I am grateful to an Aussie correspondent for drawing my attention to the work of Minus 18, a state-sponsored LGBTQIA+ concern, which exists to create an “Australia where all young people are safe, empowered, and surrounded by people that support them”. Minus 18 was founded by a man called Colin Roland Billings who, at the time of his death in 2009, had been charged with sexual offences against three teenage boys. But that was all such a long time ago. Let’s look at Minus 18 now.
According to Minus 18, one in five secondary school kids now identify as LGBTQIA+ “and this number is growing around the world” [?] Eventually someone will have the brainwave of putting S for Straight into the alphabet soup, quintupling the market for Minus 18’s work overnight. It already does quite well, employing 21 staff and earning $2m a year, thanks to the support of the Victoria State Government, Lululemon, Converse sneakers and Bonds, a family-oriented clothes retailer which has Men’s and Women’s sections, whilst offering seventeen “genderfree” items to the cool kids.
Inevitably, Minus 18’s trainers and speakers go into schools and workplaces to teach people about pronouns and allyship. Their costed online packages start at $299 a pop, though some are free to download.
Minus 18’s message is that it’s okay to feel as if you’re born in the wrong body, it’s okay to experiment with your identity, it’s perfectly fine to force your stupid pronouns on people even if you reserve the right to change them, and your name, without warning at any moment. Learning how to question your identity, understand being non-binary and the joy of gender euphoria is very much to the fore. Although I haven’t gone through all their online articles, I did quite a bit of clicking around and saw a single mention of the word gay and none of lesbian, apart from in the merch section, where the sole lesbian product available was a key ring.
The Minus 18 website also manages to suggest without qualification that 1.7% of people are born intersex – “about the same as people with ginger hair!” The task in hand is not to question this statistic, but to “become an ally to the intersex community” – whatever that might entail. Perhaps the G in the LGBTQIA+ stands for Ginger. Lululemon could take the underused L.
Events for 12 – 19 year olds!
All this would just be ludicrious/sinister transwashing/grifting (depending on your outlook) were it not for the big red flag hanging over the myriad pink and blue ones. Y’see, even today, Minus 18 run events for children and adults aged 12 – 19. Even loser straights are welcome. To spare the blushes of trans and non-binary kids who might have changed their names, event staff only ID people “who we feel look outside of the 12-19 age bracket”.
Minus 18 are all for kids going to their events on their own, telling potential attendees “a huge portion… will be coming along for the first time. Which means there are HEAPS of people ready to make friends. Our crew and volunteers try really hard to make sure everyone’s feeling comfortable. They’ll be on the lookout for friendships to facilitate, and to ensure no one looks lonesome.”
There are lots of places to make friends, including “gender-free” toilets, but don’t worry – safety is a “huge and valid” concern. All events are smoke, alcohol and drug free, and “youth workers” will be on hand “to make sure everyone has a safe and supported experience”. There are trained first-aiders on-site and all volunteers and staff are required to comply with “child safety laws and checks”. Besides, Minus 18 are supported by the Victorian Government “who recommend us as safe and essential”.
Parents not welcome
To mitigate any concerns about having 12 year olds mix in gender-free toilets with 19 year olds (and/or adult friendship facilitators), parents are allowed to keep a watchful eye. Oh no, hang on, they’re not. Minus 18 say they “can’t welcome in parents and carers to our events, as this does not comply with our child safety practices”. Any parent who at least wants to have a look at the event set-up before leaving their child can’t, as “even this does not comply with our child safety practices”.
I am absolutely certain Minus 18 events are mostly safe whilst also creating a perfect environment for a predatory young adult paedophile (volunteer or punter) to meet a child in the gender-free toilets and coerce them into god knows what. That said, it doesn’t appear to have happened in fifteen years of Minus 18 running events. Or if it has, it’s not been reported.
Still, it’s a better idea than the Minus 18 discord server, also for young adults and children….
I have asked Minus 18 for a response and to let me know if it has had any minor or serious safeguarding incidents at its events and/or if anything has happened which was serious enough to report to the police. I will post anything I get back here.
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