Just when you thought you’d heard it all…
You might be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief when you hear that this story is from the UK, but that would be a false sense of security you’re feeling. What begins in Europe comes to our shores only too quickly, and, let’s face it, you wouldn’t even be slightly surprised if we told you that something similar was happening in San Francisco or New York City. It’s only a matter of time.
According to the Daily Mail, nursery schools in Britain are bringing in drag queens to teach children about issues like “gender fluidity,” – the concept that says that human beings may feel like a boy one day, a girl the next, or something in between at a later date. Using staffers from the organization Drag Queen Story Time, these schools are holding reading sessions with children as young as two and three years of age, so they can finally have the “queer role models” that every child should have in their lives.
Are you nauseous yet?
The project is the brainchild of Bristol University graduate Thomas Canham and “aims to teach children about transgender issues through storytelling, in addition to misogyny, homophobia, and racism,” reports the Mail.
Oh, and remember what we said about this coming to the U.S. Well, there’s one thing we didn’t mention: “The 26-year-old was inspired to set up the project after learning about a similar scheme in the US named Drag Queen Story Hour.”
Yeah. How shocking.
Child psychologist Dilys Daws told The Mail that she was concerned that the sessions could confuse children about their sexual identity. “There’s this idea that’s sweeping the country that being transgender is an ‘ordinary situation,’” she said. “It’s getting so much publicity that it’s getting children thinking that they might be transgender, when it otherwise wouldn’t have occurred to them.”
That’s no small danger, now is it? No, we’re playing with fire here, and we’re not being scientifically or psychologically cautious enough about what we’re exposing young children to. We’re fine with programs that aim to teach children to be kind to everyone, regardless of what they look like or whatever. Those are good programs, and we won’t disagree with anyone who says that a child or adult should be treated kindly, no matter what kind of delusion they may be suffering from. But that’s a far cry from teaching children that gender fluidity is a real concept that applies to their own lives, especially at an impressionable age when kids are still forming their mental model of the world.
Teaching acceptance and tolerance? Great. Teaching a young boy that, hey, you might actually be a girl? Um, sorry, but no. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
