Hysteria drowns out the real debate on going with Flow
A DRAG artist who performs under the alias Flow Job was invited into a primary school to talk about LGBTQ issues last week. It has since created a rammy on Twitter.
The main issue being “debated” is the suitability of Flow to work with children.
Their social media accounts contain some explicit references to sex and drugs that some believe excludes them from working with young kids.
While I disagree, I sympathise with those who feel an adult entertainer isn’t an appropriate candidate for such a visit.
The artist in question – despite doing nothing wrong – has received the vilest abuse from roasters and bigots. It is therefore not hard to see why many believe an undercurrent of homophobia is at play – it undoubtedly is.
However, not all criticism of the visit can be dismissed as bigotry.
The conflict centres on two ideas – sex-related discussion among children and LGBTQ education generally.
For some, the idea of children between the ages of five and eight discussing sex-related topics is simply unpalatable.
I happen to disagree but advocates of sex education in primary must not flippantly invalidate or dismiss the feelings or experiences of people with kids – especially if they don’t have children.
That said, parental intuitions, however strong, are famously unreliable. This idea primary pupils need protected from sex-related discussion, as some have suggested, is painfully conservative. Children in primary school are smart enough to understand concepts like death, illness and war but not sexual identity and relationships?
Then there’s the LGBTQ matter. I’m less sympathetic to those who oppose these issues being discussed in schools. Are we arguing that children are capable of conceptualising God but can’t comprehend everyone isn’t heterosexual?
It seems the fear among a cohort of parents is that mere exposure to gay people could corrupt or compromise their child’s development – this is the very definition of homophobia.
While I am hesitant to outrightly rubbish (let me be polite) non-rational parental anxiety, I must iterate that being queer is not a learned behaviour – it can’t be taught, only accepted.
LGBTQ education is primarily about making it safe for people to come to terms with who they are and educating others on how to support them.
Still, this issue isn’t cut and dry – and Twitter doesn’t make it any easier. We may never know a parent’s reason for being unnerved by the thought of a stranger discussing intimate topics with their children – especially when so young and with someone nicknamed after a sex act.
Those more understandable concerns were, however, predictably coloured by those who saw the episode as a green light to broadcast their ignorance, confusing vague, reactionary impulse with reasoned argument and conflating queer culture with sexual deviance – a classic homophobic trope.
This I condemn in the firmest possible terms.
The school apologised but let’s be clear what for. It doesn’t change the fact LGBTQ-inclusive education is essential in a 21st-century curriculum.
It may be true that Flow Job, in hindsight, wasn’t the ideal candidate for this visit but it is also true that parents don’t always know best.