Most young children trust their parents completely. If Mom and Dad tell them to trust the police, they trust the police. They trust their parents will not harm them and will not put them under the authority of adults who will. In the same way, they trust the teachers Mom and Dad send them to.
Recently, I learned that there was a national program coming to our local library called “Drag Queen Story Hour.” My grandchildren and I go to the toddler story time regularly. I was somewhat concerned when I read the “Event” announcement on Facebook that this new story hour was starting.
So, I went to the website to see what I could learn. This is a direct quote off their website:
“Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) is just what it sounds like—drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.”
I spoke to our librarian who defended the program because it was going to be teaching about kindness and acceptance. She suggested that the name was probably not a good one.
There are several problems here:
- It seems that a short description that pops up when you go to the website would cover their highest priorities. They do not mention kindness or acceptance. It is more focused on “gender fluidity” and defying “rigid gender restrictions.”
- The “gender fluidity of childhood:” Children may experiment with both male and female behaviors but there is never any “fluidity” in their gender. They were “fearfully and wonderfully made in their mother’s womb.” Even if they were, as an adult, to “feel” like the opposite gender, their physical body remains how it was made (without surgery).
To teach young children otherwise is to confuse them further than they are already from hearing what is happening in the adult world today. Can we let them be children until they can have some understanding?
- “Gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.” I was good with glamorous and positive. You lose me at “unabashedly queer.” This would indicate a deliberate effort to be rebellious and I have no idea what else that would include from their definition of the phrase. It does not sound wholesome enough for children.
Some teens may be able to see and hear a transgender story teller and discern what is “show” and what is real. But, young children are not going to get those things. It could scare them and it could confuse them – the thing we are sure of is that they will see it as “normal” before long. Once “unabashedly queer role models” are normal, what on earth will come next?
- “Defy rigid gender restrictions.” The goal of this one is so that they imagine a world where “people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.“ This, when taken to the full extent of its meaning, is horrifying. When these children learn at a young age that people can be whatever they say they are, then what will people begin to say they are?!
People will take this and run. They will be identifying as the sex that they are not, the race, nationality, and even age that they say they are – and no one will be allowed to argue with them. Imagine the consequences of this!
- “Where dress up is real.” So, we are going to teach children to see everything for what it looks like on the outside. We are not to consider what is actually “real” underneath. Not to mention that “dress up” means “not real.” What’s being said here is that children are to be taught that there is no truth; real is not real and not real is real.
Kids are being bombarded with this teaching in every arena. I would hope that home is the place where they would hear the truth from their parents. A boy is a boy even if he “feels” like a girl. Our gender is not a feeling – it is physical. I know that I will be seen as intolerant. I know that there are many who think that we are hurting transgender people by telling the truth (that gender is a physical thing decided by God before we are born).
Sadly, worldly experience can bring emotional distress. It can cause children to become confused and hurt. Why would we paint the consequences of this confusion and distress as a good thing?
We should not tolerate teaching these “unabashedly queer” concepts to small children who are not emotionally able to understand the difference between “gender fluidity” and a girl feeling like a “tom-boy” or a boy who wants to play with dolls.
Kids need the truth. The Bible says it is the truth that sets us free.
A Pediatrician’s View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=9-NQhDfloaM&fbclid=IwAR3Spmjx6s0Bac0nlickrvIEq0-3rYtZImJ9ziMPSRyVZCfxTmIX-W2kdxA