#The Queering of the American Mind

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Logan Lancing

Published: Feb 28, 2024

People who have escaped cults all tell a similar story. That story starts with a desire to belong, coupled with a desire for purpose. Strong familial and social bonds are generally preferable to shaky relationships, isolation, and the feeling of being an outcast. Likewise, feeling like one’s life lacks any meaning or purpose is a recipe for anxiety, depression, or even madness. If you talk to people who have escaped cults, they all tell you that they didn’t set out to join a cult—the cult set out to prey on them, offering to fill the voids that we must all grapple with, to varying degrees, throughout our lives. The cult offers inclusion, affirmation, and a secret cult knowledge of life’s purpose. All one must do is take the leap of faith.

Cults are incredibly effective for a variety of reasons, most of which is their ability to lead initiates deeper into the cult, even when those initiates start to sense that the “inclusion,” “affirmation,” and “purpose” offered to them comes with some very nasty conditions and ultimatums. Cult survivors describe how difficult it is to stop placing one foot in front of the other when the cult has total control of one’s physical, social, and emotional environments. Cults work tirelessly to control all information entering an initiate’s eyes and ears. Cults control the books you can read, the news you can watch, the organizations you can trust, the experts you must listen to, and the people you confide in. The cult environment is one of endless propaganda designed to be so effective that one loses control of their own thoughts; loses control over the voice in their head.

Once an initiate finds themselves in the cult’s totalizing environment (see Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism by Robert Jay Lifton) the cult lifts the veil of love, affirmation, and inclusion and reveals a cycle of psychological abuse designed to drag the initiate deeper into the cult’s doctrine. This abuse is justified through a language of purity—initiates must let go of all the bad influences and contamination of their former lives, revealing their deepest secrets through ritual confessions. The point is to strip the initiate down, leaving them totally vulnerable and exposed. Only then can the cult rebuild the initiate in the cult’s image.

Cult survivors will tell you that they often didn’t know they were in a cult until someone pierced the cult’s totalizing environment with a message from the outside; a tether to a long-lost reality; an invitation to step back into the real world. The Queering of the American Child is one such tether, and I hope parents nationwide will receive the message loud and clear: Education is in the grip of a religious cult—the Queer Cult.

Now, I don’t mean “queer” as in “gay” or “lesbian” or “bisexual.” I mean “queer” as it is defined in the academic literature of the Queer Cult’s doctrine: Queer Theory.

Unlike gay identity, which, though deliberately proclaimed in an act of affirmation, is nonetheless rooted in the positive fact of object-choice, queer identity need not be grounded in any positive truth or in any stable reality. As the very word implies, “queer” does not name some natural kind or refer to some determinate object; it acquires its meaning from its oppositional relation to the norm. Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. It is an identity without an essence.[1] (Halperin, 1995, p. 62, italics in original)

Our children are “experiencing the queer,” as Queer Educational Activist Kevin Kumashiro explains in his 2009 book, Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice (2nd edition). Specifically, our children are experiencing the “queer” because they have been purposefully placed in a state of psychological crisis. “Crisis,” Kumashiro says, “should be expected in the process of learning, by both the student and the teacher. Like queer activism, queer teaching always works through crisis…the goal is to continue teaching and learning through crisis—to continue experiencing the queer.”[2] (Kumashiro, 2009, p. 55)

The Queer Cult has total control of our national discourse as it relates to sex, “gender,” and sexuality. Our children are fed a steady diet of cult doctrine through mainstream media, social media, popular culture, the psychiatrists they consult, and the doctors their parents trust. Not least of which, our children attend schools that universally push the idea that children can be “born in the wrong body.” America’s children learn that they have “gender identities” that might not match their “sex assigned at birth.” A Medical Industrial Complex waits in the wings with irreversible puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and “gender affirming” surgeries.

