Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

“The Ocean Is Queer” - A dispatch from Seattle Pride Month
christopherrufo.com ^ | 25 Jun, 2025 | Christopher F. Rufo

Posted on 06/28/2025 7:04:23 AM PDT by MtnClimber

For years, radical gender ideology appeared unstoppable. The media framed transgender identity as the next frontier of liberation. Pride Month drew enthusiastic endorsements from nearly every university, corporation, and school district. Dissenters were often marginalized, and the prevailing narrative allowed little room for debate.

No longer. Since the start of the second Trump administration, the movement has begun to retreat. The Supreme Court recently upheld a Tennessee law banning medical transition procedures for minors. Many corporations have withdrawn support for this year’s Pride events. An ideology that once seemed culturally dominant has lost significant ground in public opinion.

In retrospect, this reversal may have been inevitable. The gender movement sought to enshrine a rejection of biological reality in law. Its core claims—such as the idea that a man can become a woman—reflected the movement’s hubris and delusion.

Americans have the right to believe that human beings can change sex (though they cannot). But the gender cult pushed further, insisting that institutions adopt its tenets as official policy and punish dissent. What followed was a kind of petty tyranny—one that policed adult speech and imposed contested ideologies on children—exposing the hollowness of its favored slogans: “love” and “equality.”

I recently attended a Pride Month event in Seattle to take the temperature of the gender movement. The occasion was Queer Community Day at the Seattle Aquarium—temporarily renamed the “Aqueerium.” Staff had placed LGBTQ+ flags inside the fish tanks and set up for Drag Queen Story Hour and a lecture titled “The Ocean is Queer.” One of the ticket attendants wore a bisexual flag pinned to her hat; several attendees wore Covid-19 masks and buttons bearing political slogans.

The drag event featured a tall man with an aquiline nose who introduced himself as Miss Stachio and read from the book Me and My Gender Dysphoria Monster. The book conveys the trans movement’s belief that children can be born in the wrong body and that society must affirm their “true” identity, even when it conflicts with biological reality.

The story follows a young boy who tries to tame the anger and confusion of his “dysphoria monster” by adopting new pronouns, wearing girls’ clothing, and calling himself Nisha. The audience—which included infants, toddlers, and young children—clapped along with the story and affirmed each step in the boy’s gender transition.

Though the children in the audience had already internalized the storyline and could anticipate the triumphant ending, one could sense that these narratives—so ascendant just a few years ago—had lost some of their novelty and force. Next to me sat a heavyset “trans man” in a pink shirt with a wispy beard, nodding and nearly in tears, capturing the emotional intensity of a cult’s last true believer.

Then came the science segment. The next presentation, titled “The Ocean is Queer,” attempted to ground transgender ideology in nature. A docent explained that the ocean serves as a metaphor for the “queer community.” She highlighted how male seahorses can become pregnant, clownfish live in matriarchal groups and can change sex, and bottlenose dolphins sometimes form gay male “throuples.” These examples, she told the children, are part of “queer ecology” and show that heterosexuality is not the only pattern found in nature.

This, too, carried an air of desperation. One could just as easily note that sea creatures breathe underwater or sometimes eat their young—neither of which offers a useful model for human behavior. Like much of what’s labeled “transgender science” or “gender medicine,” the lecture reflected a grasping for analogies, metaphors, or justifications. But when stated plainly, these comparisons verge on the absurd. “Pipefish change their sex, therefore children should, too” fails as a logical syllogism.

Perhaps this was always the central weakness of the gender cult: its reliance on euphemism and analogy to obscure the harsh realities of its practices. Proponents sought to maintain public support by repeating phrases like “life-saving, gender-affirming care” rather than confronting the clinical details—injecting children with cross-sex hormones, surgically removing the breasts of pubescent girls, and, in some cases, castrating boys to create the appearance of a female body.

The movement was always predicated on a fairy tale—not in the Walt Disney mold, but in the original, dark and disturbing sense. At the aquarium, Miss Stachio read from another book, Nen and the Lonely Fisherman, which adapted The Little Mermaid into a gay romance with a happy ending. The author, and the drag queen, seem to have forgotten the original Hans Christian Anderson version of the story: the little mermaid makes a bargain with a sea witch to acquire human legs, endures immense physical torment, and, in the end, does not win the affection of the prince.

The moral of that story is relevant. While the gender movement may still cast its spell over some children, its reach has limits. These limits may appear political, but at a deeper level, they are imposed by reality itself.


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: childabuse; children; gender; genderdysphoria; homosexualagenda; leftism; mentalillness; seattle; transideology; washington
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last
To: Vermont Lt

“Queer” is not gay.

See post #7


21 posted on 06/28/2025 8:16:47 AM PDT by brent13a
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: brent13a
need not be grounded in any positive truth or in any stable reality

\

thus immune to rebuttal as there isnt really anything other than a moving fluid changing evolving point to refute.

sounds like the whole leftist ideology.

alyski smiles and wishes he wrote that.

