The very first article I wrote for the Fordham Political Review was about Jeffrey Epstein and his pedophile island, which, lest I remind you, was a real thing. The story of this mysterious billionaire pedophile, whose death is shrouded in mystery, piqued a twisted interest in people like myself the world over, even going so far as to spawn a hit Netflix documentary. At this point, it’s a given that just about everyone believes he did not kill himself but rather was murdered by someone on whom he had dirt. Sure, people were shocked that this strange man had his own pedophile island, but it’s arguable that some people were more shocked by the names of people who visited this island with Epstein or were in his phone book. This included the likes of high ranking political figures like U.S. President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, as well as famous celebrities like Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Steven Hawking, Harvey Weinstein, and Kevin Spacey. People were mortified to see those whom they once admired involved with such a scandalous and horrific man. For many, seeing these powerful elites of society likely involved in, and seemingly normalizing, such shameful and sickening debauchery with children was eye-opening, but not to me.
Ask any friend or family member of mine, and they would tell you that I have been warning against the normalization of this kind of behavior for years. I had no issue with the decision of Obergefell v. Hodges, as I am very libertarian and have a live-and-let-live attitude about what people want to do with their own personal lives. If someone is gay, lesbian, transgender, or whatever other orientation or identity, it does not bother me. However, as I saw things like Drag Queen Story Hour spread to libraries around the country, the overt sexualization of pride parades in public spaces, and the invitation of small children to said hypersexualized pride parades, some red flags began to pop up. To be clear, I do not believe that gay rights and homosexuality are in any way equatable to pedophilia. I think the movement is in the process of being hijacked by despicable actors as a cover-up to push their own pedophilic agenda. It should also be noted that the over-sexualization of all sexualities, including heterosexuality, in our culture is exposing children to this kind of sexualization to which they should not be exposed.
There are many examples of this, and they often come down to popular culture directed towards children becoming increasingly sexualized. One way this is done is through popular clothing marketed towards little girls being overtly sexual, with short-shorts where the pockets go down lower than the shorts, or in high heels and bikinis marketed towards toddlers. This is also seen in popular music, which by-and-large is heard by young, prepubescent children. At the time of writing, the most popular song on the U.S. Top 100 Chart is “WAP” by Cardi B, a woman whose former careers included Blood gang member and stripper who drugged and robbed men. In this song, she sings about her genitalia and makes very gratuitous and explicit references to sexual intercourse. While this “music”, and I use that term very loosely, is extremely overt in its sexual content, it is not too unlike most other popular music that children are exposed to more and more often. There are also creepily sexual programs on TV and Netflix which involve children, such as the hideous eye-sore that is Big Mouth on Netflix, in which children going through puberty and engaging in sexual behavior is the premise of the program. Whether it is children watching this cartoon thinking it is for them, or the perverted adults who like to watch the 13 year-old characters touch themselves, it is beyond disgusting and disturbing to watch, and it sexualizes children as the main premise of the show. For one more example, look no further than children’s toys, where overtly sexualized Barbie dolls with fishnet stockings and breast feeding toys are marketed towards children under 10 years old. Overall, sexualization either of children, or directed towards children, is a growing phenomenon in our culture, and it is not limited to any one group in particular.
Children are being over sexualized, from all parts of society, and from all types of sexualities. Children should not be involved in this kind of discourse. Children are not bigoted. Instead, they learn bigotry from people around them. Children do not care what people’s religions are or who they love. Five year-olds do not know what sex is, so why is it that they should be exposed to such overtly sexual content? There is nothing wrong with teaching kids to respect all people and treat them equally, no matter the reason, but specifically involving them in parades that often feature sex toys, nudity, and adult men in speedos is a step too far. There are ways to teach children that people loving whomever they want is perfectly normal and acceptable, and I believe that most, if not all, LGBTQ+ people would agree with that, as they are just normal people like everyone else, and they want to have normal lives too. After decades of persecution, it is only fair they get to live normal lives too. This is not to say that this is only a problem in the LGBTQ+ community. Straight pride parades aren’t really a thing, but were there to be straight pride parades as large and celebrated as pride parades, I have no doubt that the same kind of licentious and debaucherous behavior would emerge, as this behavior of sexualizing children is appearing more and more often in heterosexual society, culture, and marketing, as mentioned previously. It also is unnecessary for children to learn about sexual things at such a young age under any circumstances. Whether it be from pride parades or the aforementioned shifts in our culture towards being more sexually explicit, this type of behavior and treatment of children is unacceptable.
While I know anecdotes are not substitutes for facts, I want to share one anyway. Growing up, I knew both a gay couple and a lesbian couple who were family friends and family respectively. Not once did I question them or ask anyone else why they were together; I loved them and respected them all the same. I was able to easily accept them and understand they loved each other, as was everyone else that knew them as well, all without being exposed to grotesque and hypersexualized things. The point is, teaching children to accept LGBTQ+ people absolutely does not in any way require exposing them to sexualization, but that is what the hijackers of this movement are trying to push in an effort to normalize their own disgusting and vile perversions.