The social and emotional pressures to conform to the Queer Cult’s corrupted understanding of reality are hard to bear. Most people know that “radical gender ideology” is insane, but they go along with it because they don’t want to be considered a “bad person,” “on the wrong side of history,” or worst of all, a “conservative.” The cult’s moral extortion racket is designed to drag us deeper into their agenda; deeper into what Queer Activist Michael Warner calls a “queer planet.”[3] However strong the pressure may be, we must remain tethered to reality—not only for ourselves, but especially for our children. As we say in the book,

[Queer Activists] believe they can arrest the steering wheel of History and drive us all off the ledge. Under normal circumstances, all of this nonsense would be cause for endless mockery and laughter. Unfortunately, Queer Activists have proved to be remarkably effective. Today, they already have one hand on the wheel, and our kids are in the car.[4]

In The Queering of the American Child you will learn what Queer Theory is, where it comes from, how it got into schools, and what it’s attempting to do with your children. You will learn that Queer Theory has nothing to do with helping gay kids, and nothing to do with helping troubled children feel “included” in a healthy set of societal norms. Letting the cultists speak for themselves, Dr. James Lindsay and I bring in hundreds of citations to lay bare the Queer Cult’s agenda. Our schools are initiating children into the Queer Cult through psychological manipulation and child abuse. What you read will shock you, and that’s a good thing. Welcome back to reality.

--

References

[1] Halperin, D. M. (1995). Saint Foucault: Towards a gay hagiography. Oxford University Press. (p. 61) [2] Kumashiro, K. K. (2009). Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice (2nd ed.). Routledge. (p. 55) [3] Warner, M. (1991). Introduction: Fear of a queer planet. Social Text, (29), 3–17. [4] Lancing, L. and Lindsay, J (2024) The Queering of the American Child: How A New School Religious Cult Poisons the Minds and Bodies of Normal Kids. New Discourses. (p. 65)

[uncanny-tranny]

It's honestly frustrating that I've seen non-Russian queer people almost bragging about how they would be illegal in Russia, labeled an extremist or terrorist. Russian queers are in danger, their government has made it clear where it stands, and it's made this effort for the better part of a decade (even longer, perhaps). This will kill people, don't mistake this for a quirky little proclamation from a government, akin to somebody saying the sky is pink. Russian queer people were already expressing their fear, and the least we can do now is express our love for them, and advocate with them.

Russian queer people, I love you. I love you all so much. I am so sorry, I cannot begin to express the grief that I feel, and I hope that you are safe. Words cannot encapsulate how I feel as a non-Russian, and I cannot hope to comprehend how it feels to actually be in this situation.

[variousqueerthings]

reblogging again about Big Eden made me think about some of the native american/canadian queer cinema (Indigiqueer Cinema) I've enjoyed.

Found a handy dandy Letterboxd List called Queer Native Pride and Beyond that has a whole bunch of movies I haven't seen yet, and below some of the ones I've gotten to experience (three out of four are linked):

Big Eden: a story about a gay man who returns home, because his grandfather gets sick. A sweet, beautiful man (played by Eric Schweig) starts to secretly make him food to help out. it's an amazing slice-of-life/subtly utopian bit of film-making, in that nobody in the town is homophobic, but being gay/shame is still a big part of the exploration within it.

Wildhood: a movie I got to watch at a film festival (always good to go to your local queer film festivals, many surprises to be had) and it blew me away. a roadtrip movie about two brothers who escape their abusive father to reconnect with the elder's mother and Mi'kmaq heritage. letting go of the instilled shame of being indigenous goes hand in hand with letting go of the instilled shame of being queer

Fancy Dance: this movie isn't about being queer, it's about the ongoing murder of indigenous woman and girls, and it's also a beautiful road trip film between an aunt and her niece, the former of whom is sure her sister is dead but unwilling to face it and to destroy her niece's innocence. Lily Gladstone plays the lead, who's also a lesbian, which is just a choice that works really well for the movie even if it's not the focal point (available on Apple+ TV and however you access movies, but would recommend throwing this one some views if you have access to official streaming)

Honey Moccasin: a 1998 movie i watched at another film festival (this time online), it's anarchic, it's a comedy, it's a thriller, it's got musical beats, it weaves in the intricacies of exploring Native identity and Queer identity, it's a surreal story about a few things, one of which include focus on a "closeted drag queen." it's a movie that beats against conventional film-making to create something not beholden to tropes and clichés forced upon narratives about being Native

[wanderingwriter87]

okay okay which one of y'all finally put garashir on julian's memory alpha page

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

This captures it. Chappell Roan is rightfully disillusioned by the two-party system.

