A group of Twitterati is angry with YouTube Kids because the platform hosts queer kid-friendly content, which they fear can ‘convert’ their cis-straight children to be queer.
But they fail to comprehend that merely watching a video does not change their child’s orientation and gender, but rather helps queer children understand themselves better and feel included in a world, where they are not alone.
Chances are, they would live a happier life. These parents do not fear conversion, but rather their child’s potential reality, which may not be something that they’re not used to, in a conservative setting.
While this campaign is believed to have begun in the US, sadly, Indian Twitter too saw its undercurrents.
It is sadder because of how inclusive India has been as a society and that four years back, the Supreme Court decriminalised section 377, a harsh colonial law that criminalised any act ‘against the natural order’.
A few weeks back, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, said, “Without much hullabaloo, we have found a way with a humane approach to provide them (the LGBTQIA+ community) social acceptance.” Bhagwat, a veterinarian, seems to appreciate how to accept queer people, being familiar with both science and the scriptures. But Bhagwat too was widely criticised for hurting religious sentiments.
There is no dearth of material to educate oneself that cis-straight men and women are not the only human beings inhabiting planet earth. Watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine for instance or Manoj Bajpayee starrer Aligarh.
It’s time to tone down anger and foster empathy. Appointing an openly gay judge to the Delhi High Court would be a small step towards that.