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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to question this Weston-super-Mare pride campaign as Family Friendly or Fetish

100 replies

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 11:18

https://wsm-tc.gov.uk/beautifully-proud/

Promoted as family friendly in Weston-super-Mare. Beautifully Proud. A cartoon style picture with bondage gear, mastectomy scars, a character in a low cut dress with another character touching their breasts. This has gone too far now.

Beautifully Proud - Weston-super-Mare Town Council

What is Beautiful

https://wsm-tc.gov.uk/beautifully-proud

OP posts:
trueredstart · 04/06/2026 14:49

BauhausOfEliott · 04/06/2026 14:43

But they're not in the picture the OP is complaining about, so has nothing to do with her post.

Ah, you're right. They're totally unrelated.

My mistake.

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 14:53

Happy for this post to take a broader perspective. Or discuss in to the other, trending post. It’s important that these matters are discussed. Presumably the cartoonist wasn’t going to be too graphic with the bondage gear, but we’ve all seen it if we’ve had the pleasure of being in town during a Pride march.
My post is specifically centred around how these events cause harm to families like ours but I appreciate that we are a minority. Having said that, the other post is very much around how any family with children is affected by the fetish nature of these events.

OP posts:
Tabarnak · 04/06/2026 14:55

Not very inclusive - everyone is young and there are no disabilities of an observable nature.

santamole · 04/06/2026 15:00

So many apologists for the many (not all) participants/promoters who actively promote fetish and sexualisation in Pride events. Why the need for all the gimp/bondage stuff and so on. Just stick on a pair of rainbow trousers and off you go.

There is more to this and boundaries are being breached. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Handmaidens have a job to do though.

SapphOhNo · 04/06/2026 15:06

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 12:44

Maybe I need to give more context to the previous posters. I am the Mum of a young person with rapid onset gender dysphoria. They are also autistic and have been concretised into a trans identity through affirmation, as cautioned by the Cass Report. Hence, I probably do look more closely at these flags/posters than the average person. Try to think of it in the context of a child who previously showed no signs of gender distress who suddenly started identifying as trans and wanting to take hormones/contemplate surgeries, such symbols/posters can normalise these feelings. There is nothing family friendly about this poster. I stand by my original remarks that it has all gone too far and families are being further harmed.

That sounds tough but you maybe stop projecting and getting your knickers in a twist at your imaginings of a cartoon image and focus on supporting your child.

GasperyJacquesRoberts · 04/06/2026 15:06

Handmaidens have a job to do though.

What a misogynistic insult.

EnterQueene · 04/06/2026 15:09

It looks like we have to add Pride to the outrage calendar, alongside poppy rage/banning Christmas/not allowed to call Easter Eggs - am I missing any other confected outrage?

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 15:21

SapphOhNo · 04/06/2026 15:06

That sounds tough but you maybe stop projecting and getting your knickers in a twist at your imaginings of a cartoon image and focus on supporting your child.

I would love to. But this is all part of the problem. And some vulnerable young people are being indoctrinated. It’s not okay to turn a blind eye and assume that this is all innocent and supportive and inclusive - because it’s not.

OP posts:
SapphOhNo · 04/06/2026 15:44

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 15:21

I would love to. But this is all part of the problem. And some vulnerable young people are being indoctrinated. It’s not okay to turn a blind eye and assume that this is all innocent and supportive and inclusive - because it’s not.

That's a big reaction to your incorrect perceptions of a cartoon.

Hollowvoice · 04/06/2026 16:33

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 15:21

I would love to. But this is all part of the problem. And some vulnerable young people are being indoctrinated. It’s not okay to turn a blind eye and assume that this is all innocent and supportive and inclusive - because it’s not.

I also have an autistic teen who identifies other than their birth gender.
Whether they have been "indoctrinated" or not I have no way to tell but I do know that their mental health has massively improved since they started exploring their gender identity.

GasperyJacquesRoberts · 04/06/2026 17:14

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 15:21

I would love to. But this is all part of the problem. And some vulnerable young people are being indoctrinated. It’s not okay to turn a blind eye and assume that this is all innocent and supportive and inclusive - because it’s not.

You're seeing things that aren't there and have deduced it's a conspiracy to corrupt our youth.

Crikey.

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 17:34

Hollowvoice · 04/06/2026 16:33

I also have an autistic teen who identifies other than their birth gender.
Whether they have been "indoctrinated" or not I have no way to tell but I do know that their mental health has massively improved since they started exploring their gender identity.

I am sorry to hear that you are going through this too but glad that your teen is doing better. For me, the long term data is such that I cannot go along with it, although I obviously don’t enter into arguments about gender at home either. The Finnish Study showed that long term outcomes were not good for those who medically transitioned i.e. psychiatric morbidity increased

OP posts:
FancyTurtles · 04/06/2026 17:41

I don't think kids would even notice and it's not even a bad image. Have you seen the internet?!

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 18:16

FancyTurtles · 04/06/2026 17:41

I don't think kids would even notice and it's not even a bad image. Have you seen the internet?!

True. But they’re likely to notice the fetishists if they inadvertently come across a march. But the bigger issue here is the normalisation of body modification and how it impacts young trans people. I read somewhere that 100% of the ROGD (rapid onset gender dysphoria) boys are autistic. And the steep increase in teenage girls presenting at gender clinics is reminiscent of social contagion so that cannot be ignored either. These are really serious issues that society needs to start thinking about. Blind affirmation and treating trans as one thing when actually it presents very differently, and has different causes in young children, rapid onset gender dysphoric youth or older people (mostly men).

