In June 2021, Lauren Rowello penned an op-ed in the Washington Post that would forever scar the "news" outlet. Rowello argued that she wants her children — an elementary-school-aged child and a toddler — to witness "kink" at a pride parade.
The reaction to Rowello's article, and her promotional post on then-Twitter for it, was received about as well as you'd think, and for good reason. Rowello was effectively arguing that her children, and indeed all children, should be exposed to sexual demonstrations.
Why?
According to Rowello, it's so that kids can learn the "scope and vitality of queer life" and be their authentic selves. Moreover, it opens up the opportunity for "powerful conversations to be had with children about sexual subjects:
Including kink in Pride opens space for families to have necessary and powerful conversations with young people about health, safety, consent, and — most uniquely — pleasure. Kink visibility is a reminder that any person can and should shamelessly explore what brings joy and excitement. We don’t talk to our children enough about pursuing sex to fulfill carnal needs that delight and captivate us in the moment.
Rowello is writing this article from the perspective of "mother," but this is a mask she's wearing to hide her real intent, and that's to normalize displaying carnal oddities to innocent eyes because it makes the pleasure that much more intense.
One of the more infamous features of Pride parades that often even keep the gay, lesbian, and bisexual members from showing up is the overt displays of sexuality, including participants displaying various sexual fetishes for onlookers. This is a level of exhibitionist behavior that the LGBT activist community is filthy with, and that's one of the reasons it's a common sight during these parades.
A Pride parade is a legal and socially sanctioned method by which to display these kinks to people, and the more innocent the eyes, the greater the pleasure. The pleasure itself doesn't come from the pleasure, it comes from the control and power one gets by shocking the pure. Displaying oneself as you corrupt the uncorrupted is the real fetish.
There is established psychology behind this that isn't exactly talked about, unless it's couched in terms the LGBT activist community considers positive. That said, exhibition can turn predatory, and it's usually geared toward the youth. They effectively become sexual props or tools toward gratification. The power aspect generally stems from a deeply ingrained narcissism.
Israeli Professor of psychology Shmuel Vaknin wrote, narcissism is at the core of exhibitionism:
This objectifying gaze of the other, the observer, the spectator, the audience, this objectifying gaze is at the core of narcissism, actually, because what is narcissism?
Narcissism is about being seen, being observed, being spectated.
And so exhibitionism is actually a form of narcissism. It is the exhibitionist sees himself or herself through another person's gaze, through another person's eyes.
The exhibitionist objectifies herself by being observed, by being watched, by having an audience. And having objectified herself, she finds the resulting object extremely sexually arousing.
And of course, the more numerous the observers, the better. The more the merrier. The more numerous the observers, the more intense the sexual excitatory state.
As my colleague Alex Parker wrote recently, California State University, Northridge, put on a seminar about kink called "Kink Workshop: Kink Across Diverse Bodies," which is displaying kink for the purpose of corrupting in action while wearing the mask of "education," which is the same approach Rowello took in her Washington Post article.
They love to use the concept of "education" as their excuse to display their kink because it allows them to do two things at once. Firstly, it paints their display in positive terms, making it "socially acceptable" to be seen in broad daylight. Secondly, "education" allows them to get closer to the youth.
Putting these kinds of displays on at colleges isn't exactly unheard of. It's the youngest they can get with social approval before things start to get dicey. If they can go younger, they would.
There's a reason you see things like "drag queen story hour" and "family friendly drag shows" happening for children, and not happening at retirement homes for the elderly. Again, the pleasure comes from corrupting the uncorrupted and innocent.
And the only way to take it even further around young children is to display it at Pride parades where children just so happen to be.
No matter how you slice it, this is about sexual pleasure. It's not education, it's a power dynamic being practiced with the approval of various institutions. But let's call it what it really is; the quest for pedophilic gratification.
