Kurt Mahlburg
mercatornet.com
Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young adults pastor. Since 2018, Kurt has been the Research and Features Editor at the Canberra Declaration.
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus made headlines this week for all the wrong reasons. At the beginning of the month, the choir posted a music video to their social media channels called “Message from the Gay Community”. Supposedly “tongue-in-cheek,” the lyrics begin,
You say we all lead lives you don’t respect
But you’re just frightened
You think that we’ll corrupt your kids if our agenda goes unchecked
Funny, just this once, you’re correct
It’s an original composition – commissioned by the Oakland Symphony – which the SFGMC has performed at several “Pride” events in San Francisco and beyond. The lyrics are an obvious mockery of parents concerned about protecting their children from an LGBT agenda increasingly being pushed in corporate media outlets and children’s programming:
We’ll convert your children
Happens bit by bit
Quietly and subtly and you will barely notice it…
Just like you’re worried
They’ll change their group of friends
You won’t approve of where they go at night
And you’ll be disgusted when they start learning things online
That you kept far from their sight…
We’ll convert your children
Yes we will…
We’re coming for them
We’re coming for your children
After the video was uploaded to YouTube, it was quickly “ratioed” — receiving thousands of downvotes compared to just a few dozen upvotes. It also went viral, but most of the sharing was evidently being done by critics of the song who saw it as a tawdry confession rather than a joke.
Such an interpretation is forgivable, given how aggressively the LGBT agenda has been pushed onto children in recent years through Drag Queen Story Hour at public libraries, in school curriculums, and through children’s TV programming, books and movies.
Just last week, Insider celebrated a deliberate push taking place to break “gender boundaries” in kid’s cartoons. The article included a link to a database of “259 LGBTQ characters in cartoons that bust the myth that kids can’t handle inclusion”.
While this agenda appears to be something of an inside joke in circles like the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the joke has backfired badly.
Late this week, “An Important Message to the Chorus Family” was posted on the SFGMC website, announcing that the video has been turned to private. The notice explains that the choir’s social media and marketing staff are “working around the clock to alert moderators at YouTube, Instagram, Facebook” to have “stolen content” taken down by those who re-published portions of the video with concerns about its message.
“Dear Chorus Family,” the message begins, recounting the week’s events. The issue is then reframed:
The far-right conservative media found our “Message…” video and have taken it as their cause. This has all happened in the last 24 hours and it continues to pick up steam. They have taken the lyrics out of context to support a narrative that suits their intolerant and hateful needs. It is obvious the tongue-in-cheek humor is lost on many.
The message goes on to note that the video’s comments section was flooded with denouncements, some of which were threatening and have been reported.
But just like their vexed music video, the choir’s letter sends out mixed messages. On the one hand, it accuses “the far-right conservative media” of having “taken the lyrics out of context”. On the other hand, the letter doubles down on their right to push their agenda onto an unsuspecting public:
After decades of children being indoctrinated and taught intolerance for anyone who is “other,” from using the Bible as a weapon to reparative therapy, it’s our turn.
But of course, it’s all in the name of love:
We have dedicated ourselves to being role models, teaching, and spreading the message of love, tolerance and celebration through our music.
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