People Say the Darndest Things...
Well, it happened again.
I had to counter another round of dis/misinformation.
This time, it was to a customer. He was browsing, and I asked if I could help him. He said no, he was just looking around. He had decided to shop at our store from now on, and would no longer be shopping at our rival because they were putting out Pride merch in honor of LGBTQ+ Month. He complained that the LGBTQ community were "shoving it in our faces," that doctors were gender-changing little kids who had no idea what was happening, and that drag queens were doing strip shows in libraries. When I pointed out that the queens were merely reading books to the children, and that the aim was to get them to love reading (as any Story Time reader is trying to do), he backtracked and said that "children were going to drag shows."
I'll pause a moment to allow my readers to slap their palms firmly onto their faces. Okay, hands down as I continue...
Here is what I told my dis/misinformed customer, in no particular order:
1) Pride Month (the informal name) is primarily about information. Its intent is to clear up all the stupid stereotypes and show that all the "letter people" are just people, with the same rights and privileges as anyone else. Also, learning about people who aren't like you removes fears and stigmas that are based on bad info (like the kind my customer was repeating; he also mentioned a school in a nearby town that had supposedly put a litterbox in a kids' restroom for a child who said she was really a cat. That internet rumor has been going around for so long, with a different school in every repeat, that I wonder how anyone can still believe it).
Now: Are there "letter people" who go overboard? Yes, there are. The parades can bring out the flame, for sure. And that can drown out the voices of those who just want to live openly as a valued citizen of our nation, without being subjected to hateful slurs and physical violence. But the outrageousness doesn't change the need for acceptance, just as the riots during the BLM protests don't change the need for radical improvements in our policing system.
2) Re drag shows - the queens and kings are not strippers! A drag show is a chance to flaunt inner beauty by dressing up to the nines. Some of the performers cosplay as their favorite divas (or divos), but many have their own original personae. It's actually really fun and the people look absolutely fabulous!
And as for children going to the shows, I did some research and found that one of the venues in our nearby city does allow youth 13 and up into the show. Because of the humor and adult-themed jokes expressed by the performers, attendance by anyone younger than that is not recommended. However, the proprietors say that it's up to the parent. (Kind of like a PG-13 movie.) Another place - the oldest and most famous venue in the city - will not admit anyone younger than 21, since they serve alcohol. A third is a designated Safe Space for youth in crisis...and I really doubt that an abused teenager seeking help is going to be damaged by seeing a few people in drag, especially if those people are helping him get out of a bad situation.
3) Doctors are not performing gender surgery on little kids!!!! I have a friend who had gender dysphoria, and it wasn't until he grew up that he was able to get a truckload of counseling and then begin his treatments. Most of the stress involved came from the way other people reacted to his revelation of who he was inside.
What sympathetic parents are trying to do with their kids is help them identify who they are, then help them live it as best they can before they come to an age when they can safely do something about it. So a trans girl will dress like a girl if she wishes (clothes have become more unisex) and use a family/unisex restroom.
("But how can they know when they're little?" asked my customer. Well, how does anyone know who they are? They just do. "But teaching about all that gender stuff just confuses the kids." But it also helps a kid realize that the way they feel isn't some weird mental illness. The confusion will shake itself out with the help of those sympathetic parents.)
The customer admitted, after I had told him all this, that he needed to do research before he repeated everything he heard. But he did say that if we ever started displaying Pride flags, he would shop elsewhere. Which is his choice.
