way of Hillsdale) approach to American political theory. Nonetheless, Pullmann’s efforts to ground her arguments intellectually should be applauded, despite the inevitability of disagreement.
And, of course, there is much we agree on. Pullmann is absolutely right about the destructive, enslaving nature of unrestrained sexual desire. Those on the Left who claim to want social justice will never come close to it so long as they glory in sexual sin. Those on the Right who claim to want limited, constitutional government will never attain it without a return to sexual virtue and the priority of the natural family.
The grotesqueries of Pride, from chemically and surgically transitioning children to the sudden push for polygamy (rebranded as polyamory), are just the latest poisoned fruit of the sexual revolution. Thus, though the rainbow activists have taken things furthest, resisting them requires that we turn away from the sexual sins that tempt us as well. The radical evils of Pride reveal the need for all of us to repent, and seek to live in holiness through God’s grace.
False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America
By Joy Pullman
Regnery, 2024
Hardcover, 336 pages
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“‘You simply cannot substitute a naked man for a naked woman in the sex act and call it the same. It isn’t, because men’s and women’s bodies are different.’ This simple truth explodes the lies on which the queer agenda, from same-sex marriage to transgenderism, is based.’” The first sentence is jarring and vulgar, which shows us where the current discourse stands (and that’s an argument from our side!)
I’m quite sure that the same-sex crowd never saw the Q juggernaut coming, which blew them out of the water as well as those defending traditional morality. Both, at least, posit a binary universe (though with entirely different attitudes about natural law) while Q grants nothing of the sort. People must understand that Q is no one’s friend, because Q is founded on anarchy, they are anti-everything. Adding them to the alphabet mafia is like tossing scorpions into a crowded room, nothing good can come of it.
In reading Judith Butler decades ago, I dismissed it as fringe nonsense, but now her thesis has gathered steam, and is crushing every foundation. Q establishes nothing, offers no ideas in its wake. Those who support it—not just local free-thinkers, but the deep pockets—want utter chaos to reign so that the New Order can be built on anti-human lies.
Weakened family ties have left more and more children prone to this madness, but there is tremendous power in Truth. We may feel we are shouting into a maelstrom, but if what we voice are sincere prayers of penance and supplication for the good of those we love, God will restore us in time to sanity. And may it be soon!
Homosexual activity is unnatural and disordered (unless you’ve lost your mind, and then it all seem so normal).
Vastly more dangerous than homosexual activity is the heresy of homosexualism. It destroys not merely supernatural charity, but also supernatural faith, and a society that adopts it as its religion is in existential danger.
If I’m not mistaken, the Suprema of the Spanish Inquisition instructed the tribunals not to proceed on indictments of homosexual activity unless there was an element of heresy.
Another link to the 2019 research (in the seventh large paragraph) re “no gay gene”—abbreviated but more reader-accessible—is https://news.yahoo.com/no-gay-gene-study-finds-180220669.html And, the highly technical report is found at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat7693
A distinction also is emerging between genetic DNA as analogous to computer hardware, and epigenetics as analogous to computer software. To the point that software can be rewritten. This rewriting is the work of personal conversion and therapeutic behavioral therapy, toward a chosen and non-homosexual/non-promiscuous lifestyle.
Even the highly detailed second link, above, refers only to genome “influences” and “predispositions,” and not to any genetic determinism (damnation under “God made you that way”). This scientific distinction confirms Catholic moral theology which likewise distinguishes between non-sinful predispositions versus the morality/immorality of chosen actions. Taking note, also, of influences/victimization by child sexual abuse, absentee or abusive fathers, the lure of sexual experimentation especially at an early age, a pornographic culture, and even altered brain chemistry due to (any) addictive behavior (pornography is found to be more addictive than cocaine), etc.
SUMMARY: Personal predisposition is one thing; actions and the imposition onto civilization of the tribal LGBTQ religion is another.
What Nathaniel Blake references in queer politics is satanic warfare aimed at annihilation of the human race, made by God in his own image, by distortion of that image in the most vile manner possible. Lucifer’s ultimate revenge in tearing the family apart. Abortion its parallel companion.
No coincidence that queers are unanimously pro abortion. No accident that they hate traditional values and hate those who hold them. Our dilemma is that this noxious tide has lapped over the doctrinal barriers flooding the Church. Idolatry coincided, the veneration of native Amazonian rites and practice [children buried alive ignored], the infamous fealty, worship service in the Vatican gardens presided by a Roman pontiff, the procession and satanic consecration of goddess Pachamama in the sanctuary of St Peter’s Basilica by cardinals of the Church. A Roman pontiff who refuses to offer the sacrifice of the Mass [when elsewhere in history?].
