Can We Pump Brakes When It Comes To Children?

Let me be clear – I don’t give a damn if someone is straight, gay, bi, trans or any of the other adjectives we toss about so casually these days.

I. Don’t. Give. A. Damn.

What you do in the privacy of your life is between you, anyone who may be with you and God. I am nowhere in that equation, nor do I want to be.

But when it comes to children, well, that’s a whole different story.

Let me be equally clear – any adult – parent, relative, friend or whatever – who encourages any sort of thought or action regarding what gender a kid is should be identified as a child abuser and dealt with accordingly.

Perhaps they need counseling? Perhaps they need law enforcement.

That answer is for others to figure out.

What does not need figuring out – what should be as plain as the nose on a face – is that kids are not fodder in this ridiculous political mish-mash. Actually, I don’t know how the entire idea of men becoming women is a discussion. I don’t understand how women, who fought for equal rights when I was in school, are OK with allowing men to not just step into, but start taking over their world. I don’t know how anyone with half a brain can wrap their heads around the idea that we can actually change our sex.

But just because I don’t know does not give me the right to tell you what you can or cannot do. If you want to be something you’re not . . . knock yourself out. It’s your life. Do with it as you will. If I agree or disagree matters not even a little.

Not the same when it comes to kids.

To borrow from the immortal Shakespeare, ay, there’s the rub. Because the folks who work in Madison Avenue advertising have apparently decided that they need to highlight the LGBTQ community in a significant number of advertisements. Forget the data that says the alternate lifestyle population represents maybe 8 or 9 percent of the U.S. The point is the recent influx of ads and images is extremely disproportional.

So what, you say. Why should we care? Because Madison Avenue has always had a major influence on trends in America.

Always.

Major.

Are you old enough to remember when cigarettes were not just prevalent in society – they were wholesome?

Hey kids, remember Fred Flinstone and Barney Rubble smoking in a Winston commercial? Winston sponsored the Flintstones.

Remember that newscasters smoked – and newscasts were sometimes sponsored by tobacco companies. Remember Johnny Carson? He and his guests routinely smoked.

Television, movies, society in general . . . kids saw adults smoking all the time.

Smoking was everywhere. By design.

Several generations grew up thinking it was not only OK to smoke, it was good. Kids started smoking because they believed it was cool.

Decades later we found out otherwise.

Now we’re doing the same with the LGBTQ movement.

And for whatever reason, too many of us are sitting back and not saying a word. Why? Because when something is said attacks follow. From the White House press secretary to Hollywood to woke groups all over the place, you get labeled as a bigot, homophobic, transphobic, a hater and worse. On one hand you are asked to be tolerant of different lifestyles, but on the other hand there is no tolerance for your beliefs.

Let me repeat, I don’t give a damn what choices adults make about their own lifestyles. And I don’t say that mildly. I mean c’mon, all I have to do is look in a mirror at the big scar down the middle of my chest. Not that long ago I was cut wide open, my heart was taken out and laid on a table. Why? From poor choices I made eating fries, mayo, red meats and such. Could someone disagree with my lifestyle? Absolutely.

This is not about adults and their good or bad choices. This is about children. It is time in this country for the majority of people to demand better. It is time for a lot of us to put our foot down and end this ridiculous debate about children.

We need to protect our children, to not brainwash them the way Madison Avenue did using Fred and Wilma enjoying the good life with a cigarette.

And if the media or anyone else wants to say that is intolerant, tell them they are wrong. This is not an argument about adult behavior. It’s a fight about protecting children. Surely to God most of us can agree on that, can’t we?

-Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically on Wednesdays in The Paper. Timmons is the publisher of The Paper and can be contacted at [email protected].