Years back, when I lived in Northern California, a huge controversy erupted in a town called Novato about implementing a pro-LGB curriculum and movie called That's a Family in the elementary schools. Parents were outraged, including liberals, and it made national news for months.
California was the epicenter for gay education/indoctrination in the schools, and I was fully enmeshed in these issues, with kids in public and private schools in Marin and San Francisco. The school my kids attended at the time was grappling with the same That's a Family brouhaha. I led the opposition, with tremendous support from mostly liberal parents, including one LGB parent, who said: "At this age, all my child wants to do is play, be with friends, and is not thinking about these issues. It's just not age-appropriate."
How did we get from there to Disney opposing Gov. DeSantis's Parental Rights in Education bill and bragging about outwardly "queering" entertainment for our kids?
In the early 2000s, most parents tolerated some political correctness in the schools, even if they didn't agree 100%, and they generally accepted the diversity and anti-bullying curricula being promoted. The dirty little secret was that these efforts were initially drummed up, pushed, and driven by well-funded LGB activist organizations, like GLSEN, whose long-term goal was to "queer the schools" under the guise of looking out for the kids.
The concept of "diversity" started out fairly generic and innocuous — tolerance for people who are different. But it quickly narrowed to be almost exclusively about gay kids in middle and high school. At the first Diversity Day in our school, there were no black, Asian, or Indian students, or any with disabilities. They were gay, bi, or lesbian.
Tolerance then shifted to full acceptance, which required that children be taught openly about homosexuality, homosexual behavior, and protection against STDs and AIDS. "Accepting" homosexuality meant acknowledging that "male" and "female" are social constructs, gender and sex are not the same, gender falls on a spectrum, and heteronormativity — the idea that heterosexuality is the norm — must be rejected. You got that? Even if we take as accurate polling that shows that 5.6% of Americans identify as LGBTQ+ and 94.4% are heterosexuals, the latter are not the norm.
These newly realized realities were injected into all aspects of education — from classroom to bathroom, from homecoming queens to sports teams. Kids went from the scientific reality of being one of two sexes (even if they were gay) to choosing from a panoply of gender identities that today has climbed to nearly 70 (or more). To accommodate the growing volume of sexual identities, sex ed became more complicated and detailed, instructing children on a range of sexual practices to experiment with as they traversed the gender spectrum looking for a good fit. They were encouraged to pick their pronouns, and some even changed their names or began to present themselves as members of the opposite sex, without parental notification.
Children are impressionable. They can feel confused, vulnerable, highly emotional, and volatile as their bodies change. It's common for most kids to feel alienated and alone at some point. It's not hard to see why activists would target them or why scared kids might be lured into being part of a heavily protected class of individuals that might help them feel more included and special.
Although parents who knew their children best and cared most about them were marginalized, the influence that schools wielded on their children was glaring, even to liberals.
School administrators and progressive activists scoffed at any suggestion that kids could be influenced to become LGBTQ+. It's genetic. Not something they can "catch." We didn't see much of it in the past because of our hateful mores and social strictures against LGBTQ+. More kids identify as LGBTQ+ today because they can!
Once armed with a map and guidelines about gender, the vastness of the spectrum simply came to light.
Our children are no longer comforted by the knowledge that they are fundamentally boys or girls. The reality humankind has taken for granted for eons has descended into a dizzying abyss of choices children feel obliged to make but lack the critical thinking skills and life experience to truly comprehend.
The security blanket of "just being" has been thrown off for the maddening reality of anythingness.
Children need anchors to be emotionally healthy and are adrift without them. Having bought into the promise of redemption once they pick their "true gender," they're often left with a lingering emptiness that parents, not the school or activists, must contend with.
In addition to diversity, gay activists promoted anti-bullying legislation. Bullying, which used to mean pummeling someone behind the gym or extorting him for lunch or homework under threat of physical violence, came to include eye rolls, nasty comments, and insults — even saying something was "gay." Anything that triggered an emotion and required a safe space qualified as bullying.
No one wants children to be mean to one another. No parent wants his child, however the child might "identify," to be bullied or for his child to bully someone else. And, because many schools mishandled bullying incidences, better policies were warranted.
But parents have been played by manipulative LGBTQ+ activists and their fellow travelers in the schools. Although anti-bullying legislation was marketed as protection for all students against any physical or verbal assaults, the long-term goal was to silence alternative viewpoints on LGBTQ+ issues by labeling them "bullying." Similarly, diversity education was marketed as tolerance for all but was actually about "queering the schools."
Empowered by their successes in education, these activists now have tentacles that reach into all aspects of our lives. Our children are groomed not only by the schools, but by the movies they watch, the games they play, and the amusement parks they visit.
Our children are no longer ours, but subjects of radicalized corporations, government schools, Marxist activists, and even useful idiot health professionals. Pediatricians escort parents from the examining room so they can interrogate their children about their gender.
Parents who unwittingly acceded to diversity and anti-bullying education had no idea they were paving the way for today's woke cancel culture; Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity; CRT; and expansive LGBTQ+ programs in our schools, on our screens, and at our workplaces.
Now we are reaping the whirlwind.
After Obergefell forced the term "marriage" to legally apply to same-sex couples, activists who needed to stay funded and maintain their influence in schools and businesses, set their sights on transgenderism. Yet the actual rate of intersex births is only 0.018%, meaning the majority of transgender cases is not only negligible but psychological, not medical. We can all agree that true intersex individuals should be able to undergo any corrective medical procedure as early as is medically sound, and then live their lives as that sex, whether on a passport or a swim team.
Why, then, is such a small number of LGBTQ+ individuals driving the discourse and policy?
At the heart of the LGBTQ+ issue is the larger issue and danger of minority rule. Radical left-wing activists have displaced the majority rule of our republic, which accords rights and a voice to minorities, with actual minority rule. This places the American experiment in jeopardy.
If you think things are ugly now, just wait. It's not someone else's problem; it affects each and every one of us. Why? Because the only way a few can control the many is with an iron fist and a boot on the neck, not with freedom and justice for all.
https://www.americanthinker.