Primary 4 Pride Disco
Sexuality clubs for children should not be a 'thing'
So there is this hospital in England who have taken it upon itself to hang up 21 flags representing 21 sexual identities in order to demonstrate their ‘inclusivity’ (I mean that’s what I want from my health care provider, flags! Sigh). It seems every time we turn around, another flag is added to the 'sexuality list’ to demonstrate another spoke on the ‘identity wheel’. Truth be told there will never be enough flags to genuinely include everyone because the possibilities and expressions of humankind are infinite. Each person is a unique imprint of life that does not need branding.
This has always been my approach in life and one that has served me well. I do not anticipate behaviours based around what someone looks like, their age or their culture. I do not think about their sexuality because quite honestly I do not care. Unless I want to date you, who you share a life with intimately is of no importance to me. And I think sexuality, in and of itself, is really the least interesting thing about a person. I often speak of my Uncle George who sadly passed in 2023, one of my most favourite people in the world, the fact that he was a gay man was irrelevant.
How we have elevated sexuality to an obsessive and iconic status is beyond me. There is no where to go with it except in the direction of kink and porn, as seen by the Creative Scotland Rein Scandal. There was a lot of spin around that from Creative Scotland and the artists themselves implying we 'mere mortals’ could not understand the ‘greatness’ of this ‘experimental’ work and to that I say ‘it’s time to grow up’, porn is boring.
In the meantime LGBT identities are pushed in primary schools wherein children in early years are elected as ‘LGBT Leaders’.
I have worked with kids for 30 years. And in all that time I have felt no inclination to explore their sexual identities. Imagine my surprise when I got this email in May 2022.
Some background. I worked within the Gaelic school in Pollokshields for 3 projects. The children are not only my students, they are my neighbours and some of their parents are my friends. (And very talented dancers!). I really enjoyed working with those kids on dance projects.
The teacher in question -who forwarded this message on behalf of the children- is a good teacher. She is (in my opinion) not an activist and does (and did) not wish any harm to the children. But this shows the insidious nature of this program and the hold LGBT Youth Scotland has. As I understand it, this disco was a recommendation put forward to assure their (silver charter?) status. A disco to celebrate people doesn’t sound bad does it?
My response
At that time I was witnessing terrible and tragic issues amongst children in my community and beyond related to lockdown and the implementation of ‘disaster education’ in schools. My response to this crisis was to ‘get out there’ and start dancing, which became the Christmas Tree, then the Disco Chicken, the Groove Tomato, the various Wally characters, and the Disco Lemon (to name a few). I could see the immediate benefit of having fun, being silly, and dancing for it’s own sake. I did most of these for no personal benefit but because I had a way to ‘make things better’. And I did.
We didn’t need to ruminate on the problems of the world, or even of the day. We needed a break. There is entirely too much attention on these ‘serious’ (and divisive, and uninteresting) matters in our schools (and in society). Yet I can see how teachers, like this one, who want to do the right thing have been corralled, because no criticality has been allowed in. No perspective. This diet of activism comes from teacher training, from the council, and from these activist groups. (Activist groups which have historic and current allegations of sexual grooming and exploitation…)
Beyond the obvious problem of the history of LGBT Youth Scotland - no one bothers to ask if this the best thing FOR CHILDREN? Given the choice of (LGBT) Sexuality club and a dance party with the Disco Chicken, I know what children would choose. These organisations weaponise our own good adult nature to ‘do the right thing’ which exploits children’s wish to ‘be good’ and to please adults. It is not children’s job to fix the planet, or to stand up for ‘marginalised’ sexual identities. That is wrong and just weird.
What’s more programs like Scottish Ballet’s ‘Safe to Be’ start with the premise that children are not safe, and that children lack empathy. What a horrific premise to deliver to children.
When my son attended the Royal Conservatoire ‘Musical Theatre’ (hardly) summer program, it was framed in this manner. It was not about musical theatre but about ‘standing up to bullies’, ‘Tik Tok’ and ‘being kind’. I rallied against RCS like I rally against all these programs. How DARE you assume my (or any) child is not kind or not empathetic. In the case of bullying who appointed you to *fix* my child? I want the RCS to teach musical theatre. In the case of Scottish Ballet and all the other youth programs they need to get back to their core purpose of arts delivery. Working collectively on sports, science projects, art exhibitions, or theatre shows is far more effective in allowing children to develop relationship skills. It is through what we share, not what makes us different that allows us to grow.
I did a BBC Radio program on this in February 2022, which reflected 20+ years of asking for this. How is it we are worse off now then before? We ask why kids are suffering? It’s because we have forgotten them. Let kids be kids. It is a remarkable, precious, and wonderful time that needs adults to take the reins and provide, because no amount of bleating on about the UN Rights of the Child’s ‘Right to Play’ is going to magic up a football pitch.
There are not enough flags in the universe to represent our unique imprint on this world. By narrowing vision through the creation of these identity frames we are denying ourselves and our children the opportunity to discover the beauty and gifts of all those around us. It is not the privilege you hold, but the gifts you bring to the world. That is the best we can teach to our children and the one that will see them through.
Thank you for reading. Thanks to my current subscribers and supporters. For new and unpaid readers - if you can please consider becoming a paid supporter of my work via becoming a regular subscriber or buying me a coffee! I have sacrificed everything in order to speak up about this. In it’s current form no arts organisation or arts body will hire me and for that things are very ‘close to the bone’ for myself and my son. I need to keep the pressure on, no one else is addressing the failure and abuses in youth arts.
Thank you.
My goodness that’s a lot of words. My priority has always been and will always be prioritising what is best for children from a developmental perspective. How they ‘identify’ is irrelevant. I am suspecting you didn’t actually read the whole thing.
I notice women’s suffrage colours have been appropriated for use by the ‘Genderqueer Community’ in the flag line up. I’ve also noticed the colours increasingly used in corporate advertising (England) One example was for cigarettes another for a disreputable garage door company. We also had Rylan Clark blatantly mis-using these colours for his latest TV bio.
I’m noticing but ignoring because I feel the people doing this are trying to foment female outrage and anger. I live by the rule you should never give an abuser/aggressor what they want. It’s served me well in the past and although it’s difficult to do in the moment, it always proves to be the right strategy in the end.