Fiducia Supplicans was the ambitious DDF prefect’s pièce de résistance that had an unanticipated backfire effect shattering Vatican confidence that a gay Church would fit well with a gay world. Although lacking scrupulosity strong in stealth the Vatican issued a back door entrance into the world of sexual perversity and blessings, Dignitas Infinita. That failed. Faithful battle hardened veterans saw through the ruse. This war is far from over. We’re in a sense handicapped because the barbarians hold the citadel. Though justice favors the just.
I disagree that the push for polyamory is sudden. It’s been coming for a while. Next on the agenda is pedophilia. It’s all so obvious.
Meanwhile, we have Catholic schools (locally here in Ontario, at least) putting up the so-called pride flag.
It looks like liberals are finally experiencing some pushback up north? Do you think Trudeau will resign?
The BBC has been publishing polyamory-friendly articles for years.
lack of self-control is intrinsic to a movement that glories in indulgence while weakening the relationships and institutions that instill virtue. I presume the author here is references heterosexual marriages, with over 50% ending in divorce, with adultery normalized and single straight parents become normative. Do not blame the gay community for the breakdown of the family, straight people are doing a good job at it for decades. And don’t collapse gay persons with trans persons. Many trans persons are straight. And lastly, over 80% of all acts of pedophilia are straight men towards little girls. Jesus does not shame and blame the folks who come to him, he did make exceptions with the Pharisees.
Many “trans” people are straight? Before or after?
The John Jay report said that 80% of priestly molestations were against young males. The two transwomen I knew of in the 70s went lesbian after transitioning.
Yes, polyamory has been bubbling up for years and was an accepted pattern among Neo-Pagans in the 20th C. I knew two poly families 40 years ago–both in the Midwest. One situation lasted; one messily did not. Now, even the WALL STREET JOURNAL publishes favorable articles, under its new British head.
A man assumes the identity of a woman and then becomes a lesbian? When he’s still in reality a man?
I’m totally confused.
🙄
My above comment’s premise of what may appear to some as a diatribe is that Queer Politics is not simply a behavioral fad. It’s too intense, growing disproportionately to reasoned arguments or science. Its sudden explosion and acceleration speaks to a spiritual rather than idealistic impetus. That causal impetus is evil when allowed entrance into the human psyche.
Our cultural abandonment of God as revealed by Christ has morphed into a new god identified with oneself and the skewed concept of freedom that nihilistically rejects natural law, the traditional distinction between good and evil. As such it’s the ultimate expression of freedom understood as an entirely individual achievement.
“Its sudden explosion and acceleration speaks to a spiritual rather than idealistic impetus. ”
Yes! Exactly!
May God have mercy on us all.
Whatever the statistics of heterosexual versus homosexual men’s abuse of boys versus girls may be, the intent of NAMBLA – the North American Man Boy Love Association – is fairly obvious.
In addition, we now have the relatively new (to me anyway) category of MAPs – Minor Attracted Persons.
1. This article mentioned that the author of this book was educated at Hillsdale College.
2. I’m pretty sure that the faculty and students at Hillsdale College are all pretty much in agreement in viewing Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum” and Pope Pius XI’s 1931 “Quadragesimo Anno” as expressions of Cultural Marxism.
3. Despite their support for pro-LGBTQ laws, Liberals get many Catholic votes, in part, because Conservatives are almost all deeply committed to eliminating labor unions, Social Security Retirement, Medicare, overtime pay laws, unemployment insurance, child labor laws, Worker’s Compensation Insurance, etc.
4. In the USA, the problem of the corrupting influence of heresy is found on both the Right and on the Left.
5. Hillsdale College’s errors are probably getting more Liberals elected than any other single factor.
What are those errors?
So, a leftist spouting nonsense and lies about Conservatives are you???
I am a conservative, as are many of my close friends and family. NONE of us are remotely interested in ” eliminating labor unions, Social Security Retirement, Medicare, overtime pay laws, unemployment insurance, child labor laws, Worker’s Compensation Insurance, etc.”
This statement is nothing but leftist lies, a pattern of behavior your side has perfected. Witness how many center left folk are suddenly “shocked” to discover after the debates ( and almost 4 years in office) that Biden is barely functional. Maybe its all those years of lies about how “vigorous” he is from the leftist media and DEM politicians. Yet oddly, those of us who are Republican/ Conservative are NOT shocked at all. Its what we have been seeing for years. Yet our attempts to warn the nation met with accusations of hate and bias. You chose your side. To quote a famous movie, you “chose poorly.”
