Haters, the media and bigots tell everyone that the LGBT+ community are a threat and danger to children. But this is a lie. The LGBT+ community are not a danger to children, any more than heterosexuals are a danger to children. In this social psychology podcast episode, we’ll explore the two biggest myths about the LGBT+ community and why homosexuality does not link to paedophilia. If you like learning about LGBT+ experiences, the social psychology of prejudice and discrimination, you’ll love today’s episode.
Note: please note that for the rest of the podcast episode I’m going to use the terms gay and LGBT+ interchangeably and to mean the same thing. I’m doing that because saying gay is so much easier to type on the blog post and say on the podcast, so if I offend you I’m sorry.
Today’s episode has been sponsored by Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also, you can buy the eBook directly from me at https://www.payhip.com/connorwhiteley
Why We Need To Talk About This?
Back before my friends and others knew I was gay and because the area I live in, I heard a hell of a lot of homophobia and some of that hate was spreading the lie that gay people love to rape children. That was actually what a very dear person to me said once, and as you can imagine I do not talk to that person anyone.
And a lot of people from my childhood just believed that this was truth. They truly believed that gay adoption, gay people having children was wrong because they truly believed in the lies that gay people are paedophiles.
I won’t lie or pretend to be strong for you, but this was extremely hurtful and damaging to me.
In addition, you only have to look at the USA with over 400 anti-LGBT+ bills being introduced by Republican-led legislates across the country. Also, I remember the bill banning Drag Acts in front of children being done in Tennessee and the reason given on the news for that Bill was to stop children getting exposed to corrupting, sinful and paedophilic content.
That is a lie because if we think about pantomimes. I always remember Aladdin and Widow Twanky. He was nationally loved and he was part of our culture at Christmas time, but he was a man addressing up as a woman and the entire world had no problem with him being a woman in a Christmas panto that was watched by thousands of children. Hypocritic much?
Also, of course this legal action doesn’t just stop at drag shows. Below is a list of other activities that are now illegal in some US states because of this dangerous lie:
· Gay story time
· Books containing LGBT+ characters
· Criminalising gender-affirming care
· Criminalising healthcare to transgender people
· Banning transgender youth from competing
· Banning books that even reference homosexuality in passing
There was a lot of silly points being banned and made illegal at the moment.
Another negative consequence of this myth can be seen when the American musician Kid Rock was shooting Bud Light cans because the company “dared” to have a partnership with a transgender TikTok influencer. This is bad because it isn’t really a metaphor, it is basically saying that shooting transgender people is okay and it is only one step removed from actually doing that in real life.
Anyway, this myth that LGBT+ people are a threat to children is engrained in our culture and it is a complete and utter lie that drives up hate, persecution and attacks against the LGBT+ community that care for the safety of children just as much as heterosexuals.
This has a lot to do with politics and how anti-LGBT+ groups and politicians are stoking the flames and inventing “culture wars” that don’t exist to get the public to believe in these lies. And I think they have worked too perfectly for too long.
So what’s the truth behind these lies?
Why The LGBT+ Community Aren’t Paedophiles?
All in all it is a very common lie and myth that “gay” means the same as paedophile. Since whenever the news talk about priests and scout leaders raping young boys, people think “gay”. Whenever people think about transwomen, they think about overly sex obsessed men that just want to get access to women’s bathrooms and toilets so they can interfere with them. Again both of those are lies.
And my personal thoughts on the whole “transwomen are just sexual predators” lie is that if a man wants to harm and interfere with a woman. He isn’t going to go through the extremely long, heartbreaking and traumatic experience of getting a medical diagnosis, applying to change his birth certificate and then dressing up as a woman. A male sexual predator will just attack, harm and interfere with a woman without changing their gender.
Transwomen are not sexual predators.
The truth is paedophiles are almost exclusively straight white males that are attracted to and prey on innocent children.
The idea of gay people being attracted to children and praying on them is a disgusting lie that is just peddled out by straight white men to deflect on their own group.
And the very idea that gay and transgender people are just sexual beings that cannot control themselves is just wrong, a lie and seriously offensive.
At the end of the day, gay people and trans people use the bathroom like everyone else. We want to do our business and leave and that is it.
Why Homosexuality And Transgenderism Are Not A Choice?
This is a massive myth that I laugh about a lot because I’ve seen it in so much homophobia in June 2023 alone, but there seems to be this utter myth and lie that being gay is a choice. And there’s a myth that if you expose children to LGBT+ content, you’ll make them gay.
You won’t. Just like how if you expose a gay person to straight content, you won’t make them straight.
Since no one “turns” a person gay or straight. It is simply how they are.
This fear and myth becomes from the idea and is the driving force behind much anti-gay legalisation, when in reality exposure doesn’t make a child or anyone gay. In actual fact, we have little control over who we become in our lives and a child suffering from gender dysphoria can’t simply “shut it off” nor can they pretend to feel like their gender at birth without experiencing severe and extreme mental health difficulties.
And again, this all leads to suicide in the end.
Since a study by Toomey et al. (2018) found that over half of all trans male teenagers
attempted suicide and the national statistic for the USA when it comes to trans suicide is 41%.
That is outrageously high.
And the not-so-funny thing about the bigots and the anti-trans and anti-gay activists. They always bang on about how important parental control and child protection and they want to prevent and prosecute parents that they are keeping to help their child transition. But this hate and prevention and prosecution of parents that are trying to support their children is actually increasing suicides across the world.
Meaning they aren’t protecting children and I will say it point blank. These anti-trans activists are killing children.
I don’t care if it’s indirectly but these anti-trans activists are killing children.
Social Psychology and LGBT+ Psychology Conclusion
I have to admit that this podcast episode might have taken a minorly dark turn towards the end but this is life. This is what millions of gay people and transgender people have to experience each and every day. Also, I was talking with a trans male friend a few months ago about homophobia and these exact myths and he said that we have to laugh about the stupidity of them or we would just cry about them.
I agree.
These myths are so ingrained in our society, so engrained in the media and so engrained into the minds of heterosexuals. That it is funny just how powerful and influential these lies are because they are based in delusions about a community most people have never met. Because the trans community is so, so, so tiny.
I’ll wrap up with this podcast episode by saying that I am extremely grateful that you wonderful readers and listeners have been enjoying and supporting these podcast episodes. I have received some hate, I have had people unsubscribed from my email list and I know that I have lost podcast listeners because I’ve dared to cover these topics.
But all these things that I have been talking about this month needed to be said because I want people to know the truth, I want people to realise that gay people aren’t predators and I want people to realise some of the hardships that they experience on a daily experience.
And I can sum up why in two sentences from two memes I’ve seen on Instagram this past month.
“I don’t put on Pride flags up to tell people who’s in my bed. I put them up so the family across the street knows they’re safe,”
“Pride isn’t about turning straight kids into queer kids. Pride is about not turning queer kids into dead kids,”
I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology podcast episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Social Psychology: A Guide To Social and Cultural Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also, you can buy the eBook directly from me at https://www.payhip.com/connorwhiteley
Have a great day.
Social Psychology and LGBT+ Psychology References
Toomey, R. B., Syvertsen, A. K., & Shramko, M. (2018). Transgender adolescent suicide behavior. Pediatrics, 142(4).
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/understanding-the-erotic-code/202304/silence-of-the-trans
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