22 posted on 06/28/2025 8:22:34 AM PDT by cuz1961
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: cuz1961
need not be grounded in any positive truth or in any stable reality
\

thus immune to rebuttal as there isnt really anything...

.( other than a moving fluid changing evolving non -point ).....to refute.

sounds like the whole leftist ideology.

alyski smiles and wishes he wrote that.

23 posted on 06/28/2025 8:25:52 AM PDT by cuz1961
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Vermont Lt

And they all sport beards! Shaving is prohibited on planet Earth!


24 posted on 06/28/2025 8:39:00 AM PDT by exinnj
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Millstones...


25 posted on 06/28/2025 8:41:44 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Sodomites are insane.


26 posted on 06/28/2025 8:48:15 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Queers are queer, that’s why we call them queer.


27 posted on 06/28/2025 8:54:27 AM PDT by VTenigma (Conspiracy theory is the new "spoiler alert")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
They are still indoctrinating children on a massive scale.

Yes they are.

The puppet masters have moved on to their next set of useful idiots.

Has anyone ever tried to visit their children's schools to look into the classroom and see what they're being taught?

I bet not. The schools have put so many security details and alarms that no parent is able to do such a thing.

There is a reason behind that. It's not to keep the children safe and keeping the "bad" guys out. It's to keep parent out.

If you asked the principal to walk you to your child's class, you will find that he/she will notify that teacher in advance.

They do not want parents attention to the propaganda being pushed onto children.

During Covid I said that with laptops at home and learning through video that parents would see what is going on in these schools.

Man, was I right. They saw it all and became angry with what their children was and was not learning.

I care because now I have grandchildren in school. Teachers' unions have full control of curriculum and the administrators are behind them all the way. The only time you see dissent is from those teachers who quit because of their honor. What's left is pink and blue haired activists straight from hell who will never have children.
28 posted on 06/28/2025 8:57:28 AM PDT by ssfromla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ssfromla
speaking of Teachers

my friend has a mother , who used to be the sweetest kindest woman ive ever met ( except my mom -)

and ever since she returned to substitute teaching has turned mean, and i mean MEAN and even cruel at times toward her only son , who shes always been , used to be that is, a great mother to him. ( he is a christian , and i think thats the source of her hostility)

his niece, who was the sweetest mildest meekest child growing up ive ever met, came back from her 1st semester in college a palastinian defender and America hater with TDS.

academia has came out of the closet as satans seminary. and my friends mom acts possessed sometimes. breaks my heart.

29 posted on 06/28/2025 9:13:48 AM PDT by cuz1961
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: cuz1961

That is probably common across the nation.


30 posted on 06/28/2025 9:24:29 AM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn’t become your biography, what good is it?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Bon of Babble

When I was a young lad, I preferred playing with girls.

Still do...


31 posted on 06/28/2025 9:37:30 AM PDT by null and void (Democrats: fake news, fake presidents, fake beliefs, fake policies, fake protesters & fake voters!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: brent13a
Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant.

That's a very important point. It does not mean homosexual except insofar as homosexuality may be seen as transgressive. Lose the transgression and they lose the thrill. As the author points out,

one could sense that these narratives—so ascendant just a few years ago—had lost some of their novelty and force.

The price of normalization is that the formerly transgressive become normies, and that is the very last thing that they want. The problem with this is that it becomes an ever-increasing search for the shocking, which has led to some very dark corners indeed. Nothing, for example, shocks so much as a desire to take someone's children. And when you bump up against such barriers that aren't moveable, you tend to bump pretty hard.

32 posted on 06/28/2025 9:53:47 AM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill; cuz1961

That’s correct. Tons of conservatives need to reconfigure their knowledge and catch up because 90% of these ingrates are not “ignorant” they’re not “willfully dumb” or “have no idea what they’re saying”. They all know that all that matters is THE REVOLUTION and they don’t care how its accomplished. Whether it’s Queer Theory or any other inverted ideology, they know exactly what their goals are and they don’t care how they achieve them.


33 posted on 06/28/2025 10:20:32 AM PDT by brent13a
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber; lightman; Navy Patriot

......I recently attended a Pride Month event in Seattle to take the temperature of the gender movement. The occasion was Queer Community Day at the Seattle Aquarium—temporarily renamed the “Aqueerium.” Staff had placed LGBTQ+ flags inside the fish tanks and set up for Drag Queen Story Hour and a lecture titled “The Ocean is Queer.” One of the ticket attendants wore a bisexual flag pinned to her hat; several attendees wore Covid-19 masks and buttons bearing political slogans.....

Oh bosh! That’a 100% BS!

There is still one more BIG event to come (tomorrow) for Serbian-American Heritage Month! Stay tuned!

Then we all can celebrate July 4th!


34 posted on 06/28/2025 10:38:26 AM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

The ocean is queer? Can these MORONS in Seattle give me proof?


35 posted on 06/28/2025 1:32:23 PM PDT by DeplorableTrumpSupporter (FKA ConservaTeen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ssfromla

That’s why we are homeschooling.


36 posted on 06/28/2025 1:48:18 PM PDT by DeplorableTrumpSupporter (FKA ConservaTeen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson