Comment: Don't protect the aggressor

Conservative MP: rainbow pride flags at schools ‘diminish the dignity’ of the Maple Leaf flag

https://pressprogress.ca/conservative_mp_rainbow_pride_flags_at_schools_diminish_the_dignity_of_the_maple_leaf_flag/?fbclid=IwAR3NdIdGvbxtpNl2jjpYXO5lEKyYs-MgNTE8dCBxsVtpqhPN73ARbqvLvtU

I have no source for this, but I read in an article last year about the logic of the Jewish ghetto during the Holocaust. Official SS party line was that since Jewish people were being aggressed on by the German people in their daily lives, for their own protection, Jewish communities should be kept in a separated ghetto. Of course, these ghettos were anything but healthy, protective spaces. They were prisons.

And of course, any reasonable person could see that the Nazis were looking for ways to limit the freedom of the Jewish people; they didn't care at all about their safety.

When Albrecht suggests that the Pride flag creates division and should be removed, he's using that same bully, gaslighting logic. I'd like to say any sane person could see through it.

What would a reasonable person do if someone is being attacked - and in fact, what does our justice system do (at its best)? We remove the attacker from civic society to (ideally) rehabilitate them or, if that isn't possible, keep them away from the vulnerable.

Imagine a world where every person who was attacked, robbed, raped or harassed was put in jail "for their own protection" while murders, rapists, and thieves ran free? What a horrible society that would be. And in fact, that is what Germany and Europe became during the Holocaust.

I know this is a very different incident level situation. But the logic is the same. Because queer kids get beat up on, Albrecht thinks that we should hide all signs of them so more division isn't created! If we just stop talking about those homosexuals and stop giving them space to be, they'll be safe from those otherwise decent people who just can't seem to stop beating them up.

Know what happens when you do that? You get a culture of bigots. And that's what Albrecht's attitude creates - a place where no one is safe because the criminals are running the show.

I don't believe than any human can't come back from bigotry and ignorance. We're all fairly easily influenced by our communities. We need to keep flying that flag, and everything it stands for, keeping talking, share, being, to make this a just and content society. We need to protect the victims, not the aggressors.

We won't let the bullies pervert the basis of social ethics; they can't gaslight us. We see how irrational they are and we keep pushing forward with our clear thinking and true civic spirit.