Society :: Sex Panic! Somebody, ​Please Think of the Children!

Here at GGN We Are Sex Positive

The expression of our sexuality and the freedom to have sex with whomever we want, has been a defining characteristic of the early gay-rights movement pre-AIDS. How things have changed, and yet, how some things have become worse.

Where did all this fear of sex begin and what is “Sex Panic”? In the queer community, “Sex Panic!” was a sexual activism group founded in New York City in 1997. 

The group characterized itself as a “pro-queer, pro-feminist, anti-racist direct action group” campaigning for sexual freedom in the age of AIDS. It was founded to oppose both mainstream political measures to control sex, and elements within the gay community who advocated same-sex marriage and the restriction of public sexual culture as solutions to the HIV crisis. The group has been depicted as a faction in a gay “culture war” of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

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As long as we have had oppressive religions, there has been sex panic for the simple reason that sex is fun, liberating, and basic human behaviour. Sex is a form of creative physical expression that frees the mind, body, and soul to see beauty in the moment. Sex is a sensual experience, one that involves all our five senses and something that scares the bejesus (pun intended) out of Fundamentalists and Evangelicals. Case in point: the United States Vice President, Mike Pence, is afraid to be alone in the same room with another woman who is not his wife! (Source)

Speaking of Sex, Have You Met Alexander Chaves

GGN Publisher, Shaun Proulx talks sex in New York City with writer Alexander Chaves, who shares what a sex panic is, why we’re having a one, and for how long we’ll be having a sex panic. 

Come to Jesus…

I’ve often wondered why people scream during sex, “Oh GOD! OH MY GOD I’m cumming…!” Doesn’t it seem that sex would bring us closer to god, rather than push us away? The problem is not having or feeling a connection with “spirt” or your higher self in the moment of sexual ecstasy. Rather, religious doctrines (taken too literally and religious texts which have been too secularized) seek to control and suppress sensuality; the innate connection with nature we are all born with. The church seeks to demonize sex for the freedom it allows human beings to be creative and to think for themselves.

“It should come as no surprise that religious and cultural conservatives view joy, celebration, ecstasy, and exuberance as degenerate. For in their view, they are right: gay spirit undermines patriarchal power structures.”

Raymond L. Rigolisoso, Gay Men and The New Way Forward.

Sex Panic is an ideologically-based suppression of our basic human need for touch, intimacy, and sex – an absolute denial of that which makes us human. As queers we can teach humanity to let go of ego and ideologies and experience the sensuality of beauty, to recognize that beauty is natural – that beauty is found in the natural world, and that we as humans come from nature. Thus we express creatively what is only natural and what is truly normal.

Somebody, Please Think of the Children!

The Simpson’s creators knew what they were doing with the satirical, ”Think of the children” line by character Helen Lovejoy, the local minister’s wife.

“Think of the children” is a phrase that evolved into a rhetorical tactic. Used literally it refers to children’s rights, as in discussions of child labor. In debate, this plea for pity is wielded as an appeal to emotion which constitutes a logical fallacy.”

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This logical fallacy, “Think of the children”, can be seen in the misguided actions of the Ontario PC Party’s move to repeal the Ontario sex-ed curriculum – backwards by over 15 years, pre-iPhones, pre-everyone-having-internet-access, pre huge leaps forward in LGBTQ acceptance and equal rights (both Ontario and Canada).

Concerned parents, those limited by dogma and ideological thinking, or parents claiming, “We were not consulted”, will tell you they are only concerned with protecting their children. You can read more about the sex-ed panic in, How to Fight Doug Ford and the Ontario PC Party as LGBTQ+

Protecting Your Children From What?

Kids can learn about sex from their teacher in a pedagogical environment. They can do this is a safe and supportive classroom where they can ask questions, and learn about how to protect themselves from STIs, sexual bullying, and rape.

Or kids can access the internet, watch porn, or get the dirt on the street. Some parent with limited critical thinking skills will say, “We have software at home to limit access to unsafe website browsing.” Really? Can you control every minute of your child’s life when they are outside of the home, not under your helicopter-supervision?

The debate about sex-ed should not be based on the manipulation of emotions and the worthlessness of a logical fallacy. If you want to control what your children learn (or don’t learn) home-schooling and private schools are certainly options. Certainly, we should care about the children, BUT we should care about ALL children.

“The existence of gay and lesbian parents is a fact, not ideology. Proponents of anti-gay laws may be trying to ‘save the children,’ but the ultimate effect of such laws is to harm the physical and psychological well-being of millions of children currently raised by loving GLBT parents.”

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Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, said in a radio interview in October 2018 about the Ontario sex-ed curriculum repeal, that,

“The goal of the Ontario Human Rights Commission is to ensure that vulnerable and marginalized people are protected however unpopular they may be in society.”

Renu Mandhane

Furthermore (and I’m paraphrasing), Mandhane goes on to say that ‘The curriculum needs to represent everyone who calls Ontario home. There’s a lack of knowledge some people have about other groups, but the solution cannot be an erasure of groups from the curriculum. What needs to happen with the future generation of students is a discussion about their human rights and their responsibility to other people.’ (From The Hateful Prejudice and Elitism that is Jordan Peterson – LOP056.)

Are Things Going to Get Better?

Probably not until they get a wee bit worse. Take for example the porn ban at Tumblr last year, when the site decided to ban and delete all readily available porn on the site. The challenge with Tumblr’s decision is that the “purge” would be managed by a computer algorithm. Many banned images and content could be queer-positive and may or may not be porn. The content could be artistic or creative, showing human bodies unclothed but not engaged in pornographic sex. Then there is the issue of sex workers (mentioned by Chaves in the video above) losing a safe place to promote their services.

Just last week, world-renown photographer Tom Bianchi was banned on Instagram. Here’s the image in question:

“Last Friday evening we saw that an actress in Paris, Marina Foïs, posted one of my Polaroids from The Pines as she has done in the past, to her Instagram account,” Bianchi told Out in an email interview.

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The next morning Bianchi discovery his Instagram account had been removed in its entirety for violating ‘Community Guidelines.’ His account was reactivated within a day after enough people contacted Instagram to support Bianchi.

My Hypothesis Is That Things Must Get Better. 

With the internet, the ability for new sites to spring up and take over from what has been lost, or for the ability to communicate quickly and widely, we have the power to make our queer voices heard. How we step together forward in unity (with open dialogue and empathy) or discord (mob-think and argument) will determine how quickly things get better.

In the meantime, don’t panic. Just have great sex, and in the words of Rodney Dangerfield,