BBC Gush about Southampton Pride event for Under 12s to " Engage " with the " Comminity "

[BrokenFridgeDrawer]

This is a news report on the BBC website, about a " Pride Party " for Under 12s in Southampton.

Southampton Pride: Children's play centre hosts 'rainbow morning'

A children's play centre is staging a pride party as part of a city's wider LGBT celebrations.

Sea Life Play Centre is throwing the party in partnership with organisers of Southampton's main Pride event.

Children up to 12 years old were invited to the "rainbow morning", which was set to finish in time for people to join the city centre parade.

Organisers of Pride said they wanted children to be able to engage with the LGBT community.

The party will be held at the play centre in The Marlands centre and will feature entertainment including face painting, temporary pride tattoos, flag making and rainbow painting.

Jay Edwards-Bannon, from Southampton Pride, highlighted the importance of children being able to engage with the LGBT community.

He said: "Early engagement with LGBT+ education is vitally important for us to move to a more welcoming and accepting society.

"Children and young people are growing up in the most diverse and inclusive communities ever and it is important that an understanding of the differences they may encounter in the families of their friends and peers is taught at an early age.

"The event will coincide will really well with our own extended Kids Zone at Southampton Pride itself."

Event organiser Sarahjane Selley said it would be a "cute event" and a chance for children to be involved.

Miss Selley said the event had initially received some negative feedback, but added: "Once we officially announced the party we got fantastic comments through from parents.

"We've been holding a number of free events for ticket holders to help during the cost of living crisis, so that kids can enjoy their school holidays."

Miss Selley continued: "It's going to be a very colourful, cute, messy event and we're all really looking forward to it."

I'm interested that Mr Edwards Bannon feels it important that children under 12 " Engage " with the " + " community, especially as the " + " community is a very wide ubrella of orientations and interests. I wonder exactly how much chidlren under 12 need to be engaging with adults of varied interests ?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-62663543

My view is that the types of activities they are describing are really for maximum age 7. Will a ten or 11 year old want ‘cute messy’ play er no. Do any of these people actually have kids?

the other bit I am abit confused about is that pride marches were protest marches aimed at promoting gay rights because gay people were discriminated against due to their sexuality. My point is that if it is now all about corporate partying and celebration of the diversity of adult sexuality then I can’t see the point of it being a children’s event.

I’m not sure it’s fair to tar all Pride events as corporate partying, and clearly visibility and celebration of diversity is important. Pride is important because someone somewhere right now believes they’re better off dead than being themselves, so visibility matters. Raising awareness among kids also important, so they don’t think that what they’re feeling is wrong. But, how this event and messy play helps I’m not sure…

Pride is an adult event. Increasingly an exclusively adult event due to the amounts of kink expressed by participants. Encouraging children to engage with Pride via offering them Pride related kid activities is grooming. Not grooming to be LGB because LGB are sexualities. Grooming into the T +++++ which are identities.

Children and young people are growing up in the most diverse and inclusive communities ever and it is important that an understanding of the differences they may encounter in the families of their friends and peers is taught at an early age.

It certainly - just the section above, never mind the article as a whole - provokes some questions. For example:

