I attended a recent "gay pride" parade in Columbus. I'd been to one a few years earlier, and the bad news is that the event has grown much, much larger.

Corporate support is everywhere. Macy's, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, JC Penney, Chipotle, Frito-Lay, and many others. Local Ohio banks, Fifth-Third and Huntington. American Family Insurance. All had sizeable contingents of marchers and banners.

So the continuing high incidence of HIV among males who have sex with males, generating around 29,000 new cases per year in the U.S., is acceptable to these companies and their boards of directors? Just asking. This abundant fruit, so to speak, of the homosexual community is now ignored by the media and considered a big yawn, except by those infected, of course.

JC Penney even sponsored a "Teen Village," with activities for teens from ages 13 to 19 well into Saturday evening following the parade. Aside from the disturbing thought of 13- year- olds socializing with 19- year- olds (apparently no one is concerned here about the potential for child molestation), the teen program advertised that it would include performances by "drag queens and kings," which are males and females flamboyantly dressed as the opposite sex.

And we wonder why some kids are seriously messed up?

Also among the parade marchers were proud politicians. And churches: Episcopal, United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran and Metropolitan Community Churches, which are founded on a pro-homosexual platform.

One banner from the New Creation Metropolitan Community Church included a prominent slogan: "United Against the Flood of Homophobia." I looked around. There were thousands of cheering people and not one visible expression of homophobia, or even disapproval, much less anything like a flood. And of course, the lavish parade itself, including banners on all the city streetlight poles, was allowed on Columbus' main thoroughfare. Hyperbole, anyone? But no surprise. This movement has cut its teeth on over-the-top whining and victim posturing.

The most disturbing element was the children, lots of them, many with some sort of rainbow jewelry, flag or banner on a stroller. Signs like, "I love my two dads," which the nine or ten-year old next to "dad" had stopped holding and dad was doing for him. Again, what about the mom deliberately left out of this picture? Children want to know both their moms and their dads. To deny them this, is to be selfish, immature parents.

What these folks are proud of is deeply disturbing as a cultural trend but more importantly as an indicator of the depraved values they accept and are working actively to promote. Homosexuality is profoundly disordered, is often harmful physically [think, anal sex between two guys], is empty of the creation of new life, and ends up hurting the participants themselves as well as those to whom their lives are connected. And it's not "hate" to say so-just fact.

Homosexuality is also a considerable threat to religious liberty and free speech, as the demand to show "respect" for these lifestyles is fast becoming a club to silence people who won't assent and don't want homosexual approval taught to their children. The leaders of this movement talk about tolerance, but check out what they do, not what they say. The unfounded harassment incidents are starting to pile up.