Wheaton Park District’s Cosley Zoo Celebrates Pride Month, Alienates Conservatives
The Wheaton Park District in the formerly family-friendly community of Wheaton, Illinois, home of Wheaton College, just can’t stop promoting anti-Christian, family-hostile “LGBTQ+” beliefs.
Just last week, the community learned that the park district board of commissioners had changed locker room and restroom usage policy. Without taking a vote, the board sexually integrated all heretofore sex-segregated private spaces. Now the community has learned that the park district’s beloved Cosley Zoo formally and publicly celebrates “pride” month.
In a June 11, 2023 Facebook post, Cosley Zoo announced that “June is #pride month. Our animals have been enjoying some rainbow enrichment in celebration. Cosley Zoo is proud to be a safe and welcoming place for families all year!”
Accompanying the post are five photos showing zoo critter enclosures festooned with the colors of the “LGBTQ+” rainbow appropriated from the Bible.
This makes Wheaton Park District’s Cosley Zoo an unsafe, unwelcoming place for families who are theologically orthodox Christians, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims.
For those outside of or new to the Wheaton area, Cosley Zoo is a small zoo that appeals primarily to toddlers and young children. Conservative parents believe that volitional homosexual acts are immoral, that cross-sex impersonation is immoral, and that both subjects are inappropriate topics to be introduced to children.
Leftists, in contrast, embrace the view that there is no age of child too young to expose to leftist beliefs on homosexuality and sex impersonation. Leftists understand that it is easier to transform the hearts, minds, and wills of 14-year-olds than 24-year-olds, and easier still to transform the hearts, minds, and wills of 4-year-olds.
Leftists also understand that effective propaganda requires repeated exposure to ideas and images. Hence the ubiquity of “pride” propaganda.
This Wheaton Park District propaganda campaign exposes the—shall we say—dissembling of board commissioners who have been trying to hide behind case law as a rationalization for sexually integrating women’s private spaces. Board commissioners have said their attorneys told them that the “law”—that is, case law—requires the park district to sexually integrate locker rooms and restrooms. They throw up their hands and say, “The devil”—er, “The attorneys made us do it!”
That raises this question: Is there any law so egregiously pernicious and unjust that these men and women would refuse to enforce it? Put another way, are they willing to obey or enforce all laws no matter how pernicious they are?
In Letter from Birmingham Jail, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote,
"[T]here are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'An unjust law is no law at all.' Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law."
Is a law that permits adult men into women's locker rooms and restrooms a just law or an unjust law?
With regard to Cosley Zoo, however, there is neither statutory nor case law to hide behind, so perhaps at the upcoming board of commissioners meeting on June 21, board commissioners can explain to taxpayers and donors what exactly compels Cosley Zoo to celebrate the affirmation of leftist moral, political, and pseudo-religious beliefs on sexuality and “gender”?
Donors who don’t want their money being used to promote a false ideology that hurts children, families, faith, and freedom may want to consider contributing to other, less politicized charitable organizations—at least until the Wheaton Park District realizes that excluding and offending conservatives violates commitments to diversity, inclusion, and family-friendliness.
In the meantime, Cosley Zoo should revisit their motto: “A lifetime of inspiration begins here.” Maybe something like, “A lifetime of indoctrination begins here” is more suitable.