Pride is also, now, about the sexualization of children
I know the reaction of, perhaps everyone, to that headline will be “well, duh”, but I thought this was worth taking a post to say. Because almost overnight we’ve culturally crossed another line and few have bothered to note it explicitly.
When I was in college, I remember arguments for gay civil unions that amounted to “let consenting adults do what they want to do, they aren’t bothering anyone else” (which thing you still sometimes hear, but less and less, as “tolerance” is being replaced by “the Science™ says…”, unsustainable relativism just being a transition period into a different absolutism). That’s the sort of argument that can be attractive to a Christian who sees the values of lowercase-l liberal politics, who recognizes that yeah, if the state disagrees with me and my religion or my lifestyle I think it would be wrong for the state to treat me worse for it, so I should be happy for the state to extend that same respect to everyone. I don’t expect them to agree with me, I don’t have to agree with them, but in a liberal society we can all at least leave each other alone as adults to make our own decisions. (So about how that “leaving each other alone” thing is now working out…)
But the words to focus on there are consenting adults. Before, you might have said, although there was a “leave adults to make whatever sexual choices they want”, there also at least seemed to be a consensus that children should be left out of it. Societal acceptance of heterosexuality didn’t mean we were going to expose children to heterosexual pornography, and acceptance of homosexuality didn’t mean we were going to expose children to homosexual pornography, for example - “we don’t involve children in sexual stuff” appeared to be an overriding principle. But with few people making explicit note of it, a movement that is inherently about certain types of sexual activity (that is what L, G, and B stand for) is now eager to include children as part of its festivities. Although a hundred examples could be provided, let me just give you three recent ones.
Keep kink in Pride!
I don’t know if you’re supposed to put the most obvious example first, but let’s do it:
Here is a woman who basically is arguing that it’s a good thing to expose your children to pornography… and the in-person at Pride festivals kind. She does vaguely address that concern in her piece, but dismisses it with comments about not confusing “self-expression” with “obscenity”, and that “policing how others show up” doesn’t “protect or uplift” children - why not? And besides, the larger argument of her piece is that witnessing all this stuff can lead to good conversations with children about sex and sexual activity - there is a reason it would naturally lead to conversations about sex.
“But David, she was swarmed by people on Twitter telling her that she was nuts and/or wicked.” Yes, and she also got published by the Washington Post. You don’t get to this place overnight, and yesterday’s “but that’s insane” is tomorrow’s “you’ll be fired if you don’t support this”. Journalists know that, and activists know that (but I repeat myself), and they know if they ignore the criticism and just keep pushing the stuff they can make it the cultural default just by endless repetition. That is their tactic. They employ it on issue after issue because it works.
If I could comment on the subtitle too - “Children need to know that they can make their own ways in the world.” Can I just point out that the world’s preferred advice, which takes such forms as “find your authentic self” and “make your own way in the world” is utterly and totally useless far as helping any young or confused person to know what actually constitutes a good life? There is no content in those phrases beyond “do what feels right at the moment”.
Blue’s Clues “Pride Parade”
Two million views (could be worse) for the Blue’s Clues “Pride Parade” on YouTube. When the book is eventually written on America’s cultural decay, I hope this video is included. Also I watched it for you even though it was torture, so PLEASE SEND YOUR BITCOIN CASH TIPS TO: just kidding.
This is sort of the opposite end of the spectrum - it’s not “expose your kids to kink at a Pride parade”, it’s little cartoon characters and an absurd amount of flags (I would say they made an effort to include every possible variation for maximum inclusion). Yet this parade included not only lines like “this family has two daddies”, which you might have expected, but also “these babas are non-binary”, “ace, bi, and pan grown-ups you see can love each other so proudly”, and “allies to the queer community”. I would ask you again, what do those words mean? This is a cartoon targeted at ages 2-6 years.
Rosaria Butterfield at ACCS
And finally, I think I said this two posts ago, but just wanted to mention again the comments of Rosaria Butterfield at ACCS. The materials being used by at least some schools to teach your young children about transgenderism are pornography. And there is no parental opt-out because officially it is not “sexual education”, it is “anti-bullying education”. That is where we are today.
I would love to end this little post with “so here is exactly what you need to do to confront this problem”, but I don’t know exactly what you need to do to confront this problem (leave a comment if you do!). Our rules about how to raise and treat children are significantly derived from Christianity, therefore it is logical that they would disappear as Christianity and any of its remnants are rejected. We should keep telling people the truth and point them to a better way (many are lost people in dysfunctional communities who don’t even know that there are functional communities out there). I think we also need more institutions doing that - as I said, the media can ignore your good argument because their 24/7 megaphone will overwhelm any good argument with many people. But more writing about building institutions is a topic for another time.
Hmm. Hard to add humor when the post keeps going in unexpected directions and is more like a gut punch or a tap to a guy's privates.
Helping Cedar Classic Academy is a creative and good action step against the trend.
You mentioned institutions, and it's true, the PCA is definitely not actively supporting this, but are they willing to say that the public schools are? I haven't heard it. More importantly, they haven't done the prep work for such advice because they don't prepare teachers in our midst that talking about this isn't the same as hating the teachers. All they do instead is try, "on the other hand." In this case the preachers would probably say maybe some teachers should talk kindly and privately to their admin that this push is harmful, but you (as the voice rises) homeschoolers need not be so judgmental too. That's the depth of our preaching, so we are ill equipped for good teching and right actions.
One other thing, the entire rainbow enterprise is a motte and bailey and needs to be firmly called out as such in private conversations. Don't let wavering emotive church folks hide behind either fairness or false guilt. Such people can't see past the hollywood presentations of confused kids being bullied: It sucks up whole hearts and minds.