Rainbow flags to you and you!

My rainbow flags arrived!

50 glorious rainbow flags, perfectly sized for a standard envelope.

My original plan was to mail the occasional rainbow flag to Pete Menjares, President of Seattle Pacific University, after his university refused to hire anyone from the LGBTQ community. At the graduation ceremony in May, students took the stage and handed Menjares a rainbow flag in lieu of shaking his hand.

I loved this simple form of protest. A polite but public display of dissent. I wrote about it three weeks ago and decided to participate in the protest via the US mail by sending Menjares my own rainbow flag.

Before my flags arrived, however, I read about Bishop Robert McManus’s decision to strip the designation of “Catholic School” from Nativity School in Worcester, MA because the students voted last year to fly pride and Black Lives Matter flags outside their school and refused to take them down.

I wrote a letter to Bishop McManus reminding him that leaders of his church raped thousands of small boys over the course of decades, and that the church knew about these sexual assaults, did little to prevent them, and covered them up. I suggested that as a result of this criminal and evil behavior, perhaps Bishop McManus and his church had lost the right to tell children what is right and wrong.

It occurs to me now that perhaps he should receive a rainbow flag, too.

I know there are many other bigots in the world to whom I could send a rainbow flag, but these are the two bigots who I’ve written about here, so until someone else raises my ire enough to prompt me to write, these shall be the bigots to whom I send a rainbow flag today and occasionally in the future.

Today’s flags will be sent with a simple letter that states:

Dear________________,

Stop obsessing over sex. It’s creepy. People who try to dictate how others should have sex are creepy and weird. Knock it off. There are lots and lots of real problems in this world. Try fixing one of those and stop worrying about who loves whom.

Warmly,

Matthew Dicks

Their addresses, in case you were wondering, are the following:

Seattle Pacific University

Attention: Pete Menjares, President

Dioceses of Worcester, MA

Bishop Robert McManus

49 Elm St.
Worcester, MA 01609