Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on We should have more boring egomaniacs.

I had a closer look at the basket o’ buttons on the “Trans Day of Visibility” display at our library; they said “Protect Trans Kids.”

GRRRRRR. I’ve expressed my extreme dislike for the concept/diagnosis of “Trans Kids” here on B&W on a number of occasions. If I weren’t afraid of being reported and or banned from the library, I’d love to put up my own little sign infront of the basket saying “Protect Children from Trans Ideology,” but I’m too much of a coward to do so. I’m just not up to going against the grain in this instance.

Outside on the steps and sidewalk, a child was busy chalking hearts in “trans” colour s, as well as other pro-trans propaganda. “You are Loved! You belong here!” I don’t want or need my library to “love” me, I want it to have books. Offering some kind of dutiful, syrupy “love” and “belonging” to anyone is outside its remit.

“Diversity not Division.” “Radiate Positivity.” I couldn’t help but think “Physician, heal thyself” at these two. Trans activists would do well to take these slogans to heart, but they’re not expected to. Respect, and obedience to such exhortations is a one way street.

The child doing the chalking (My guess is she was in the 8-10 year old range) seemed to be working with a library staff member. I found it kinda creepy that this child was being recruited/deployed by the library (or offered up by her parents) to write out these slogans and demands that I believe would be beyond her young understanding. I’d have been equally uneasy if she’d been inscribing slogans for a political party, promoting the merits of particular tax or immigration policies. But essentially, that’s what she was doing: trans “rights” are a political campaign, not an actual “rights” movement, and tied up as they have become with sex and sexuality, “gender identity” and such contested, adult concepts, not really appropriate for foisting upon a young child. In other words, I believe someone else put her up to it; I don’t think she would have come up with the idea of doing this without an adult’s help. I don’t think a child would have come up with the slogans she was writing out without a grown up feeding them to her. “Radiate Positivity?” Please.

This is less extreme, but it reminded me of seeing footage of young children in the UK during the Thatcher era’s miners’ strikes of the 70’s and 80’s, joining their parents on the picket line screaming “SCAB!” at workers crossing it. They couldn’t possibly know or understand what was going on, or the meaning of what they were screaming. Call me naive and privileged, but I believe part of the responsibility of parenting involves shielding children from the burdens, pressures, and realities of the adult world until they are old enough and mature enough to understand them to some extent, at which time they can choose to to engage with them. Let kids be kids. I realize that sometimes that is not possible, as in the case of Black children in the US South trying to go to school in the days of segregation.

I am fortunate in that I live in circumstances that are less dire and immediate than many others, where there is no urgency to recruit children to join in adult issues and struggles. But then again, there is no need to recruit children in the name of trans “rights,” and the concept of “trans kids” is something that should not be foisted on children. How many would ever have considered themselves to be “trans” at all if they had not first been exposed to the idea by adults with an agenda? How many would have come up with this particular self-diagnosis and lifestyle without being lured and recruited by the promise of special attention and love bombing that even the state itself, through the schools, have heaped upon “transness”? They’re being enticed to sign up for the Rainbow Glitter Army, where every meal is cupcakes and ice cream, instead of the boring broccoli and boiled potatoes they get served at home by their boring moms and dads. They’re being offered the chance of a new, special, glamourous, brave and stunning secret existence, like a real-life superhero. Who wouldn’t join?