If you’re straight, do you think I could “convince” you to “become gay” with something I say? If you strictly like women, do you think that anything short of a magical potion could make you feel romantically and sexually attracted to men?
If you’re screaming HELL NO in your head, you get it.
There’s nothing anyone could tell or show you that would change who you’re fundamentally attracted to.
We all grasp this intuitively. We’ve had crushes in elementary school, before we even knew what to call them. We’ve met people who took our breath away at first sight. We’ve felt the urge—the need—to be close to the person we like; to become one with them, even.
Do you truly believe that you can talk anyone into feeling those things? That you can groom them into feeling love, infatuation, butterflies in their stomach or a desire to grow old with a specific person?
Because that’s exactly what you’re insinuating when you say you worry that gay people will turn your kids gay.
Resources
- The 100-Year-Old Myth of Gays “Coming for Your Children” (1:22 Podcast Episode) — Key Points:
- In the late 90s, Jerry Falwell Senior used a joke a gay man made about the purple Teletubby, Tinky Winky, being a queer icon as proof of a concerted effort among gay people to turn children gay.
- Throughout history, undesirable groups have been falsely accused of being dangerous to children as a form of propaganda to mobilize support for legislation.
- Children are one group that most people want to protect, so claims related to children getting hurt are an effective tool to incite outrage. But in addition, children symbolize the future. Therefor, trying to control what children are exposed to, can be an attempt to control the future—to maintain the status quo—since change can bring about shifts in power.
- Minority groups (amongst them Queer people) are used as convenient villains to bolster those in power.