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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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My kid's school district is hosting a Pride parade. They put out a call for counter-protestors because the local Christian group is picketing it complaining about abortion being murder or something.

For some reason I find this all so absurd. Not the Christians I don't care about that, though apparently some kids are traumatized by "the hate" (that some people think abortion = murder) being expressed is an added facet. No, more like the... unbelievable cringeness of a school district doing a Pride parade?

When I was in school I pretty much considered it

  • prison, and
  • the people operating this prison were the last people I looked to for approval or insight

The freaks aren't the lesbian bi queer gay or trans (or straight) kids. The freaks are the people who run the place. It is a category error to read anything more into it. I can't imagine anyone feeling down on their lifestyle or sexuality because school disapproves. Like worrying about what ants of you naked.

I consider this the only healthy attitude for navigating school.

I’m hoping this isn’t a required thing. I can understand compassion for individual students struggling with this stuff, I can understand telling other kids to be nice to people who are LGBT+ and even explaining how that works (age-appropriate and mostly in high school sex ed courses) what they do. But I think it’s a completely different thing to have the school district hold essentially a protest in favor of a political issue. That’s not educational. Education should be about learning and seeking truth, not politics.