Here are some of the correct responses to her (justified) criticism of the U.S. government.

[princyvish]

oh elbaf outfit luffy... 🤤

[samantha-and-nellie]

i’ve been re-reading the american girl history mysteries on and off here and well. let’s just say that miss brown and miss guerrier from “under copp’s hill” sure seem gay

[celluloidrainbow]

BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND (2022) dir. Trevor Anderson 1987: While the other students wonder if new kid Robin is a boy or a girl, Robin forges a complicated bond with the school bully, making increasingly dangerous choices in order to fit in. (link in title)

[shield-and-saber]

me reading path of deceit: hey the path kind of reminds me of evangelical pray the gay away movements, i wonder if that was intentional

me reading path of vengeance: oh

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Celebrating Black Queer Icons:

Marsha "Pay It No Mind" Johnson

Johnson was born August 24, 1945. A drag queen and sex worker, after moving to New York City from Elizabeth, New Jersey, Johnson is probably best known for participation in Queer Liberation and AIDS activism from 1969 until her death in 1992. While often associated with transgender women, Johnson self identified as gay, a transvestite, and a queen and actively distinguished her identity from the contemporary transsexual community. As for Johnson's gender? Well, pay it no mind. Johnson's activism began in 1969 after being involved in the Stonewall Inn Riots. She is often attributed as being in the riot's vanguard, alongside Zazu Nova and Jackie Hormona. Johnson would later go on to deny this, and is quoted as saying she did not arrive until after the riots had already started. Johnson would later go on to join the Gay Liberation Front and co-found STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), with Silvia Rivera. STAR would open the STAR House in 1970, which acted as a home for gay and trans homeless youths. In 1973 Johnson and Rivera were both temporarily banned by a gay/lesbian committee, from participating in pride parades, because it was said queens were giving the movement "a bad name". This did not deter Johnson. Starting in 1980 Johnson began living with fellow activist, Randy Wicker, and his partner. Johnson, who was HIV positive, would later become Wicker's partner's caregiver as they became terminally ill due to AIDS. After visiting Wicker's partner in the hospital Johnson became dedicated to spending time with AIDS patients and engaged in street actions with groups like ACT UP. Johnson was a deeply religious person throughout her life. Primarily Catholic, Johnson was said to have a very direct and personal relationship with divinity. On July 6, 1992, Johnson's body was found in the Hudson River. Johnson was cremated and after a march down 7th Avenue her ashes were spread in the Hudson. While initially ruled a suicide by the NYPD, this is highly contested to this day, with good reason. In 2002 Johnson's death was reclassified as Undetermined, and efforts in 2012 and 2016 have seen moderate success in getting the case reopened and re-investigated.

In the wake of her death Marsha P Johnson has become a nigh universal icon in queer communities and seemed like a good starting point for Black History Month. Moving forward I hope to focus on people less known, at least in melanin deficient circles. In a perfect world this would be daily, but I sadly don't have the spoons for it. I will effort to post at least 2-3 of these each week and have a list sufficient enough to carry me through February, and a little beyond. I plan on doing Willmer Broadnax next and have a list going that should cover at least the month of February, and hopefully beyond. Corrections and suggestions are welcome and much desired.

[yandereunsolved]

Just a little idea to put out there for a one-shot/set of headcanons I may or may not make. Imagine an angel reader being assigned to clean out all the souls and demonic energy in the Cortez Hotel. It's your first big assignment from the angelic council. You have to start with the newest souls and least demonic entities, since the older souls and stronger entities feed off of them, and you encounter James. 

It's your first time on earth—ever—and you meet him. James is perplexed as to why this seemingly normal human has such a loving and comforting aura around them. No matter. All the better to kill. Except, he can't kill you. He stabs you, and you heal. He shoots you, and you don't drop dead. He tries to torture you, and you only speak innocent words that make his dead heart beat wildly.

"James, this isn't the way. I forgive you. I can lead you into the light."

He learns that all of his ingenious murders are being undone by this pure being. He becomes obsessed with trying to corrupt you. Every waking hour he spends plotting another twisted murder for a newcomer to the hotel, which will surely break your mind. He wants—no needs—to make you fall. To make you his little fallen angel. To make you his pet, his prize, his trophy killing.