1. If children are already growing up in “the most diverse and inclusive communities ever” (& by which metrics has this been measured; by whom; over how long; & is this truly a universal experience?) why is there a need for this education? How is it that children do not learn these things organically?
2. Should it indeed be the case that the early years version of EDI Training is required; in what way is Mr Edwards-Bannon qualified to provide it? (Absolutely none: I wish him the best of luck in his career in digital marketing; & every success completing his PhD; however, early years education [in which I’m including pre-primary for purposes of this conversation] is a specialist field that rarely commands the respect it deserves & children would need - & deserve - resources prepared by competent specialists. [We’ve seen what happens when activists who fancy they can turn their hand to producing resources are let loose. It is a disaster, to put it politely. No child should be subjected to this proselytising under the guise of education.])
3. In what way are “face painting, temporary pride tattoos, flag making and rainbow painting” - and any other activities that form part of this “very colourful, cute, messy event” going to help children to understand & engage with, eg, classmates with same sex parents; their older cousin who identifies as non-binary; &/or the lovely elderly couple from two doors along who both always have (or rather make) time to talk about dinosaurs, the local cats, “splashy” puddles, new library books & other pressing issues of the day? Or indeed anyone else for that matter? Flags, particularly, are not neutral - & in a way that goes beyond issues here. For several communities in the UK this activity would speak to violent colonialist oppression - meaning the sort of violence with guns & death, not the “words people don’t like” variety. And it doesn’t matter if that seems like an extreme reaction; because there needs to be a commitment to a safe space. And members of those groups also [historically] suffer oppression (again up to & including being killed) for belonging to the LGBT community, so this is about them.
4. As a PP noted the activities are are clearly not age appropriate. 12 year olds are of an age where even if they don’t want to go to Pride themselves, their peers may be attending: being at the “baby” event would be mortifying if you’re about to start Y7/Y8. I’m not sure how they plan to hold the attention of participants either - the activities are so simple & so short (once they’ve queued to do them?)… maybe they’re hoping to recreate the atmosphere of the original Pride - “Pride was a riot” has effectively become a slogan; unleash a load of fractious toddlers, bored children & irate tweens and you could probably recapture something of that spirit 🤷‍♀️
5. Is there going to be/has there been any similar work to celebrate other protected characteristics [& their holders] (with the aim of improving integration & inclusion)? As nice easy examples, July was Disability Pride Month; October will be Black History Month. Both those groups suffer severe, enduring & measurable oppression throughout the UK. (Just consider the BLACHIR Report & the fact the UN has found the UK to have breached the Human Rights of Disabled People.) Both examples allow for working with children during the school holidays. According to Google, nothing. Ever. It would be so nice to be shocked, but I’m just not.

“Early engagement” = “brainwashing”.

Totally unnecessary and inappropriate to encourage/force children to “engage” with what consenting adults do together in private - never mind the T aspect, which has sweet FA to do with sexuality.

Let children be children, FFS.

Can you provide some further information about what you say in your sentence “Someone somewhere…”, please? It seems somewhat hyperbolic.

I'm interested that Mr Edwards Bannon feels it important that children under 12 " Engage " with the " + " community, especially as the " + " community is a very wide ubrella of orientations and interests. I wonder exactly how much chidlren under 12 need to be engaging with adults of varied interests ?

I'm sure someone said on one of the Sadowitz threads that we treat adults like children, and children like adults, these days. "Engaging" pre-teens with something that's for adults and where a party of it has been added onto, is in dispute, and is undefined or vague seems a prime example of this.

Children are not things or props for adults. Something the organisers of this - and any parent who even considers taking their kid - should remember.

I bet the Scientologists and similar outfits are fuming. If only they could get this sort of gushing, credulous coverage about their events for kids and how important it is to get kids to engage with the Scientologist community.

They totally missed the trick of glomming onto an existing group that had just acquired basically all their rights to carry on with their organisations and branding.

You think no one struggles with their sexuality to the point of MH issues?

My take is that Pride is an adult event celebrating sexuality. Just like Drag Queen's I wouldn't take my kids to an event like this aimed at them.

If you are a parent taking your kid along, I doubt you are passing on biggotted views on homosexuality to them anyway, which is the justification behind this. Kids parrot and pick up on their parents views.

The TQ++++ alphabet stuff can do one and judging by some of the recent Pride photos I'm not sure I want to indulge some of the alphabet participants.

@Tryingtokeepgoing To the point of wishing themselves dead? Perhaps. But young people suffer all kinds of MH issues these days for many reasons.

I think it’s hyperbolic to use this as a reason to “engage” children in events which celebratie sexuality as well as a very dubious ideology.

Sorry - that comment was for @PinkFrogss

So it's just some face painting and flag making? What exactly are they hoping to achieve with that?

