The Sexualization of Our Children - Part 1

Systematic Desensitization to Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Warning: This article contains mature language, adult content and is not appropriate for young audiences.

This past Saturday, the public library in Moncton, New Brunswick held drag story time and as is the case across North America the past couple of years, both protests and counter-protests quickly formed. The full story can be found on CTV’s website here.

Credit goes to all in attendance. With roughly 30 people protesting the event and roughly 140 there to support it, not only did the protests take place peacefully, but a couple of genuine conversations between both sides took place. Progress!

Those in attendance in Moncton on Saturday to protest the event made it clear they are not homophobic, they are not anti-gay and they’re not even anti-drag, nor is the series of articles our group will be publishing. The point wasn’t to spread hate as media and even some politicians portrayed when news of the protest became public. The goal of the protest was to bring awareness to the systematic desensitization to child sexual exploitation and abuse that is taking place in society, of children and parents alike. It is in the children’s section of our public libraries; the curriculum being taught in our schools, tv programming geared towards children, our medical system. The goal was to bring awareness and start a conversation, it succeeded. Who chooses to participate in that conversation remains to be seen.

I had an opportunity to talk with Tammy Morrison, a mother, grandmother, and member of a group called Mama and Papa Bears Unite, who is incorrectly being given credit by the story time event’s supporters for organizing the protest. She did share information about the planned drag story time and that post was shared widely, so presumably, that is how she has become the primary target of the ensuing backlash.

Private messages began pouring in and all the love and light quickly became hate and rage. Tammy and the other members of Mama and Papa Bears Unite have been threatened, called vile names, posts were put up on social media accusing her and others of horrendous acts against children, so vile in fact that Tammy says if they figure out who is behind the fake account a libel suit will likely follow. One woman named Jessica called Tammy a cunt while also telling her “We’re supposed to love one another. Not be hateful.” Ummm…..

Tammy recently made a video regarding Fay and Fluffy, drag queens from Toronto who also do story time and even have their own children’s tv show called The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy. To state what she discovered and what I have since seen is disturbing would be an understatement. More on that in an upcoming article in this series.

She was also featured recently in the local newspaper for her advocacy to have two books which were written for children and young teens but illustrate sexual acts that would typically be considered pornographic, moved from the children’s section to the adult section of our public libraries. The intent wasn’t to have the books banned but rather to prohibit access without a parent’s consent. She delivered a petition of over 560 signatures along with over 100 individual requests from parents for a review of the books to the regional office of the New Brunswick Library Service in Fredericton. More on that also.

As one would expect, the conversations taking place online Friday and Saturday surrounding the planned protests outside the Moncton library were extremely heated, but by Sunday the dialogue turned a bit softer. I noticed people were a bit more willing to take others’ points of view into consideration, that’s a great thing. This isn’t an all or nothing issue because there is a whole lot of middle ground and hopefully we as a society can find it, that’s what actual inclusion looks like.

And there is no hate, that’s just bs fabricated by media for advertising dollars and politicians for the purpose of scoring political points, meant to keep us all fighting with each other rather than listening to each other. They know that when we genuinely listen to one another we find solutions. We have to stop letting media and politics fuel the flames.

Called To Be An Advocate For Children

I asked Tammy how she came to advocate against the sexualization of our children. Being a grandmother of 3 and after seeing a Kid’s Helpline commercial starring Fay and Fluffy on the Family Jr channel, Tammy became curious about the hype surrounding them and why so much trust was being placed in these two individuals. As she was researching them, she came across a book that seemed to have made a lot of people angry. The book is called Let’s Talk About It, so Tammy went to her local public library to borrow the book and read it. The library didn’t have this particular book and were willing to bring it in from a different library in the province but meanwhile they suggested a different book they had on hand titled Sex Is a Funny Word which the librarian said was similar to the book Tammy requested. She borrowed it, saw the graphic sexual content and as she puts it “and here we are”.

Her biggest supporter is her husband Richard who is no stranger himself to the types of abuse our children and youth are experiencing. He has a degree in psychology, spent 15 years of his career working with troubled youth and another 5 years working with people with addictions, so needless to say, he has seen some horrible things, worked with children who had been through unimaginable trauma and oftentimes at the hands of an abuser. His concern about the systematic desensitization, from all angles, that our youth are experiencing is real.

When I asked Tammy if she does harbour anger and hate towards the LGBTQ2 community, she unequivocally responded “No!” And contrary to popular belief, she takes no issue with all drag queens either. Since starting this campaign people have sent her a few names of others who also participate in drag story time events, and after doing some research, hasn’t called them out as she didn’t see anything in the public domain or even their adult performances that caused concern. The issue she takes is with people who have very explicit and sometimes deviant content, publicly available on the internet who then want to sit and read to our young children.

Just Getting Started

Clearly one article isn’t going to be enough to convince many people of a bigger, systematic issue at play here. But stick with us as we unravel it for you over the coming days and weeks. Tammy is dedicated to seeing this through and we’re dedicated to helping her do it. She’s not alone though, she has people who are in lockstep with her on this issue and I’m sure they will be joining the conversations.

Parents want a say regarding what their children are being exposed to when it comes to such sensitive topics and are taking on the responsibility of speaking up. Any elected official will tell you that silence equals acceptance and how could they know there is an issue if we don’t tell them?

Before closing out this article though, one prevalent statement I saw coming from both sides of this issue is “they simply don’t understand our point of view”. That statement is 100% accurate and now that the conversation is going, it is a great time to have respectful dialogue and see where we can find the common ground because I believe it exists.

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