OP posts:
Downplayit · 04/06/2026 18:37

I would say it annoyingly plays to stereotypes - bear, drag, bondage etc etc. Its not inclusive in its representation and a bit cliche. But then perhaps pride is about flamboyance and not being ashamed of who you are. Would be interested to know what any LGBTQ posters think though and if you feel it represents you.

MyIcyHeart · 05/06/2026 03:15

sweeneytoddsrazor · 04/06/2026 12:31

Are you local. If so did you not see the pictures and read the various SM posts about the amount of rubbish left at Marine Lake last week by a large number of teens who were fighting, and intimidating other people along the sea front and town centre. Very much less family friendly than that poster.

It's the worst I have seen Marine Lake since people started visiting Weston again after the first Lockdown. 😞

Kalalily · 15/06/2026 10:10

For those who sought to gaslight me previously.
There is something deeply concerning about the way in which double mastectomies are being promoted as normal for healthy breast removal this Pride. This is deeply shocking. Chelmsford Lush store should be ashamed of themselves - their main demographic is teenage girls yet they think nothing of painting their window with a tiger showing double mastectomy scars and telling these girls to love their stripes. Anyone who is not shocked by this is not thinking.
please do not stay silent any longer. Our young autistic teens are being sucked into this ideology and they and their families are suffering terribly.
Not to mention how confronting this must be to any woman passing that window who has lost her breasts to cancer

OP posts:
AutumnDragon · 15/06/2026 11:01

@Kalalily If you live in Weston then I would recommend moving. The LGBTQ+ scene is extremely toxic there. I believe organising of Pride itself has now changed to another group of people but the bad actors will probably still have too much influence and will be hiding in the background. There is a small group of people that have way too much influence, if your child crosses them then their life, both within the scene and out of it, will be hell.

Kalalily · 15/06/2026 11:15

AutumnDragon · 15/06/2026 11:01

@Kalalily If you live in Weston then I would recommend moving. The LGBTQ+ scene is extremely toxic there. I believe organising of Pride itself has now changed to another group of people but the bad actors will probably still have too much influence and will be hiding in the background. There is a small group of people that have way too much influence, if your child crosses them then their life, both within the scene and out of it, will be hell.

Thank you AutumnDragon. I really appreciate your reply. You are absolutely right about Weston.
I think that the only way out of this mess is for the silent majority to start speaking up. It’s not easy because nobody wants to be shot down but these people have had far too much power for far too long and now many many innocent young kids and their families have been damaged. And it’s got nothing whatsoever to do with LGB. They never harmed anyone.

OP posts:
AutumnDragon · 15/06/2026 11:27

@Kalalily My experience was of a family member ruined by the LGB side of it. It was caused, primarily, by two larger than life characters, but their flying monkeys just spread the toxicity.

CornishDaughteroftheDawn · 15/06/2026 11:44

Kalalily · 15/06/2026 10:10

For those who sought to gaslight me previously.
There is something deeply concerning about the way in which double mastectomies are being promoted as normal for healthy breast removal this Pride. This is deeply shocking. Chelmsford Lush store should be ashamed of themselves - their main demographic is teenage girls yet they think nothing of painting their window with a tiger showing double mastectomy scars and telling these girls to love their stripes. Anyone who is not shocked by this is not thinking.
please do not stay silent any longer. Our young autistic teens are being sucked into this ideology and they and their families are suffering terribly.
Not to mention how confronting this must be to any woman passing that window who has lost her breasts to cancer

You are absolutely right to be concerned.

There are many people who defend this but they also defend the indoctrination of children which takes what should be a straightforward rejection of sex based stereotypes and turns it into a pathway towards a lifetime of medication and elective surgery.

The image is not great - just on the edge of plausible deniability (a frequently used tactic) - and along the same lines as the children’s book that featured mastectomy scars and references to paedophile slogans.

The thing to remember with people defending and denying these things is that normally, if you pointed out that a product for children had inadvertently used a well known paedophile slogan (as a real world example), you would be horrified and remove it immediately. You would not expect to find a wider community defending it.

There are a number of threads on the mission creep of Pride marches which also highlight the ways they are vulnerable to exploitation by people with bad intentions. I looked into it after someone on a thread shared a list of 8 Pride officers or founders who had convictions for child sex offences. For context, there are 270 Pride marches in the UK with an average of 5-10 officers for each. This is way above the rate for the general male population.

I would also like to know who the + represents and more importantly given the safeguarding issues mentioned above, who they wish to exclude.

CornishDaughteroftheDawn · 15/06/2026 11:48

Exeter ‘family friendly Queer Fest thought it was ok to display sex toys.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5537146-sex-toys-on-display-at-child-friendly-day-for-out-there-queer-fest-exeter?page=2&reply=152935847

TempestTost · 15/06/2026 11:51

I think probably the chest lines are meant to be pecs. But given there are cartoons with mastectomy scars on things like Blue's Clues, it's not crazy to think that's what they might be . In fact I am a bit surprised none are represented.

The harness however is absolutely fetish wear.

KnittyNell · 15/06/2026 11:57

Kalalily · 04/06/2026 13:19

To spell it out, I think that the belief that you can change sex is being normalised.
To be clear, I couldn’t care less how adults get their kicks but I do care when their actions influence vulnerable young people who are identifying out of their natal sex, often because of an inability to cope with distress (e.g. from bullying, SA, dissociation). So anything of a fetish nature should not be billed as family friendly and presented as a cartoon. .

Well said.

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