For years, we've had a word to describe the act of adults inappropriately coaching and guiding children to prepare them for sexual abuse. It's called "grooming," and up until about five minutes ago nearly everyone acknowledged that it was a very, very bad thing to do.
Those times appear to be over. Disney apparently has entire divisions of its animation studio dedicated to pushing alternative sexualities on children. Most of the progressive establishment—including the White House—has come out in favor of five-year-olds learning about transgenderism and homosexuality in the classroom.
The media, meanwhile, is growing very angry with conservative criticism of this phenomenon:
For a long time the conservative movement has had a tendency to fold relatively easily in the face of broad criticism, especially media criticism. It would be a terrible dereliction of duty to do that now. Make no mistake: We are in fact dealing with grooming here. Children are being groomed. Do not hesitate to call it for what it is.
There is no point in denying it, though some self-styled conservatives are doing just that. David French, for instance, has complained about the "groomer smear." He claims it is wrong to apply that label to, say, grown men and women in Florida who want to teach your kindergartner about "sexual orientation."
By way of argument, French cites a list of grooming behaviors in an attempt to somehow demonstrate that the "smear" makes no sense in that context:
"Ease of access... perceived vulnerability... gain trust... caring relationship." It would be hard to construct a more comprehensive list of behaviors to describe grown adults who apparently desperately want to use their teaching positions to speak to five-year-olds about genital mutilation and same-sex attraction. Is this the best that conservative contrarians can offer in response? Consider me unpersuaded.
The point, of course, is not that every teacher should be considered a potential groomer of children. It's that every teacher who is manically fixated on teaching prepubescent children about sexuality should be considered as such. This should be obvious. It is not hard.
A rule meant to protect very young children from deeply inappropriate behavior from opportunistic adults should not create this sort of backlash. The law has done more than anything in years to expose the deep and alarming perverseness that has apparently infected much of our society. We should be grateful to Florida for drawing the battle lines so cleanly and clearly.
There is much more work to be done. As we do it, we should not be afraid to speak plainly and without affectation. It's grooming. Call it that.
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