The promotion of LGBT issues and culture in Australia by the media, corporations and the entertainment industry has been relentless over the past decade. It would appear to have been accelerated since the passing of same sex marriage. This was no more noticeable than the lead up to this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras with promotional material for the festival flooding social media.

The promotion of such a sexually explicit festival disturbed many Australians. However it was the promotion of Mardi Gras to children is what was seen as most abhorrent. The promotion of what should be classified as an adult festival to the nation’s children was led by Australia’s taxpayer funded broadcaster the ABC. It’s children’s channel ABC ME aimed at 6-15 year olds released a promotional video wishing everyone a Happy Mardi Gras and describing it as a family event.

It led many to investigate further this supposed children’s channel ABC ME to see if they were promoting other LGBT content to young Australians. Soon discovered was a whole TV series ABC ME created called What It’s Like. It is described as  “a show for young people in our community whose voices, stories and perspectives aren’t often seen or heard. It’s a chance for them to share their experiences in their own words – both good and challenging”.

It has so far broadcast six episodes, four of which can be described as having a political agenda. Apart from its What It’s Like to be a Refugee’ episode, three (meaning half) are on LGBT issues and of course take the standard progressive stance on them. All episodes are presented by a girl with a nose ring whose introduction talks about how we all have diverse experiences. All episodes on the ABC iview app begin with an advertisement of ABC ME’s Mardi Gras content.

It’s episode What It’s Like to be Queer is disturbing for the fact that two of the teenagers featured as identifying as queer are 12 and 13 year old boys, most ordinary people would consider it extremely inappropriate have such young children discussing their sexuality on national television. Many would also question how at such a young age could they have come to a determination on such an issue and is it appropriate for intimate relationships of any sort to be promoted to children that young?

Then there is its episode What It’s Like to be Transgender where we are told that it is when your gender identity and how you feel doesn’t match the gender you were assigned at birth. It features mainly transgender girls with the youngest being  8. The episode thankfully doesn’t feature anyone identifying as non-binary which would confuse the viewer even further, one of the girls featured does reject the notion of gender fluidity. One of the other girls Evie MacDonald is featured in another ABC ME show First Day when she plays a transgender girl starting high school who wants to use the girls bathroom.

Then to top it all off there is What It’s Like’s to Have Same Sex Parents. Of course the children featured say they have no problem with their family situation and the only issue is the ignorant other children who ask them pesky questions. It is easy to see that the children are delivering pre-rehersed lines that lack personal authenticity. One of the more chilling parts of this episode is where one boy who is being raised by lesbian parents state that ‘I don’t have a father. I will never have a father’. This was also broadcast before same sex marriage was legal so it features the children complaining their ‘parents’ can’t get married.

If parents still think that media aimed at children and family is immune LGBT indoctrination and any other attempted social reegineering then they are sadly naive. At least ABC ME has rated their What It’s Like series PG so at least more vigilant parents will pay attention to the content.

At the ABC they would appear to think that the Marriage Postal Survey and the subsequent legislation of same sex marriage has given them the green light to promote anything about the LGBT lifestyle to children. It would appear that complaints to the ABC are falling on deaf ears with critical comments being deleted. We are at the stage now where concerned parents need to monitor their children’s media consumption even further and even when they are told its age appropriate.

Author Details
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.
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Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.