A queer pride mural in the central business district of Sydney, Australia was vandalized after anti-LGBTQ+ web commenters hyperbolically accused it of promoting the trafficking and sexual abuse of children.
The mural featured a man wearing a leather harness and a teddy bear head holding an open beverage can. Gasp!
It was commissioned by YCK Laneways, a collective of local shops, to celebrate World Pride, a global LGBTQ+ event currently happening in Sydney. The mural isn’t officially connected to World Pride and was set to be removed on March 5, The Daily Mail reported.
However, numerous online commenters quoted by the publication complained about it being offensive, leading to the teddy bear end of the mural recently being splashed over by black and white paint.
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Sydney locals took action in under 24 hours after a video circulated on freedom channels, defacing a pedophilia-promoting mural with a "leave the kids alone" message using paint & graffiti! ???
Footage credit: https://t.co/4qdA5veEYF
Initial thread? https://t.co/Pan9BCqf06 pic.twitter.com/fCa7KrgTDa
— ??OurVoicesMatter (@OV_Matter) February 22, 2023
“How did YCK Laneways arrive at the conclusion that a furry/BDSM clad male would be suitable for kids to walk by in their own community?” one commenter reportedly asked, “This mural needs to be removed as soon as possible.”
Another reportedly said, “The gay community worked hard for years to distance themselves from this sort of representation. Small children will be walking past this.”
Numerous Twitter commenters reposted images of the mural along with the following text: “A creepy mural that depicts BDSM and pedophilia appears in Sydney and it is supposed to be accepted as ‘normal’ and all whilst the trafficking and sexual abuse of children goes on as if it were business as usual. LGBT is a front for grooming and pedophilia.”
This rhetoric is taken straight out of the QAnon playbook. However, it’s notable that such opponents of “grooming and pedophilia” never actually partner with organizations that fight such trafficking and abuse. Such opponents also never protest mainstream Christian denominations for facilitating literally hundreds of thousands of instances of child sex abuse.
Regardless, other commenters compared the mural to Balenciaga advertisements in late 2022 that featured children holding teddy bears dressed in BDSM gear. After numerous complaints — including ones from right-wingers Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro, who claimed the ads sought to lure kids into being gay and transgender — the fashion brand removed the ads, and its creative director apologized, calling the photos a “wrong artistic choice.”
While it’s easy to dismiss the mural’s critics as uptight moral prigs, numerous conservatives say that any public displays of queerness are socially inappropriate and harmful to kids. This is the very reasoning behind numerous bills seeking to ban any discussion of LGBTQ+ identities from public school classrooms and punish drag queens from performing in front of kids.
One can argue about how “sexual” the harness in the mural was or the appropriateness of adding a teddy bear head, but the mural was merely a piece of temporary public art. Even if a kid had asked about it, an adult could’ve just said, “It’s a picture of an adult man,” or “Yes, some people wear harnesses,” without getting into deeper conversations about sex or kink.
abfab
This sort of behaviour absolutely surprises and flabbergasses (?) me. Hey, why don’t we take all of our right wing republican cretins and send them all down under to join up with the Aussie asswholes and put them all together on the island of Tazmania……where the Devils could feast!
The Dingos will eat your babies.
Diplomat
If i had to look at that ugly thing I’d bitch too!
Zero PR responsibility. Bad representation. Take it down.
abfab
I agree. It’s over and there is no longer an accounting for taste. I want to know which window dresser designed this mess. Awful.
bachy
The Balenciaga ads were much less suggestive – but people are still talking about how drawing a connection between children and S&M was just all kinds of wrong. As a sophisticated, single urbanite I personally did not see the ads this way. But I can understand why they might upset parents – and send the wrong message to children.
Let’s stop being so dismissive of the concerns of the larger community. Sexually suggestive imagery should be limited to adult media.
still_onthemark
“The gay community worked hard for years to distance themselves from this sort of representation. Small children will be walking past this.” – This comment is almost certainly from a gay person but the author disingenuously lumps it in with the “QAnon playbook.”
PinkoOfTheGange
How many alters do you have?
LumpyPillows
I support men in leather, latex (my kind of fun), furies, and all our kinds of weird. This mural was a bad idea.
greekboy
Glad that’s in Australia so I dont have to look at it
JaredNorthcutt30
For all the pearl clutching about the government overriding the rights of parents and trans kids, this author takes on the same condensing tone about raising someone else’s kids. You are cut from the same cloth, my friend. Stop pretending otherwise.
splunky
If anything promotes pedophilia, it’s the churches. Yet if a new church opened up and parents were taking their kids to it, no one would say or do anything. But yeah, let’s cry over a dumb painting.
LumpyPillows
I don’t see this as having anything to do with children. But that’s me. It is, however, in really bad taste and gains us nothing but ridicule.
still_onthemark
‘Even if a kid had asked about it, an adult could’ve just said, “It’s a picture of an adult man,” or “Yes, some people wear harnesses,” without getting into deeper conversations about sex or kink.’
And next the kid asks, “But why is he so FAT?”
abfab
Because, Bobby, he’s pregnant. Now shut up and get in the car!
LumpyPillows
Mommy, can men get pregnant?
RIGay
How does that saying go? “Let your freak flag fly”? Not my thing (leather), or my thing (furries) or my thing (tubbies), or my thing (bears), but hey? Who am I to judge.
abfab
And the way he is defacing our flag is deplorable….I do hope it’s machine washable.
ZzBomb
Just a reminder:
There have been zero children ever molested by drag queens.
There have been over an estimated 2 million children molested by religious priests.
The people who cry the most about pedophilia are the ones who are perpetrating it.
Kangol2
Priests, evangelical preachers, Christian “youth” leaders, rabbis…just go down the list!
LumpyPillows
I’ve seen some drag queens do some pretty raunchy stuff. I’ve even seen them sexually assault men back in the day. They loved what they could get away with in drag. While it is fun to poke at the pedos in the church, which I generally encourage, I would not go down this path.
LegionKeign
Women and men can walk on beaches wearing virtually nothing…crickets.
Women can wear the sluttiest stripper wear to walmart…crickets.
Baby girls are tarted-out to the nines for “fashion” shows…crickets.
Dude with a teddy bear head, a harness and a rainbow flag…OUTRAGE!
Yep, that’s about right.
LumpyPillows
Your logic is sad.
cheks
The in the painting is hot. And just because he has a bear for a head doesn’t mean it’s sexualizing children.
What drives me up the wall is clearly these people are just anti-gay and uncomfortable seeing men like this as sexual objects. But have NO problem exposing kids to the hundreds of images depicting women in similar if not more sexualized clothing and poses in countless ads.
Openminded
I see no reason to link the mural with pedos, but I don’t believe it is appropriate for general public exposure. Just not very respectful , IMHO.
troubleme
As a gay man, I find this mural and this article truly repulsive. This image is not age appropriate for the children that will see it. It’s sexual in nature and that isn’t something kids should be exposed to. Not only that but It simply reinforces negative stereotypes about gay men. I wouldn’t even want straight adults seeing it. It’s embarrassing! It’s ugly and tacky!
And this article is so poorly written! Where is Daniel Villarreal’s evidence that opponents of “grooming and pedophilia” never actually partner with organizations that fight such trafficking and abuse or never protest mainstream Christian denominations for facilitating literally hundreds of thousands of instances of child sex abuse??? How could the author possibly even know that. This is not journalism.
Daniel, perhaps you should look for a new job. Writing is not your forte.
LumpyPillows
The problem I have with the mural is it isn’t smart. It undermines everything we are trying to solidify politically, while gain us nothing.