Pride Marchers Take To NYC Chanting "We're Coming For Your Children!"
Nationwide, LGBT groups have categorized bans on child hormone therapy, sexual reassignment surgery, and other procedures they deem to be "gender affirming care" as a fundamental assault on their rights. Proponents of those bans have unequivocally denied any such claims, citing that the measures have been undertaken in the interest of protecting children against consequences that have no coming back from. In reactionary fashion, those same gay rights activists have constantly reframed that point as a homophobic claim that LGBT groups are somehow nefariously targeting children in order to undermine their critics' integrity by insinuating their concern is nothing more than a bigoted fever dream. However, the optics from a pride march in New York City over the weekend utterly eviscerate that argument.
New York City hosted its annual drag queen parade over the weekend, where hundreds of LGBT activists gathered to celebrate the city's dedicated pride weekend. The occasion marks the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, a seminal event in the history of LGBT rights in the United States, ending its march at the steps of eponymous inn the riots occurred at. The march was well-patroned, including members of the anti-Catholic LGBT group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Along the way, marches in attendance echoed through NYC's Tompkins Square Park with a resounding chant of "We're here! We're queer! We're coming for your children!"
Video of the chant quickly spread across social media, drawing ire from critics of LGBT groups and their allies alike. Congressional representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote "This movement grooms minors to have mastectomies and castration and fuels a multi billion dollar medical child abuse industry," in a Tweet decrying the decorum of the marchers. She would go on to use the outrage from the chant to compel her cohorts to pass the Protect Children's Innocence Act, proposed legislation that the representative of Georgia's 14th Congressional District has introduced into the house in order to place nationwide restrictions on so-called gender affirming care.
Other conservative pundits pointed out the irony that the fear that advocating for LGBT rights posed a danger to children has long been chastised by left wing opposition as a homophobic conspiracy theory. Apparently that position has gone from conspiracy theory to an explicit position of some members of the LGBT community all together based on this weekend's events.
Supporters of those in attendance of the NYC Drag March have gone into DECON-5 levels of damage control by claiming that the chant was merely rhetorical and only meant to sarcastically caricature the vocal critics of gender affirming care for children. However, this isn't the first time that level of coping has been made in order to obscure the perverse declarations of LGBT activists towards children.
In 2021, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus fell under similar controversy when they released a video performance of a song in which they declared their intent to convert people's children to an LGBT lifestyle. The chorus of the song shamelessly echoed "we'll convert your children" following an acapella introductory verse from the chorus' lead vocalist in which he addressed the concerns of parents who believed LGBT groups were targeting their children, ending with the line "you think that we'll corrupt your children if our agenda goes unchecked...funny...just this once...you're correct."
Controversy surrounding the chorus was largely suppressed by national media outlets in 2021, Most coverage of the song instead took the same course of action that defenders of the NYC drag marchers have taken by taking a page out of Vito Spatafore's book by unconvincingly claiming "it's a joke."
Needless to say, the concern that the political vehicle of LGBT rights has been co-opted in order to advance those pedophilic in their aims has rightfully re-emerged. Though dismissed by LGBT groups time and time and again, allies of their cause constantly arise in advocating for things like labeling pedophiles as "minor attracted persons", seemingly trying to broaden the already enormous acronym with more characters to put under its umbrella. While proponents of those aims are certainly only a segment of the community nationwide, their boisterous demonstration in NYC over the weekend shows they are a vocal and active minority which has found safe haven under the guise of fighting for LGBT rights.