You claim “Conservatives are almost all deeply committed to eliminating labor unions, Social Security Retirement, Medicare, overtime pay laws, unemployment insurance, child labor laws, Worker’s Compensation Insurance, etc.”
I am a lifelong conservative, as were my parents and grandparents before me. Everyone in my family was and is very astute politically. I don’t ever recall political family discussions in favor of a single one of the elements you claim we are “deeply committed to eliminating.”
What deep, dark, rank hole did you have to reach into, shoulder deep if not further, to pull out nonsense such as this?
Do you have legitimate statistics from proven, reliable sources to back this up or are you, as I suspect, just another bitter and totally disconnected from reality liberal?
I noticed the head of the Teamsters Union spoke at the GOP convention last week.
For better or worse the Republican party is becoming the blue collar party. I think it’s mostly for the better but we have to remember how the Democrats sold us out on social issues . If the GOP follows that same path I’ll have to look elsewhere.
This is but the extrapolation of socialized medicine state which seeks to make creatures of the state a la brave new world, instead of creatures of the natural family. Genitally mutilated person’s will have no recourse but to accept the frankentube conceived children the state allows them and to perform the parenting directives from big mother (or else!)
Such state controlled “families” will be well suited to receive, with compensation, the children for foster care, whose natural parents have dissented from the state.
ALL RAINBOW FLAGS SHOULD BE BURNED! THIS LIFESTYLE IS AN ABOMINATION!
The Alphabet Mafia has continually moved the goalpost of their ideology in regard to what they want. They, the DEMONcrat party, and their minions do not seek equality and freedom, that was given to them decades ago. What they seek is destruction of the nuclear family, eradication of conservative values, and indoctrination of our children. When a woman with pink hair, covered in facial piercings and tattoos burns an American flag under the guise of oppression, there is no fear. When a man walks the streets in chaps and nothing else, there is no fear. When transvestites and drag queens perform lewd acts in front of children, there is no fear.
Shame on any parent for not speaking up and for exposing their children to this wickedness.
Ramblings of this article aside, Pride flags no more impose a burden on heterosexual people than crosses on churches burden atheists. For LGBTQ+ people to exist, there is no more need for an LGBTQ+ gene than there is for a left handed one for left handed people. Diversity does not have to come from genetics to be genuine. Respecting pronouns and cross-gender naming (such as one of my Catholic school teachers named, “Sr. David”) is merely a matter of respect and kindness that in no way diminishes Christians or Christianity. The fact remains that heterosexual couples are still the norm and raise virtually all children – including those who are LGBTQ+.
Do not make the common mistake of the masses and presume that God will bend His will to align with the “popular sentiments of the times”.
Neither should anyone forget, though countless have, that Almighty God vaporized two ancient cities from the face of the earth because He saw their sins, sodomy being one, were a total and complete abomination in His eyes.
It has been said that the demons, though lost to hell because of their rejection of God, still retain their angelic nature. As such, they work to lead all into sin, but when it comes to the sin of sodomy, that even the demons find the act so repulsive, that they leave when the act commences.
Yo, John,
Being left-handed instead of right-handed is one thing; quite another is to not be able to tell the front from the back. In the cause of diversity, why not take food that way, either left-handed or right-handed as you seem to imply?
The conflicted and bi-sexual novelist Andre Gide had something to say about how the world gets turned upside down. As portrayed by a biographer:
“[Gide] emphatically protests that he has not a word to say against marriage and reproduction (but then) suggests that it would be of benefit to an adolescent, before his desires are fixed, to have a love affair with an older man, instead of with a woman. . . the general principle admitted by Gide, elsewhere in his treatise, that sexual practice tends to stabilize in the direction where it has first found satisfaction [!]; to inoculate a youth with homosexual tastes seems an odd way to prepare him for matrimony” (Harold March, Gide and the Hound of Heaven, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952).
Butt, why not sorta redefine “marriage”? Or whatever. And, then after having annexed society and the secularist state, why shouldn’t the tribal LGBTQ religion also annex the Church, by having it bending over to the full range of irregular “couples” with a sorta redefined blessing? Or whatever.
Again, so much sterile intellectual description of what the writer fears within himself/herself. Psychological projections, not yet self identified, make for hilarious reading if those projections didn’t have so many horrible ‘affects’ on others’ lives. The Inquisition still has ramifications in todays world which we are only now coming to terms with.