Pedophiles are already claiming that their depravity is not a mental illness or a crime but rather a “sexual orientation, like being straight or gay,” and this is what I mean when I say that the gay rights movement is being used as a vehicle by these repulsive individuals. The goal of these pedophiles is to make their horrific and foul desires into just another sexuality, another cause to be championed in the name of equality, but this cannot be allowed to happen. Fortunately, it seems as though most LGBTQ+ people see through this ruse and are not allowing pedophiles to join their ranks, but they can never be allowed to join. Pedophiles must never be accepted in society. Children have an innocence that we as responsible adults cannot allow to be taken away from them. Despite claims from pedophiles that they do not abuse children, this is verifiably false. No child can consent, so any sexual behavior involving children is inherently abuse. Just having a desire to form sexual relations with children alone is wrong, and the urge can lead to abuse. Pedophiles are mentally ill, and those who act on their pedophilic tendencies are criminals. For me personally, there are three crimes worthy of the death penalty: murder, rape, and pedophilia/child abuse. So, that’s it then? The vast majority of all people shun them, I shun them, and people of all sexualities shun them, so there is no problem to be had anymore. Unfortunately, this is wrong, as these pedophiles are working tirelessly to become accepted, and there are two recent major examples to show the progress they are making.
First is the recently released Netflix movie called Cuties, which follows the story of 11 year-old Amy, a Muslim girl from Senegal, who moves to Paris with her mother and joins her neighbor Angelica’s “twerking clique” called Cuties, a hypersexualized, adult-style dancing troupe. The film’s defenders are desperately claiming that the movie is actually a commentary on the hypersexualization of children, but the problem is the film creates said commentary by sexualizing the children by having them wear skimpy clothing and dance and pose extremely sexually suggestively on stage. That’s not commentary; that’s glorification. It’s hard for reviewers to claim that the film is being a commentary on this sexualization of children while it actively sexualizes children. This would be like claiming a film is commenting on the glorification of war but then glorifying war in the film unironically. The film has the young girls, who I will once again remind everyone are eleven years old, dress in revealing outfits and dance around like strippers, touching themselves and thrusting their tuchuses into the camera, and this somehow isn’t overtly sexualizing children? Yeah, right. This idea of it being a commentary also runs contrary to what the director herself said, as she said, “Should we have the right to choose which woman we can be in this world… I love to wear short dresses,” showing that she herself approves of the sexualization of these girls. Finally, the Rotten Tomatoes scores of the movie says it all. While Hollywood critics lauded the film, audiences despised it, resulting in an average critic score of 88%, and an average audience score of 3%. This, of course, loops back to Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful Hollywood connections, as those in media never cease to say that Hollywood is not full of pedophiles, yet, not only do their critics praise this pedophilic movie, but Netflix approved this and Sundance showcased it.
The second shocking example of the push for pedophile acceptance comes out of the Golden State, where S.B.145, proposed by State Senator Scott Weiner, has made huge progress for pedophiles while being disguised as a gay rights bill. The bill, which has been passed by both the State Assembly and State Senate of California, was recently signed by Governor Newsom and is now law in California. Contrary to some rumors, it does not legalize pedophilia, but it is still a horrible step in the wrong direction and brings that idea of legalization ever closer. The law gives judges discretion for placing pedophiles on the sex offender registry so long as they are not more than 10 years older than the minor they were molesting or raping. The youngest age this bill applies to is 14, so under this new legislation, a 24 year old could have intercourse with a 14 year old, which is statutory rape, and not be placed on a sex offender registry. How could such a blatantly pedophilic bill be passed? It was disguised as a gay rights bill, as now the offender is not required to be placed on the registry for having either oral and anal intercourse with a minor. This adds on to a pre-existing California state law, in which the exact same standard is applied but only to vaginal intercourse, and the advocates of this bill say that this is homophobic. By including the other types of intercourse, they claim it will bring about equality. The reasoning for the prior existing law is so that judges can have discretion when deciding whether someone should be on the sex offender registry after having vaginal intercourse with a minor. This is because heterosexual intercourse can result in a pregnancy, and by having one of the parents on the registry, it will be harder for them to find a job and raise the child. While the reasoning makes some sense, it does not make it right, as it allows one of the punishments for pedophilia to go ungiven. The law shouldn’t be limited to one form of intercourse; it should not apply to any, as this removes one of the punishments for pedophilia and sets a dangerous precendent. By claiming this was a fight for gay rights, pedophiles have taken advantage of the movement and played off the emotions of good people who support the LGBTQ+ community, using the onlookers’ good will to further a pedophillic agenda. This will undoubtedly lead to more grooming of children by depraved pedophiles in California and make the normalization of pedophilia just a little more acceptable.
What can be done to stop this? First, as a society, we need to push back against pedophile-friendly legislation like that in California. They cannot be given an inch, lest they take a mile. Second, we cannot allow the narrative that pedophilia is just another sexuality to pervade our culture. If we do, it could parasitically attach itself with the gay rights movement and permenantly associate homosexuality with pedophilia, which is already an ugly stereotype that should be tossed aside to the dustbin of history. Third, we cannot allow the media and society at large to sexualize children and expose them to overtly sexual content, gay or straight, whether it’s through disturbing films like Cuties or through modern music from talentless hacks. Fourth, we must demand transparency from our government and see the full detailed flight logs from Epstein’s “Lolita Express” private airplane so we can know all of the over 1,000 people who went to “Pedophile Island” and did God-knows-what to the young girls who were there. We must demand to see the potential blackmail that Jeffrey Epstein had in his mansion and to know just who among the elites is fiddling children. We cannot rest; we cannot give up and allow this to become normalized. Pedophilia is wrong. Child molestation is a crime. These people must be ostracized and treated like the degenerates they are. Until we do, no children will be fully safe.
