Old-fashioned pride

Oh, woe is me! I have just read your editorial “A proud Knesset” (June 30), and what are we to be so proud about?

• 10,000 marched in Jerusalem’s pride parade

• Hundreds of thousands in Tel Aviv’s “biggest parade in all of Asia”

• A homosexual cabinet minister

• A gay mayor

• A lesbian head of a political party

I do not share in the glee. I take pride in family, that elementary social unit that is and always has been the basis of human existence and the insurance policy for continued social stability. Maybe I am old-fashioned, but my deep-rooted belief is that man plus woman with children, grandparents and grandchildren is the only solid foundation of our social existence.

I have just come back from spending Shabbat in a yishuv that has 350 family units and, between them approximately 2,000 children. The men work and serve in the army. Most of the women work. The young girls do national service. The children go to youth movements that emphasize voluntary work in society. Values are pure and mutual assistance is everywhere. Nobody locks their doors at night and the prevailing sense of mutual trust is due largely to the firmness of the family unit.

These are things to be proud of. These are the basic fundamental values that go on from generation to generation. Can we envisage a situation where there will ever be a “second generation” LGTB? Let us get our priorities right! If there must be a LGTB community, let it be so – but don’t flaunt it – don’t hold it up as a paragon of social identity. LAURENCE BECKER

Jerusalem