Pride in primary school

@FrancescaContini I have two children who are now 16 & 10 who have celebrated Pride since they began school. I don't recognise your concerns and it isn't the lived experience amongst the parents of the school 🤷‍♀️

You don't seem to realise every child sees heterosexual "norms" every day everywhere. Pride in their school is family friendly they have been brought to the big march in Dublin. This hasn't given them any issues.

I fully acknowledge there will be adult only events in Pride. to be quite honest it's the horrific usually English hen nights behaviour that are troublesome in Dublin city during the day that would be on my radar more.

There are multiple events during the year to support other groups covered under the equality act but generally our experience is a big march like pride only suits some so we link in with the AsIAm walk in the forest and organise events with quite rooms etc.

They also do a week or two about invisible women in history. So yes they do pay the same attention while respecting what format is most appropriate.

Pride is about sexual attraction and gender ideology (mostly the latter these days). Neither of which are appropriate for primary school children. Pride events in school are pure Queer theory; they are seeking to dismantle society’s norms around sex. To dismantle the barriers between sex and children. Like reallocating Q to make it seem innocuous (though encouraging young children to question their sexuality is anything but), having Pride events in school strips away barriers to children attending mainstream Pride events.

A lot of Pride events these days seem to be (accidentally?) encouraging homophobia by promoting gender rather than sex and so same-sex attraction is not even recognised. I would not want my child to be taught this tbh and certainly not at primary school. I want my child to know that homosexuality is absolutely fine.

Are they treating all other categories protected by the Equalities Act the same? Ask them when their neurodivergence fete is?

I'm not saying we should push Pride at all, but at the same time I don't want my children growing up believing heterosexuality is the "default" position.

Chances are that after exposure to the Pride fest in a primary school every single child will be “questioning their sexuality” 🤬 every time they have a natural impulse to hold the hand of or hug a same-sex friend - which, as @ScrollingLeaves astutely points out above, is a very natural, instinctive and beautiful part of childhood development in making friends and showing affection, trust and happiness in having these close friends.

This is precisely why Pride has no place in primary schools. Children don’t need the adult perspective or conclusion that two girls or two boys holding hands and hugging = indication that the children are gay. Perhaps they will in their own time as they move through their teenage years realise that they are; perhaps they won’t. But this needs to come in their own time, at their own pace.

Adults need to stop imposing their perspective and agenda on children. As I said earlier in this thread, let them be children, let them work things out as they grow and develop, let them be. For God’s sake.

Excuse typos - dropping kiddo off at a ‘thing’…

Yup that's all ok.

But the modern pride has evolved from that (gay couples have the same rights as anyone else, gay employees can sue if discriminated against, etc etc) so that the marches of the 80s (from when I remember) have worked.

You wouldn't have these events as 'family friendly' events (very very few kids would be at these - no gay person with kids that I knew ever took their kids).

Now I see more T and kink at rainbow events. I am seeing more men in skirts in ladies loos and changing areas (don't care what they do in the street). I used to go clubbing back in the day - and gay clubs were the place to go. You never met a man who said they were a woman. I was pally with a guy who would wear a red cocktail dress and glitzy jewellery. We used to chat about where we shopped.

I now see men taking advantage of the whole #bekind (and that's only the women, note - men aren't being kind are they?) to bully and intimidate women. Where I worked you it was an area - well close to Soho and several universities - women dressed like anime characters with they/them badges, men in mini sports and sparkles berating anyone who dares to look at them in full 'queen' mode (women and tourists mainly)...

Sadly the few old-school transvestites who you'd see disappeared (there were a few id recognise who would wander around, always alone, walking along in a world of their own). I often wonder what happened to the man I'd see in Selfridges in the lame mini skirt, the guy on Tottenham Court Road in the long red skirt, the man in the Indian trouser suit with the black wig...

So I'm asking - what is the point of pride? It's become like (American) Halloween in the summer. It's commercialised and constant. I'm fed up seeing flags and banners declaring that my local bank, supermarket and law firm is 'welcoming everyone' when it doesn't actually mean that.

The old pride was fun. It was for a cause. Yes other countries have anti gay laws but I don't see my ban refusing to swallow with Saudi. Some refuse to deal with Iran but that's only because America has decreed that the population should be punished for their government, so other international banks fall in line. Nothing to do with gay rights or women's rights.

I work with severely disabled people. We don’t have a month to drawn attention to the issue of disability. People’s sexuality is a private matter. It’s fine to be attracted to the same sex but Pride has become more like an ideological religion than a fight for equality.

@ScrollingLeaves Again, I'm OK with my daughter holding hands with whomever she chooses to. In the same way as I'm OK with her, as she gets older, developing a relationship with a man or a woman.
I'm not go to suggest to her a preference for one or the other because ateotd it's entirely her choice.
Same with my much older sons.
Straight or gay makes not one jot of difference.

