Teacher Perfectly Shuts Down Parent Protests Over LGBTQ+ Influence In Schools — 'We Are Just People, We Exist, What Is The Problem?'
"When you look at my community, you immediately sexualize us. That is a YOU problem."
@therealdrewbyg / TikTok You can't open social media or turn on the TV nowadays without hearing of another parent protest, bigoted pundit screed, or draconian piece of legislation addressing how American school systems and LGBTQ+ people are somehow sexualizing children.
One queer teacher has had enough of this uproar — and his take on the situation shows just how simple the core issues really are, and how it's a problem with parents, not LGBTQ+ people.
The teacher says the uproar over LGBTQ+ influence in schools boils down to parents sexualizing children, not LGBTQ+ people.
Teacher Drew Evans, known on TikTok as @realdrewbyg, posted his take in response to a right-wing TikToker's angry video about an LGBTQ+ Pride celebration at a school back in June.
The video showed schoolchildren skipping beneath a rainbow banner. Overlaid on the screen, the right-wing TikToker had written "Take your kids out of public schools" in all caps. The video had a similarly angry and more direct caption: "This should not be allowed in schools."
Photo: @therealdrewbyg / TikTok
Anti-LGBTQ+ outrage like this has become commonplace all over America in recent years, with religious and conservative parents, political pundits and politicians arguing that acknowledging LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender people, drag artists, and those who work in schools, are somehow sexualizing children.
This has resulted in a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ legislative bills in recent years, many of which target children, especially those who are transgender. In many places, most infamously Florida, these laws have put LGBTQ+ teachers, students and their parents in danger of being sued if their LGBTQ+ identity is made known.
This animus has also merged with conspiracy theories like QAnon, far-right Neo-Nazi movements, and others eager to capitalize on legitimate concerns about child abuse and trafficking, which has resulted in now-routine accusations against LGBTQ+ people of being pedophilic "groomers."
It's easy to dismiss all this as unhinged rhetoric by an overly vocal minority — or it was until California shop owner Laura Ann Carleton was brutally murdered when an anti-LGBTQ+ man shot her in the head for refusing to remove the Pride flag she hung outside her store.
Anti-LGBTQ+ animus has reached far beyond simple "moral panic" levels in this country, and to listen to its most vocal agitators, it is clear that the primary motivation behind this outrage is the inclusion of supposedly sexualizing LGBTQ+ inclusivity in schools — an outrage that is as absurd as it is misplaced.
The uproar over LGBTQ+ influence in schools is patently absurd, because queer people are just people.
"I watched this video, and I was trying to figure out what the problem was," Evans said in reference to the right-wing TikTok imploring conservatives to pull their kids out of public school because of Pride celebrations.
"I'm gonna try and be short and sweet about it, okay?" Evans went on to say. "I, as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and every single person in my community, we are human beings. We're human beings just like you, literally... What is the problem with students and children being exposed to the fact that people like me exist?"
Evans went on to illustrate the ways LGBTQ+ people are no different than the people calling them pedophiles simply for existing. "What is it that I do differently than you?" he said.
"I pay my bills, I have a house, I'm married... I go to work, I go shopping, I eat food... All of these things are things that we have in common... The only thing I can think of that I do differently than you is what I do in the privacy of my bedroom," Evans went on to say.
Evans says anti-LGBTQ+ parents are the ones imposing sexuality on schoolchildren, not LGBTQ+ people.
What, exactly, children skipping through a rainbow banner has to do with anyone's sexual practices is anyone's guess, but the sex part wouldn't be there if people weren't imposing it. As Evans put it, "See, that's not part of a Pride celebration, especially one that has to do with children. That's gross."
A Pride celebration or the existence LGBTQ+ people only becomes about sex if you insert sex into the conversation. And as Evans went on to explain, that is not the fault or problem of LGBTQ+ people.
"[That] is YOU that is sexualizing MY community. It is YOU that is referring to ME as a sex act or a lifestyle... The only reason you saw it differently is because when you look at me and people in my community, you immediately sexualize us. That is a YOU problem."
He closed his video by acknowledging conservative parents' frequent refrain that including LGBTQ+ people in school is a violation of their parental rights to so-called "school choice," an absurd notion in a country where private, parochial and home schools exist.
"You can send your kid to a private school, or you can sign the opt-out form before school starts," Evans said. "You have those choices. Parental rights have always existed. Stop pretending they don't."
People are, of course, free to disagree with the way LGBTQ+ people live our lives if they want — no one's asking anyone to like us. But the frankly bizarre obsession with what we do in our beds is not our problem, and it certainly isn't our responsibility.
If you want to make sure kids aren't being sexualized in schools, then stop imposing sexuality onto things like kids skipping under a paper rainbow at school. It has nothing to do with sex, and those kids won't have any idea it has anything to do with sex until you take it upon yourself to tell them it does.
And when it comes to that, Evans is right. That's a YOU problem, and you should take a moment to think about why you feel the need to force sexuality on your kids in this manner — and then you should stop doing it.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.