Who could ever have guessed they’d have such a thing for compelled submission?

I’ve always been a devotee of the New World monarchies, not least among them the presidency of these United States. Yet even I was a bit perturbed this week when the nominally reigning Joseph I issued his royal decree in observance of the new liturgical season.

The president warns therein that “the rights of LGBTQI+ Americans are under relentless attack… especially people of color and trans people.” (“LGBTQI+ Americans…especially people of color”—does Biden just have crappy writers, or is it gay to be black now, too?) He bemoans that “an onslaught of dangerous anti-LGBTQI+ legislation has been introduced and passed in States across the country, targeting transgender children and their parents and interfering with their access to health care.”

If there was any question remaining as to this government’s support for the permanent surgical mutilation or chemical sterilization of children, it has now been put to rest.

The proclamation concludes:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2022 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the achievements of the LGBTQI+ community, to celebrate the great diversity of the American people, and to wave their flags of pride high.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.

At the risk of stating the obvious, these words do not suggest the “live and let live” mentality once feigned by the drivers of the LGBT movement. A presidential proclamation is a pretty public thing, and a call from the Oval Office for “the people of the United States…to wave their pride flags high” does not exactly leave room for dissenters. This is symbolic, of course, but it does reinforce the administration’s professed interest in advancing “LGBTQI+” interests through actual policy.

Symbolic actions matter. When the highest official of the most powerful nation in the history of the world sets aside an entire month in honor of a deadly sin (not to mention the particular weirdness of that sin’s entanglement with deviant sexual habits), that matters.

Nor was the White House the only part of the government to honor the occasion. On June 1, Secretary Janet Yellen raised a rainbow flag just below the stars and stripes on the flagpole of the U.S. Treasury building. As the American economy limps toward the abyss, it is good to know the chief financial officer of the United States government has her priorities in order.

Even the military, in living memory (and properly by nature) one of the government’s last reservoirs of tradition, joined in celebration. In an apparent knockoff of the poster art for Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (not exactly a Marine-friendly movie), the Corps posted a picture of an old-school M1 helmet holding six rainbow bullets that look suspiciously like crayons in its band. The gaffe was mocked relentlessly on Twitter. The Air Force tweeted a similarly goofy rainbow-tinted picture. The Army, for what it’s worth, marked June’s beginning only as the month of its own founding in 1775.

In other uniformed services news: The U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps simply tweeted a captioned picture of its four-star Admiral Rachel (né Richard) Levine, to a whopping 31 likes as of this writing.

“Pride” is even more pervasive outside the official confines of the regime. Every major corporate power, and a good share of the smaller ones, has taken the opportunity to announce its devotion. When the clock struck midnight on the first of June, every company logo suddenly turned rainbow, and massive corporations have issued newspeak statements about the infinite glories of queer folx. One hippie toiletry co. even tweeted an exhortation to “groom with pride” before thinking better of the word choice.

In a way, the corporate gayification is even more consuming than the government one: How could anyone who does not wish to involve himself in observances of Pride even participate in the economy—with all the social and material necessities it provides—for the thirty days of June?

Those who still bother remarking on hypocrisy have pointed out that no such corporate rainbow onslaught occurred in countries that have not abrogated laws criminalizing sodomy, which is a helpful reminder that culture and capital both remain (at least in part) downstream of politics. In the West though, the unspoken message of capital has been one with that of the state: Get on board or go hungry.

In fact, the state has decided to make that message explicit. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that any public school that does not comply with the Biden administration’s LGBT agenda will risk being cut off from federal funding for vital programs like lunch for students from low-income families. If they can’t slice your kids, at least they can starve them.

Happy Pride to all who celebrate, and all the poor souls who will have to soon.