WaPo op-ed promoting 'kink' at Pride parades raises eyebrows: 'Should be in serious trouble for this'
'The ‘blessings of liberty’ have been acutely focused on exposing children to weird sexual content lately'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Washington Post raised eyebrows on Wednesday following the publication of an op-ed arguing that "kink" should remain a staple at LGBTQ Pride parades.
"Yes, kink belongs at Pride," the headline on Lauren Rowello's piece said. "And I want my kids to see it."
Rowello described a Pride parade her family once attended in Philadelphia in which her children asked her why "a bare-chested man whose black suspenders clipped into a leather thong...paused to be spanked playfully by a partner with a flog." Instead of avoiding the topic or shielding her children from the sight, Rowello wrote she used the opportunity to explain that the participants were "celebrating" who they were.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rowello used the anecdote to argue that Pride participants should always feel free to express themselves and that there's no need for children in the audience to be shielded from such sexualized displays.
"I agree that Pride should be a welcoming space for children and teens, but policing how others show up doesn’t protect or uplift young people," she wrote. "Instead, homogenizing self-expression at Pride will do more harm to our children than good. When my own children caught glimpses of kink culture, they got to see that the queer community encompasses so many more nontraditional ways of being, living, and loving."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Children who witness kink culture are reassured that alternative experiences of sexuality and expression are valid," Rowello argued.
Some conservatives spoke out against the piece, even arguing Rowello was promoting "pedophilia."
"Is this an open confession of being a pedophile?" asked Barrington Martin II, a former congressional candidate in Georgia. "Serious question. If you’re promoting the sexualization of children, you AND the @washingtonpost should be in serious trouble for this."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}KIDS' NETWORK ROLL OUT PRIDE MONTH CONTENT: ‘WITH IMAGINATION, I CAN BE ANYTHING I WANT’
"The ‘blessings of liberty’ have been acutely focused on exposing children to weird sexual content lately," tweeted freelance journalist Drew Holden.
Others called the piece "disgusting" or "garbage" and advised Rowello to "get help."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Where, some conservatives asked, does the progressive "slippery slope" stop?
"So, now that showing little kids kink' at pride is apparently mainstream enough to be written about in WaPo, can someone on the left tell me at what point the slippery slope stops?" asked Allie Beth Stuckey. "What logical or moral obstacle stands in the way of progressives openly celebrating pedophilia?"
Not everyone was appalled by Rowello's take. Matthew Yglesias, a co-founder of Vox who has since left the publication, declared that kink-featured Pride parades are "fine."
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Popular networks like youth-centered Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have created controversies over how they have chosen to celebrate Pride month this year, such as their decision to feature music videos starring drag queens.