Is no public space safe for our children?

Orange City Council in rural New South Wales is planning to spend nearly $126,000 on a three-day Rainbow Festival where every event involves drag queens engaging with children as young as three, and the use of books which encourage children to question their identity. Many citizens of Orange are rightly concerned for their children.

The Rainbow Festival, funded by the NSW State Government, is being promoted as the favourable response to improve mental health, social and capital skills, and even school attendance within the district. It is described online as “a weekend of fun to celebrate and support LBGTQIA+ young people while fostering inclusion, acceptance and unity.”

Many informed individuals within the Orange community are not convinced by such insipid promises, endorsed by their local representatives.

Real trauma

Councillors have been sent extensive medical evidence which raises serious alarm bells about “celebrating and supporting” a lifestyle that research and the lived experiences of many show consistently can have a debilitating effect on overall health, and can increase the risk of suicide up to 19 times that of the general population.

Eminent paediatrician Professor John Whitehall has written to the people of Orange laying out his concerns, and councillors have been sent an open letter from 35 medical specialists condemning "gender-affirming care".

These same councillors have also received harrowing stories about young adult Australians whose lives have been shattered to the brink of death as a result of exposure to sexual manipulation, sexual abuse and gender ideology during childhood and teenage years:

  • Rhianne was exposed to lesbianism at age 8 through her schoolfriend’s two “mums”. She was later sexually abused for four years, fell into deep depression, and got engaged to several women, the last being a deeply abusive relationship which led to an addiction to crystal meth. She has chosen to reject the lesbian lifestyle and reports finding “ever greater security in my identity” since leaving the queer community.
  • Jeremy was led by ideological medics to have ‘bottom surgery’ in 2003 and live as a ‘woman’, which he did for twenty years. He then realised he had been duped and has spoken out about “being used as a guinea pig in what amounted to a programme of mass feminisation of males”, and he expresses profound anger today at children still being “indoctrinated.”
  • Another young man has spoken of suffering same-sex attraction “after repeatedly being told to ‘experiment’ as ‘that’s what everyone does,’" a common pressure placed upon minors today. He says, “I entered into a two-year relationship, and it became abusive. I was eventually mentally forced into marrying the person, given his strong hold over me and the flow of money he offered me. After being beaten and threatened repeatedly… I divorced him.” This young man, now profoundly traumatised, says, “I no longer identify as same-sex attracted, and I am not attracted to men at all.”
  • Jay Langadinos, 31, transitioned to a ‘man’ in her early 20s. Today, she is suing her NSW psychiatrist for professional negligence, having been left with 'injuries and disabilities' after surgery. Her solicitor, Anna Kerr of NSW's Feminist Legal Clinic, said, “We can expect to see extensive litigation in future years related to gender-affirming cross-sex hormones and surgeries,” a pathway endorsed by the vast majority of drag queens.
  • My own story is that of being labelled as ‘gay’ by “supportive” LGBTQ+ activists during my early teens. I was encouraged to enter the queer community, where I was raped by three different gay men in my mid-teens and left suicidal with several crippling addictions. I was fortunate enough to reject this lifestyle. Many of my peers took their own lives.

Shouldn’t any one of the above stories awaken councillors to the risks of launching such a festival involving minors? We were promised the same “inclusion, acceptance and unity” as minors in Orange City are being baited with. Is a possible repeat of our tragedies what Orange’s councillors really want to offer their local children?

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Scientific research shows that anxiety, panic, and bipolar disorders are three or more times higher at the heart of the LGBTQ+ community than in mainstream society; alcohol, drug and nicotine dependency also being more widespread; sexual compulsivity and suicidality are around six times higher in the queer community. [1]

Even this past week, the ABC reported on figures released by the ABS showing that three in four LGB+ Australians have experienced a "mental disorder" at some point in their lives, with almost half of them noting high or very high levels of psychological distress, and a similar percentage (47.8 per cent) having "seriously thought about taking their own life" at some point.

Nothing has changed. Being LGBTQ+ is still not something “fun to celebrate and support”, as Orange’s festival organisers insinuate.

Any grant from the NSW State Government would be better invested in procedures that limit rather than flaunt overt sexualisation, and which teach respect not merely for a vocal minority but for differing opinions, sexes, body shapes and sizes across the board.

Targeting minors

With every event in the mooted Rainbow Festival due to involve drag queens, final comments on this topic might best be given to three sectors whose lives are embedded within the LGBTQ+ community:

  • drag queen Kitty Demure has stated that exposing children to drag queens is no different than exposing them to strippers or porn stars. “To actually get [children] involved in drag is extremely, extremely irresponsible on your part,” he says, “And honestly, you’re not doing the gay community any favours. In fact, you’re hurting us, okay?”
  • the LGB Alliance (Australia) has doctors, academics, psychiatrists and lawyers with expertise in safeguarding among their ranks. They warn against exposing children to today’s harmful, pseudo-scientific gender ideologies which lead children to believe that either their personality or their body is in need of changing. This, they state, is “confusing and dangerous to children”.
  • Gays Against Groomers, a non-profit of gay people and others within the queer community, oppose under the guise of "LGBTQIA+" the sexualisation, indoctrination and medicalisation of children. This includes drag queen story hours and drag shows involving children. They beg society to wake up to the “radical activists now pushing extreme concepts onto society, specifically targeting children in recent years.” (all bold highlights are mine)

If lesbian and gay professionals are screaming, “Stop!” alongside medics, scientists, and the testimonies of ruined lives, then why is Orange City Council continuing even to consider such an event? Or maybe they are prepared to face future lawsuits?

[1] Homosexuality & Comorbidities, Neil Whitehead - Journal of Human Sexuality 2:124-175, 2010.


James Parker is a former gay activist and abuse survivor who supports people and their loved ones around sexuality, gender and identity.


 

Showing 2 reactions

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  • Steven Meyer
    commented 2024-03-01 13:12:43 +1100
    I guess anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

    Message to the LGBQTIAXYZPQR++++ community.

    I don’t care about your sex lives. I don’t care who you have sex with, how you have sex or whether you have sex.

    I do not have the words to express the magnitude of my indifference.

    BTW today is the 214th anniversary of Chopin’s birth.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn09UdSb3aA

    Enjoy
  • James Parker
    published this page in The Latest 2024-02-29 18:27:36 +1100