#H.R. 9197

[sonickitty]

Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled lettuce, but: H.R. 9197.

My dash is covered with congrats to the lettuce, and that's great, and I don't mean to ruin anyone's day but H.R. 9197, AKA the "Stop the Sexualization of Children Act" is also a thing, and sponsored by 30 House Republicans. This bill aims specifically to "prohibit the use of Federal funds to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually-oriented program, event, or literature for children under the age of 10, and for other purposes."

What does that means? Well, the bill specifically references:

Schools that receive federal funding

Libraries

School curriculums that teach LGBTQ+ topics

Drag Queen Story Hour

Content related to gender identity, sexuality, and masturbation

A definition for stripping

I also want to highlight the bill's definition of "sexually-oriented:"

The term ‘‘sexually-oriented material’’ means any depiction, description, or simulation of sexual activity, any lewd or lascivious depiction or description of human genitals, or any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects

So obviously this is nuts for a couple reasons.

All children have genitals, actually. Describing genitals is not sexual. They're just body parts.

Children masturbate. I did, and I have plenty of friends who did. Kids are gonna touch themselves; they've got body parts and they've got hands. They may also have questions about why they do this, and if their parents want to get them a LIBRARY BOOK that helps explain it, they should be able to. At the very least we should consider that an unenumerated right.

Plenty of kids have queer parents. That's part of their reality, and their education in school should reflect that reality.

Some additional talking points for you if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of debating this nonsense:

No one is currently "sexualizing" children using federal funds. It is not happening. A drag queen is not inherently sexual. Being gay, lesbian, trans, what have you, and talking or reading about identity is not inherently sexual. The people who are taking their kids to these programs don't have a problem with it. Why are we wasting time developing bills for imaginary problems when we are literally heading into a recession? When inflation is this high?

Sexuality is a human reality. The more we try to contain and restrain it, the less we all understand it. Kids are going to have questions about who they are and how they relate to the world (gender) and sexuality (their bodies). It is inevitable.

Bills like this are a waste of time, energy, and resources. This is about how people feel. They want to feel safe; they want to feel like they have control of their children's minds. That is not something that can be legislated, and you can't prove a feeling. You also can't prevent queer kids from growing up to be queer adults just by locking them in an ideological echo chamber - just ask my parents! This bill will not have any meaningful, prove-able impact on American life, except to further divide us along ideological lines, and further marginalize queer people and queer children.

[theshampyon]

What it is like every time a new piece of conservative legislation is proposed:

The law as it already stands: "You cannot murder people."

Conservative bill: "You will not be allowed to murder people, or to be gay".

People with more brains than a dropped pie: "This is clearly a bill to make being gay a crime. Murder is already illegal!"

Dishonest conservative chudlets: "Oh, so you think it's OK to MURDER people?!"

Gullible fuckwits: "Yeah, what a bunch of MURDER APOLOGISTS! We should team up with the conservative chudlets to stop these MURDERERS!"

Rich dickhead on twitter: "Clearly all gays are murderers!"

People who like rich dickheads movies or whatever: "Let's SWAT all those MURDERERS!"

Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum.

[lonelyplanetfag]

wanting to be a kindergarten teacher vs H.R. 9197