Illustrated by Noel Guzman (They/Them)
To be frank, conservatives across the country are going hysterical. Far-right Republicans have co-opted the term “family-friendly” into a sensationalized rallying cry for concerned conservative parents. The purported link between pedophilia and queerness has created an uptick of anti-gay and anti-trans legislation that one NPR article even referred to as a “cascade.”
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson frequently cherry-picks random, fringe moments of LGBTQ+ culture and blasts it into millions of American homes, leading to harmful misrepresentations of what it means to be queer. This has recently led to the writing and subsequent support of unnecessary and irrational anti-queer legislation. On Jan. 6, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tweeted, “Florida will continue to enact family-friendly policies to make it easier to raise children and we will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence.” He is doing so by signing controversial bills into law like HB 1557 of 2022, which critics refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. NPR explains that this law places a near ban on sexual and gender orientation education in Floridian public schools. On June 6, 2022, Far-right Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert tweeted, “Take your children to church, not drag bars,” referencing two children who attended one drag dance. Reacting to a speech about empowering trans youth by President Joe Biden’s Assistant Secretary for Health, Representative Boebert tweeted back “You’re grooming them, not empowering them.” Messages like these have become the status quo in the Republican platform and conservative media.
Amidst this recent wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric that associates pedophilia with queerness, we must investigate that link’s origin. Let’s begin by examining how straight people have historically perceived and currently interact with the queer community.
To straight people, queer people may seem inherently sexual because they are often introduced solely in terms of their sexuality. The hyper sexualization of gay men since the AIDS crisis and the ubiquity of lesbian pornography for the male gaze has reduced queerness to sexual relations. So when queerness is discussed with children or when kids identify as LGBTQ+, straight people often jump to a highly sexualized version of that identity and equate it with the perversion of our youth. Straight people get a world outside of sex, but we often don’t.
Historical events can help point out this issue. Straight America reacted to the AIDS crisis with the shaming of gay men, purporting the idea that all gay men inhabited some urban, hypersexual subculture. Mainstream discourse focused on gay male sexual practices, rather than vetting how the government responds to the medical emergencies of marginalized communities. This angle made gay men appear inherently sexual, incapable of restraint, and unthinkably filthy.
Hypersexualization of gay people is not a relic of the past. Many queer people today know the experience of straight people probing into their sex lives completely unprompted. Straight people often ask inappropriate, invasive questions as a first reaction to a queer person coming out: “So how does it work?” “Are you the man or the woman?” “Do you have threesomes?”
Additionally, we all know the prevalence of lesbian fetishization. The ubiquity of watching lesbian pornography amongst heterosexual men and women alike gives a key insight into pedophilia hysteria. According to NBC, “lesbian” was the most searched term on PornHub in both 2018 and 2017. The Atlantic published an article about the American lesbian porn obsession and included an intriguing map that used PornHub data to demonstrate the most searched pornography topic by US state.
Dear Greg Abbott, the most common term that Texans searched for was “lesbian.”
Dear Ron DeSantis, the most common term that Floridians searched for was “lesbian.”
Dear Lauren Boebert, the most common term that Coloradans searched for was “lesbian.”
Do not worry, for you are not alone. “Lesbian” was also the most commonly searched term in Alabama, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina — sorry, I have to move on.
If a straight person is not engaging with queer people in real life, the LGBTQ+ community might only exist naked in their experience. When confronted with the idea of young queer girls, male legislators might imagine the lesbian porn in their browser history, not kids with playground crushes like those of their straight peers. When confronted with the idea of young queer boys, legislators might recall the demonizing rhetoric of gay men as diseased animals, not kids with movie star crushes like those of their straight peers. So when progressives say kids can be LGBTQ+ and teachers should teach them about LGBTQ+ issues in school, we aren’t talking about the same thing. They might be picturing children having sex — we aren’t.
Ironically, straight people still often sexualize their children in numerous domains. On Medium, a public writing platform, a mother wrote a piece titled “The Heterosexualization of Youth” in which she pointed out how young children are aggressively thrust into heterosexual romance through fashion. This article came out in 2016, right when Cosmopolitan covered the Forever 21 controversy over inappropriate T-shirt designs in the youth boys section. The since removed T-shirts included lettering such as, “Sorry ladies, I only date models,” “Ladies man,” and “Chicks are all over me.” While the conversation in 2016 mostly centered around sexism, like the commentary in the linked Cosmopolitan article, the issue runs deeper. This controversy brings to light the hypocritical, heterosexual sexualization of our youth against the backdrop of the hysterical, queerphobic rhetoric of our time. Inclusive education does not sexualize children any more than heteronormative culture already does.
Later in 2017, ABC News published a “cute” story that went viral about a mock wedding photoshoot some moms hosted for their three and five year olds. How is this not stealing childhood innocence but a rainbow flag at a teacher’s desk is? How is this not forcing premature sexualization but a soccer poster of Megan Rapinoe in a gymnasium is? Fox News would have had a field day if this mini-wedding was a same-sex event. So in reality, when referencing sexualization of youth, conservatives might need to reflect on what they do to their own kids. Adults who ask young girls and boys who have opposite-sex friends, “Ooo, is that your boyfriend?” or “Ooo, is that your girlfriend?” have no right to complain about the romantic or sexual behaviors of queer people.
Writer Charles Dunst of the Atlantic points out that “parents and schools have long recognized the need to accommodate nascent heterosexuality in wholesome ways” through things like school dances, sex-ed classes, and Valentine’s Day activities. He explains that “queerness, in contrast, is widely understood to be inherently and only sexual; by this logic, all things LGBTQ should be relegated to adult spaces, preventing children’s premature sexualization.”
Heteronormative society does not facilitate queer childhood. Conservatives deprive queer kids of wholesomeness. Conservatives deprive queer kids of innocence.
It’s time to flip the script. The next time an anti-LGBTQ+ politician makes a remark insinuating “grooming” or “pedophilia” ask where they might have gotten that association from.
Credits:
Author: Julianne Lempert (She/Her)
Artist: Noel Guzman (They/Them)
Copy Editors: Zora Lam (She/Her), Bella (She/They)