Children and young adolescents often have intense, emotional, same sex friendships that are full of a feeling of love. Some can even have crushes, based on intense admiration, awe and liking. This used to be a natural phase without any implication of this being same sex physical attraction. In some countries for example it can be normal to see girls walking hand in hand.

It would be a pity if children became confused about thiis through all this adult driven pressure.

I have a 4 yo daughter. I am more than happy for her to know some men love women, some women love men, some men love men, some women love women.
And also that she can love/marry whoever she chooses to.

Is questioning only about same-sex relationships? That seems a bit of a heteronormative way of looking at things.

If it was in your post originally, then I’ll answer.

In my opinion LGBTQA+ is an umbrella term trying to cover too much to make sense, especially as Trans can mean falsely directing some potentially gay children towards thinking they may be trans., and falsely directing autistic chikdren, and children in care, or previously traumatised who feel they don’t fit in and see this as an answer.

As for Q for Queer? An odd person, someone living diffferently? So what.

Or does it suggest Queer theory: forget boundaries, because they are all false. This is poor safeguarding for children.

Love does comes in many forms, not all good just because it is ‘love’.

A for asexual as a relevant term for primary aged children? Are they supposed to think there is something wrong with themselves for not doing sexual things?

plus +?

If it were a family religions day being planned: Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Agnistic, Atheist etc probably people would complain mightily.

As people have already said, children are already told about different families, mutual respect, and not to bully people for being different.

As for bullying someone not toeing the line, the OP seems to be feeling quite stressed about not really wanting to attend because of what some people have said to her.

Someone on this thread a poster was was called bigoted for not agreeing with the school’s plan. This comes across as bullying.

It isn’t just LGBTQ+ agendas which are worthy of respect.

I feel like you're not replying in good faith...

If you ever spend time as a child or a teen or an adult unsure on your feelings for a same-sex person, there's a chance that you were indeed questioning.

If you never felt that and only ever had feelings for opposite-sex people, it's likely you were never questioning.

Also, as "fun" as the celebrations feel, I think the point of Pride is that for many people that questioning phase can be very upsetting and difficult, especially if they're not surrounded by messages and support that it's ok.

So I'm heterosexual but wasn't aware of that as a child. I guess I am formally LGBTQ then?
I feel like I missed out on my celebration. What a rip off.

If all the winners are boys it suggests they need to rethink their cut-off point for mixed sports.

As for Pride in schools - I'm OK with age appropriate things (as pp have said) but I want to see more inclusion od SEN and other types of disabilities. These are things that chikdren will encounter far more often than uncle becoming auntie

trans materials for 5 year olds would be a reading book featuring a family with two mums, a story where the prince married a man, a mention of how Uncle Joe was once Aunt Emily, a pretend wedding with two brides or grooms

Sadly, what you're saying about ‘trans’ is actually indoctrination as people cannot change sex, so Uncle Joe can never become Aunty Emily. Children should not be taught as fact that this is possible.

Sure - that's what some orgs call it. You can substitute in LGBT or LGBTQ or LGBTQ+

(No I had it in my post and removed it to be clearer)

Very sorry, I quoted you by mistake in this response. Please ignore that.

You’re not correct about the sports thing - Boys certainly benefit from being male well before they reach puberty.

My sisters friend (gay with a daughter) used to say how bloody awful it was when the school would make an effort to be all ‘inclusive’ with her and not just bloody get on with teaching her kid.

she said that their home life was none of their business and she wasn’t their ‘pet cause’ to show how inclusive and right-on they were.

LGBTQIA+?

I don't know, I'd say UK society is already saturated in LGBTQ+ awareness and acceptance, more so than any time other time in history or any other cause. I'm not sure anything has to be demonstrated (at a primary school fair) to further enhance that message? Public services, the national media, children's media, the internet, businesses are absolutely covered in rainbows and awareness. Acceptance is at an all time high, resources are plentiful in schools and local/national charities. I'm not against this per se (I support LGB rights, not TQ+ gender ideology sorry) but it's massively unbalanced compared the attention dedicated to other social causes.

Older primary aged children will definitely 'get it' and I'm not sure younger primary children need it reinforced beyond the curriculum, natural curiosity and questioning and absorbing information from their environment.

If you think certain children are being shielded/missing the message they're the ones who are going to be kept from attending a Pride branded fair.

If the materials used in the curriculum aren't effective what is the point of them? They seem like a reasonable conversation starter/line of questioning for a child to approach a teacher, parent, friend or trusted adult. I'm not sure primary aged children need to be thinking deeply about their sexuality/future sexuality. Secondary aged children have a wealth of information and resources including the internet and a vast number of child/young person-centred charities, something that we didn't have growing up.

I'd hazard the majority of attendees at the fair will be heterosexual which makes it all rather virtue-signally. If gay parents/relatives/older siblings are in attendance are they supposed to be some kind of token example? I don't think that's very respectful.