I’m an 18 year old student from a privileged family. I consider myself a progressive woman. But I no longer support Pride Month.
Since I’ve known about Pride, it has always been in the context of love, freedom and equality. Like anyone with a moral compass, I stood for LGBTQ rights and as a matter of fact, I still do. The thought of participating in a Pride parade seemed perfectly okay because I believed it was a march for equality. It was a natural way to stand up for a marginalised section of our society. I still support equality and dignity for all. I have LGBTQ friends and I will continue to be friends with them.
But from my first participation in Pride, fast forward a few years, and this illusion of Pride Month has fallen apart. As I peel through the layers, needless to say, I am baffled by the turn it took. I realised that one doesn’t have to be the most perceptive person in the world to realise that what is happening now under the label of Pride Month is not about rights.
I came across an Instagram reel recently (image above) of a kid dancing with a drag queen in India and my mind instantly drew a parallel with the image on the right. That image is from a ‘children-friendly’ drag show in the USA this month. Literally 2 minutes ago such extremely sexualised exposure to children was not part of Pride but now it is commonplace. In our slide down this slippery slope, the image on the right will be what Pride organisers will want to next recreate in India. This is not about LGBTQ rights; this is the thinly veiled grooming of children by exposing them to nudity and sexually explicit behaviour. This used to be unethical and illegal only yesterday, but now it is everywhere. And the argument put forth by these groomers that kids love drag queens holds no merit. Kids also love eating sand, which doesn’t necessarily mean what kids like is good for them. Exposing vulnerable children to explicit visuals like those of drag shows is bound to leave a lasting negative impact on their minds. The demand to expose kids to drag culture is not only ridiculous but harmful as well.
I did bring this up with a few of my ‘woke’ friends, and the popular response I got was “it’s 2022 bro, you should do better”, what connection does this virtue-signalling statement have with the indoctrination of kids? A lot of people also told me that this is just “my prejudiced opinion”. I’m certain that even a semi-intelligent person can tell the difference between documented incidents and opinions.
As for the few rational friends who agree that pride has been hijacked and is no longer about a genuine struggle for rights and representation refuse to say so out loud because it comes with a 99% chance of being cancelled and called every ‘ist’ and ‘phobe’ in the dictionary. This often leaves me wondering how 18-year-olds in our country got so radical?
Since Pride Month has been imported from the west, looking at the developments around indoctrination of kids in the U.S would mean looking at a fortune-telling crystal ball for us.
What started as a seemingly well-intentioned argument to educate and sensitize children about LGBTQ individuals, so they grow up seeing it as a natural phenomenon has snowballed into absolute lunacy. Stories of teachers discussing their sexual orientation and identity in classrooms have become increasingly common and a fair worry for parents. This blew out of proportion with puberty blockers and gender identity becoming common classroom topics.
Some parents continued objecting and subsequently, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed the ‘HB 1557 Parental rights in Education Bill’ informally known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’. Amongst other things, the bill has been mainly contentious for prohibiting “classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students”.
Read that again, grade 3! It took a House Bill to establish that teachers should not have inappropriate sexual conversations about sexual orientation with children as young as kindergarten to grade 3. One would hope to see this as a sign of sanity making a comeback in schools, but the horror show continues. Here’s a clip of a teacher talking about how to make a switch to ‘subtle’ propaganda after the passing of this bill.
Queer teacher explains how to subtly let students know that you’re part of the LGBTQ+ community pic.twitter.com/ElvC1bWYZO
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 7, 2022
It wouldn’t be far-fetched to ask how far are we from letting this culture influence schools in India. Only last year NCERT’s gender studies department had made an effective attempt to give an opening to gender identity politics through its “Inclusion of Transgender Children in School Education: Concerns and Roadmap”. The manual was subsequently removed after backlash.
For someone who genuinely supports LGBTQ rights, it’s important to establish the stark difference between advocating for rights and grooming children. Why should I be compelled to pretend that exposing kids to a sexualised environment is going to benefit them?
This derailing of pride spells disaster for all, as much as this will harm children it will also harm the progress we’ve made with LGBTQ acceptance and advocacy. The original demand to treat LGBTQ rights as Human rights will take a back seat. As a rational ally, I feel that prominent LGBTQ personalities and activists should lead the charge in this to prevent pride month from being stigmatised and interchangeably used with the grooming of children.
Silence is compliance.
(NOTE: This article has been written by an 18-year-old girl who wants to be anonymous because she fears being ostracised by her woke social circle after this article).
