Familia Americana: Protecting the Most Vulnerable Among Us: Our Children
Nothing is more vulnerable than a child and their childhood. If a person’s early years are good, these will carry them throughout their life. Likewise, a bad childhood damages a person for years to come.
For decades, we’ve seen a growing movement toward the earlier sexualization of children in nearly every aspect of society: media, pop culture, music, beauty, clothing, etc. Sexual imagery is found everywhere even though children are much too young to understand the nature of these manifestations.
What do we mean when we say sexualization? The Cambridge Dictionary defines sexualization as “the act of seeing someone or something in sexual terms”. Psychiatrists define sexualization of children as the imposition of adult models of sexuality on children and adolescents. It unquestionably creates psychological harm to children.
Society is propelling children into becoming adults at an earlier age with exposure to information that is increasingly sexual in nature and predatory to the child.
In the name of diversity and inclusion, there is a push to expose children to the LGBT+ community’s lifestyle and craving for sexually-charged behavior. Drag shows and drag-type events are marketed toward children for the sake of creating allies for the community at the expense of children’s innocence.
Drag is considered a type of entertainment in which adults dress in exaggerated clothing and wear outrageous makeup to embody a persona while performing sexually-suggestive impersonations for others. The appeal of drag shows lies in its outlandishness and sexual intonations. Performers push gender and sexual boundaries by mimicking sexual activity, often with lewd, profane, and indecent displays.
There was a time when drag performers performed exclusively for adult audiences – the proper audience. The sexually-charged nature of these shows was intended for those over 18 years of age. Incomprehensibly however, these performances have made their way into family-friendly squares and shows are now available to families with children of all ages.
In mid-March and to public outrage, New York Attorney General Leticia James invited families and children to Drag Story Hour at a New York City public library on a Sunday afternoon. James and other elected officials hosted this event with taxpayer dollars. Protestors who attended were ridiculed, insulted, and labeled homophobic and transphobic.
On December 27, 2022, the Hyatt Regency in Miami hosted A Drag Queen Christmas at its adjacent property, the James L. Knight Center. The show’s sexually explicit content was unequivocally inappropriate for minors and yet all promotional materials stated “all ages welcome”. Performers appeared on stage wearing prosthetic female genitalia and proceeded to engage in sexually-explicit conduct. One of their Christmas songs, “Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Reindeer”, was riddled with vulgarity and was absolutely unsuitable for minors!
Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) issued warnings to these companies and others for “exposing children to sexually explicit activity”, which is a crime in Florida and violates the Department’s licensing standards. Revocation of the Hyatt- and James L. Knight Center’s liquor licenses were pending.
Why is there a need to explore sexuality with children? Why must adults approach children with sexually-provocative dress, exploit their innocence while encouraging physical interaction with them? Why do companies like Disney expose minors to sexually-charged material they are neither capable of understanding nor need to understand at their young age?
Writing about these events is just as troubling as reading about them. We should be outraged that members of society (from politicians to parents) encourage and celebrate the moral decay and corruption of children.
Our parental instincts about the danger that these actions pose to children and the nuclear family are real and legitimate. We must stop the targeted sexualization of our children through adult exploitation and protect the most vulnerable among us. For if not us, then who?
