In plain sight

Amid blue tick celebrities on Twitter saying that children are the problem if they are bothered by naked men in women’s changing rooms and the Washington Post publishing an article calling for children to be exposed to kink at Pride, the actress Kirstie Alley said the normalisation of paedophilia is a growing movement that we should all be wary of. And this was met with derision by people who, at best, have not been exposed to how open predatory behaviour now often is on social media.

The day before, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus uploaded to YouTube a video of a song they had recorded, entitled ‘We’re coming for your children’.

The lyrics include lines such as: "You think that we’ll corrupt your kids, if our agenda goes unchecked. Funny, just this once, you’re correct. We’ll convert your children. Happens bit by bit. Quietly and subtly. And you will barely notice it … We’ll convert your children. Someone’s gotta teach them not to hate. We’re coming for them. We’re coming for your children. We’re coming for them. We’re coming for them. We’re coming for your children.”

After receiving 5,000 dislikes (to 88 likes), and numerous comments accusing them of being child abusers operating in plain sight, the video was set to private, with the chorus saying the ‘tongue-in-cheek’ lyrics had been misinterpreted by the far right, and they now fear for their safety. The video was saved by one user who then shared it, which reportedly led to YouTube removing their account (but not the chorus’s account). This comes as Twitter recently suspended the account of a second woman who said a naked man flashed at her daughter at the Wi Spa last year.

But let’s look at some of the people behind the song. The lyrics were written by Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne, who wrote the musical ‘Boy’ or ‘The Boy Who Danced On Air’, about pre-teen boys in Afghanistan who are sold to dance as slaves for adults while dressed as women, and are then raped. The play led to outrage from Afghans living around the world, who accused it of romanticising child rape.

Then there’s the men in the chorus. There are reports that some of those singing are registered sex offenders, after people online researched their names and images.

Maybe the song is just a tongue-in-cheek comment on men who might be accused of being predators, but who have nothing but actual kindness as their motivation to teach children about the LGBTQIAA+ umbrella. Or maybe, given that it was written by people formerly accused of romanticising child rape and performed by alleged sex offenders, we should accept that Kirstie Alley might have a point, and trust our instincts on this one instead.

“We’ll convert your children. Happens bit by bit. Quietly and subtly. And you will barely notice it “