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LGBT Pride month ended and left a controversy related to a polemic article published in The Washington Post by writer Lauren Rowello under the title: “Yes, kink belongs at Pride. And I want my kids to see it.” The piece argues that children should not be protected from the intrinsic sexualization presented by the “kink” sex movement at Pride parades.
Kink sex, for those who don’t know the term, is the unconventional practice of sex acts. Basically, anything that is a non-normative sexual relationship and has different levels, from fantasy games to spanking, sadism, or fetishes.
In the LGBT community, people who identify themselves as kink sex practitioners are identified with the letter Q; for Queer, as it is the term “used to describe sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression (the way of manifesting masculinity or femininity outwardly) that does not conform to dominant social norms,” according to the BBC.
However, within the LGBT community itself, they have reservations about including “kinksters” as an element of Q. At Pride parades, kinksters can be seen explicitly sexualized. Some wear strapless or leather attire leaving naked intimate parts, also use ropes tied to the body, whips and generally leave potentially grotesque images for many people.
For Rowello, kink belongs to Pride and should be supported. She recounts an episode she experienced firsthand when she went to a Pride parade with her children and trans partner.
“When our children grew tired of marching, we plopped onto a nearby curb. Just as we got settled, our elementary-schooler pointed in the direction of oncoming floats, raising an eyebrow at a bare-chested man in dark sunglasses whose black suspenders clipped into a leather thong,” Rowello recounts.
The man paused to be spanked playfully by a partner with a flog. “What are they doing?” my curious kid asked as our toddler cheered them on. The pair was the first of a few dozen kinksters who danced down the street, laughing together as they twirled their whips and batons, some leading companions by leashes. At the time, my children were too young to understand the nuance of the situation, but I told them the truth: That these folks were members of our community celebrating who they are and what they like to do.
Part of the article published in The Washington Post.
The author, who on her Twitter feed identifies herself as a “really autistic writer” and a “former sex worker,” says that young people should not be limited in their knowledge of kink practices on the streets and that her young children understood that the Queer community went far beyond non-traditional ways “of being, living and loving.”
“The kink community has participated in Pride since its inception — risking their jobs and safety to be authentically themselves in public. Still, every year as Pride Month approaches, a debate erupts about whether kink belongs at Pride at all. Those hoping to oust kinksters often cite the presence of children as their top concern,” Rowello wrote.
“That was pointedly the case this year when Twitter users argued that kink at Pride is a highly sexualized experience that children should be shielded from. (…) I agree that Pride should be a welcoming space for children and teens, but policing how others show up doesn’t protect or uplift young people. Instead, homogenizing self-expression at Pride will do more harm to our children than good. When my own children caught glimpses of kink culture, they got to see that the queer community encompasses so many more nontraditional ways of being, living, and loving.
«Yes, kink belongs at Pride. And I want my kids to see it», is the originsl title of the controversial article.
Criticism to the Author and The Washington Post for Suggesting that Children Should Learn about the Kink Sex Movement
The piece is notoriously controversial and even shameless. Suggesting that a child should watch or learn about a sexual movement associated with deviant sexual behavior is dangerous, or so interpreted by users on Twitter who quickly came out to harshly criticize Rowello’s article.
«In a sane society, CPS would already be on the way», twitted Ben Shapiro, editor Emeritus of the Daily Wire, posting the link to the piece.
“The ‘blessings of liberty’ have lately focused on exposing children to bizarre sexual content,” said Drew Holden, a columnist in different media.
Many users on networks accused Rowello’s article of promoting pedophilia and even called for imprisonment for it.
“Is this an open confession of being a pedophile? Serious question. And if you’re promoting the sexualization of children, you AND @washingtonpost should be in serious trouble for this,” wrote Barrington Martin II, a writer and host at Newsweek.
Among the thousands of comments, one from journalist Glenn Greenwald stands out, who said that “The problem is that when a highly funded social movement succeeds in all of its goals, it won’t declare victory and stop: too much money, too much activist bureaucracy and jobs at stake, so it keeps expanding to justify its own existence into unrecognizable areas.”
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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Thank you for this article. I’d wondered if anyone was going to even mention this. It’s such a sad state that few did.