A few thousand marched for hate

The million march for kids was short by a great number but what it exposed was the hate we all feared was underneath.

The anti-education folks held marches in various towns and cities across Canada today.

People who support kids learning about themselves and others also showed up to demonstrate that whether they are small, or large in number, they are not alone.

In Calgary, Alberta, a face that is becoming infuriatingly familiar as a poster man-child for being the boldest expert in things he knows nothing about, held court with his supporters.

Take Back Alberta’s David Parker — a man who has the wherewithal to tailor his speech and talking points for almost any audience — really comes to life when he’s spewing forth his fear and smear of public education; ostensibly to kindred souls who’ve also never attended public school in this province.

In Ontario, a man in his early to mid-twenties brought a sign that read “stop normalizing sex and nudity” — because no one has sex, and no one is ever nude… ?

I hate to come down on your perceived reality my dude but for a whole lot of adults in this world, sex and nudity are completely normal — or at least it might be once again after their kids move out.

As both an observer of people and a genuinely curious sort, I have often — okay, I can’t think of a time when I didn’t — asked questions to try and figure things out.

“Why did this change?”

“What was it like before?”

“Is this better?”

Obviously, this seems like the perfect time to overshare.

I was in my forties before I started letting go of some of the guilt associated with sex and my own sexuality.

That should not be normalized.

And don’t even get me started on gender roles — when I was growing up, there were still gender-specific jobs.

I saw a post on Facebook by some poor woman who “wanted to be a boy” when she was younger because she was a “tomboy” but is now a happy woman in her own skin who still has “boy hobbies”.

Seriously — how can everyone not see that the real problem is a societal determination of “boy” and “girl” jobs/interests/hobbies/dress/colours/attitudes, the existence of which somehow makes them more or less feminine or masculine than a bunch of people who aren’t them think they should be??

WHY would it be problematic to take away all those expectations? It wouldn’t be problematic for the kids, I’ll tell you that; because those are learned expectations.

Fuck those expectations.

There are a solidly shocking number of people today who believe that telling kids not everyone fits into the cage of these expectations is a “groomer”. These people will also claim that telling kids that their peers or family members who don’t stay in these cages — and that there’s nothing wrong with that — are “indoctrinating” kids.

Friends, I try to keep this light and entertaining despite the fact that it’s neither. What follows deserves a trigger warning. It’s actual indoctrination. It’s not fun or funny.

Picture a five or six-year old child being given a microphone and hearing them say “white people are psychopaths” or “white people are disgusting” in front of dozens of adults.

Picture that same child saying the same thing about “conservatives”.

No reasonable adult would think that child, at five or six-years old, came up with that opinion themselves.

It’s unlikely a reasonable adult would think they picked up that opinion, and the confidence to repeat it in a different setting, at school.

Yet, when this child said exactly that about “gay people”, a number of people understood how wrong it was to use this child for this message (you can hear their disagreement). However, there are other people who point their fingers at the public education system in Alberta cheering.

And it is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.

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Hate is taught. Love and support is shown.

We will have to show up and we will have to stand up for our kids unless we want hate to be the beacon of their future.

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