It’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and whatever (GLBTQW) month, and hard-earned taxpayer dollars continue to be devoted to glorifying the “walk on the wild side.” The latest is National Coming Out Day (NCOD), Friday, Oct. 8.

The city of Pittsfield, at the risk of lawsuits if it refused, funded NCOD as part of its Out in the Berkshires weekend. We have property taxes going up, up, and away, and innumerable other wastes of the private sector’s hard earned money abound. In light of this, leaving the political correctness factor aside, should the city of Pittsfield be wasting money on such anal-retentive navel gazing (a phrase, which The Planet admits, suggests an anatomical position befitting a yoga master)?

It used to be that the queer quommunity wanted to be left alone. Fine. Leave then be, we said. Then, they wanted tolerance. The Planet was all for it. Then, they wanted acceptance. Yes, as The Planet has done with the many GLBTQWs we number as friends. Now they want endorsement and funding, to which The Planet lisps its disagreement.

The Planet abhors violence against and persecution of any minority, be it racial, religious, gender-based or other. We subscribe to the Rodney King philosophy. We condemn the use of technology to bully people. We are for, however, common sense, which warns us again and again over the course of historical time that when social movements become primarily political, we are all demeaned.