In small towns across America, the Christmas parade is often the most charming and unifying event of the year. Young and old alike gather to sing carols, wave at Santa and celebrate the birth of
Jesus Christ.
Such has always been the case in this city of around 17,000, where the annual Christmas Parade of Lights is traditionally organized by the Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance, a consortium of local churches. Last year, however, the Christmas parade turned into something different. This year things have spiraled completely out of control.
My wife and I moved to Taylor, about 35 miles northeast of Austin, to raise our three children in a community dedicated to protecting children and supporting families. Historically a farming and rail town, Taylor is about as far from the front lines of the culture war as it is possible to imagine. Last year an organization called Taylor Pride submitted an innocuous-sounding application to sponsor a parade float featuring “a rainbow Christmas tree” and “probably 10-15 adults.” The Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance granted approval immediately. Evidently no one at the church group—which “exists to unite the Christian ministers of the Taylor area in fellowship and to enrich the spiritual life of the community through united ministry and evangelistic outreach”—realized that Taylor Pride was the town’s “hub of the LGBTQ community.” The ministers naively thought a group calling itself Taylor Pride was simply proud to be from Taylor.
That’s life in a small town. But if the members of the parade committee were quaintly unfamiliar with the vernacular of modern identity politics, they for sure weren’t prepared for what happened next. Taylor Pride was planning something slightly more adult than a rainbow Christmas tree. Its parade float featured drag queens—men dressed as busty women in short skirts.
Unsurprisingly, parade-goers grumbled that this wasn’t the sort of thing they expected from a small-town Christmas parade organized by churches and aimed at families. To ensure it didn’t happen again, the Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance decided to change the wording on this year’s application to make clear that Christmas parade floats mustn’t contradict “traditional and biblical family values.” Taylor Pride interpreted the rules to mean it wouldn’t be allowed to sponsor a float this year, so it complained to…
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