After all, if he can corrupt an angel, can't he kill God?

[cherriko-art]

I just finished my nth rewatch of Legend of Korra (due to the live action bringing me back to my atla/lok roots), and was violently thrown back 9 years ago while rereading the original reaction subreddits when everyone was arguing whether korrasami was canon, all bc Nick wouldn't have ever allowed the creators to show an in-show kiss between two women.

It really shows how far we've made it in today's society and media. Korrasami shocked us 9 years ago (gay marriage wasn't even federally legalized in the USA till a year after), but if it came out today none of us would've blinked at the queer rep on a kids show (by kids I mean Nickelodeon). It just makes me so happy that it's now (mostly) normalized to have safe and good queer rep in media, esp kids media.

I can't imagine what it would've felt like to have shows/movies like Nimona, Steven Universe, She-ra, etc growing up. Or just media normalizing that queer people exist and are like everyone else (instead of the butt of a joke or a "token gay character").

[chuuzmii]

Racism not being considered traumatic despite so much research showing just how detrimental it is to the human psyche actually makes me start raging

[ratatatastic]

no im still on maffhew calling the forsymaffhew lovechild a missile

[variousqueerthings]

me and my mum were listening to danish news about how rigshospitalet (basically the largest hospital in denmark) was cutting back on costs by no longer covering the costs of tattooing nipples on breast-cancer cis women patients who have had breast re-construction, which is paid by tax payer money/free on the hospital

and that's all a discussion about gender reaffirming care!

whether or not the nipple counts as "distressing enough" is a thing I won't get into (I am personally getting mine removed -- opposite gender affirming care!!! same-but-different) -- what is interesting here to me, is firstly that what is being argued -- the big fascinating hypocrisy at the centre -- is notably not whether or not cis women need to prove a significant amount of psychological distress by speaking to psychiatrists and jumping through segregated healthcare hoops

and yet in denmark trans people do have to do this in order to access care -- not to the same amount as in some countries (notably it is done at the hospitals, but as far as I'm aware it's only the two main hospitals in Denmark that offer it, and it's not legal to go private within the country), but that is still the process and was until not-so-many-years also including forced sterilisation

the idea that a cisgender woman might feel significant gender-based distress at not having breasts was not in question in the discussion my mum and I were listening to

the other thing that is interesting is that the person at the rigshospitalet who was arguing that the nipples was too much cost was a cis dude. and of course cis dudes can have breast-cancer, but I have a feeling this guy was not speaking from that kind of thinking + of course the weight of "being a woman who has breasts that look like people think breasts should look" is an issue that he would never have to deal with, and so there was indeed an example there of a doctor who was not taking cis women's dysphoria seriously and arguing a (partial) rolling back of care on this basis

to what extent do cis women have to contend with looking "enough" like a woman because of misogyny? to what extent can one argue the dysphoria they feel is an innate idea of the self that doesn't match with what they see? to what extent is it a reaction to a different traumatic event (the scars a reminder of having been sick)? to what extent is there a cultural disgust against scarring that ought to be unlearned?

I'd argue that for the particular question of whether they deserve the care right now, those questions aren't going to help. offer the care and we can dismantle harmful notions about "correct" womanhood next to it (putting the ball in the court of a far bigger sandpit of societal work we need to do), and at the same time be cognizant of how that hits trans women 100 times over just for existing and having to perform hyper-femininity or else it doesn't count but is also demonised for being a performance, and in a different-but-similar way hits anyone who is assigned female at birth who is trying to build a space of non-conformity and/or masculinity and being scrutinised for "always" being a female while also being masculine traitors (just look at responses to elliot page) (just look at butches regardless of AGAB full stop)

I am supportive of cis women (and cis men) receiving gender affirming care. now they need to be supportive of me and mine receiving the same

[chadsuke]

Books Read in 2023:

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman (2019)

Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling (1996)

The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards (2018)

The Little Book of Lykke by Meik Wiking (2017)

American Cozy by Stephanie Pederson (2018)

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian (2021)

The Conscious Closet by Elizabeth L. Cline (2019)

My Happy Marriage Vol. 1 by Akumi Agitogi (2019)

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)

[ID: Covers of the aforementioned books. End ID.]