I’m no fan of the guardian, but it’s covered here and in numerous other places.

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/17/lgbt-youths-twice-as-likely-to-contemplate-suicide-survey-finds

I thought there were guidelines issued by the Samaritans about reporting on suicide. Is the Gaurdian following those ?

I would be a little wary of those statistics especially when presented by a charity like this. I’m sure it’s far more complex than simply a result of a particular sexuality or adherence to the T ideology.

If it were the case, though, what do these mental health struggles have to do with under 12s painting their faces etc? Why do children need to know about young people possibly feeling suicidal?

As I said - let children be children.

Is there any other group of adults who want to dress in a sexualised way & gather groups of young people for the purpose of familiarising prepubescent children with their sexuality?

No, I don’t believe so. Thank Christ.

Is there going to be/has there been any similar work to celebrate other protected characteristics [& their holders] (with the aim of improving integration & inclusion)? As nice easy examples, July was Disability Pride Month; October will be Black History Month. Both those groups suffer severe, enduring & measurable oppression throughout the UK. (Just consider the BLACHIR Report & the fact the UN has found the UK to have breached the Human Rights of Disabled People.) Both examples allow for working with children during the school holidays. According to Google, nothing. Ever. It would be so nice to be shocked, but I’m just not.

I'm not sure I am willing to take it for granted that things like Black History Month are a great idea. There seems to be a tendency to assume they are a great idea and will advance the interests of people who are black and make society better, but that seems far from clear to me. I suspect it lends itself to distorted teaching of history.

I always rather liked what Morgan Freeman's take on BHM, which is that black history is (in his case) American history and should be taught that way.

DdraigGoch · Today 10:18

So it's just some face painting and flag making? What exactly are they hoping to achieve with that?

As Jay Edwards-Bannon, from Southampton Pride, highlighed, it's the importance of children being able to engage with the LGBT+ community.

Given that Southampton Pride is an LGBTQ+ event, not only does it allow children ( under 12 ) toi " engage " with the LGBT+ community, given the greatest ever diversity,

But I imagine that the converse is true, and similarly gives an opportunity to those adult members of the LGBTQ+ community (but I'm thinking especially of the " Q " and " + " in their myriad of diversity, for example Southampton Daily Echo report on the evenb features members of the community who enjoy wearing elobrate leather masks in the style of cartoon dogs ) who seek out opportunities to " engage " with children under 12.

Brokendaughter · Today 14:53

Is there any other group of adults who want to dress in a sexualised way & gather groups of young people for the purpose of familiarising prepubescent children with their sexuality?

Could I rephrase ? I don't think that the majority of the LGB community who started pride ( with honourable exceptions of course to a famous Australian activist ) ever had an agenda to familiarise children with adult sexuality.

But since the TQ+ joined the party, I certainly note a greater effort to familiarise prepubescent children with adult concerns, although I take issue at the use of the word sexuality, as I think that is not the correct description and it might be more accurate to describe such activity along the lines of philias, fetishes, kinks and niche interests ...

Miss Selley continued: "It's going to be a very colourful, cute, messy event and we're all really looking forward to it."

Is it just me or does the way this is worded cause the flashing alarms and bells to go off in anyone else's head.

@NitroNine - 👏👏👏

Well why don’t I hold my own event for children under twelve to discuss my sexual preferences? After all, diversity is fabulous darling!! And there’s nothing diverse about current sex ed it’s all trans trans trans 🥱 let’s get involved.

I could get them to do drawings of middle aged married couples who kinda want a shag, but also quite fancy watching a sitcom, and aren’t sure they can be bothered to have actual sex.

I could get them making playdo figurines of couples having sex in the poses least likely to strain the lower back, and to vote on which is least tiring sex, missionary or spooning. We could debate how to persuade your partner to go on top so you don’t have to use much energy.

Or maybe that would be inappropriate 🤔

The polygamist mormons did it for a bit but the police are mostly jailing the ringleaders now… After hundreds of children were abused, of course.

Well the kids would probably do a better job than me.