'Start pushing back': Lawmakers slam L**T 'youth carnival' that bars parents
Responses 'universally negative'
By WND News Services
Published May 26, 2023 at 10:54am


[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

By Tony Kinnett
The Daily Signal

A wave of criticism is greeting an L***Q+ “Youth Carnival” set to take place in Indianapolis in early June, largely because the event will bar parents from attending.

The June 7 event organized by two L***Q+ organizations, Indiana Youth Group and Indy P***e, is advertised as providing food, fun, and unspecified entertainment for “youth,” although adults ages 18 through 20 also are invited.

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“It’s alarming how quickly the ‘P***e’ movement has gone from ‘just stay out of our bedroom’ to ‘give us your kids and stay out!’” U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said in a written statement provided to The Daily Signal.

“We must start pushing back on the public officials and corporations that are enabling the Left’s radical social agenda,” Banks added. “This is out of control.”

A poster for the Youth Carnival doesn’t indicate the nature of the entertainment, but the registration form for children describes “an opportunity to meet local Indy d**g royalty” and a “youth talent show” as among planned activities:

The registration form also asks children to identify their preferred personal pronouns, including the options “They/Them/Theirs,” “Ze/Zir/Zem/Zeir,” and “Xe/Xir/Xem/Xeir.”

Zoe O’Haillin-Berne, director of engagement for Indiana Youth Group, responded to my original questions after my first report on the Youth Carnival was published Wednesday by The Daily Signal.

Among those questions is why the group is excluding parents, and why adults 18 through 20 are invited to an event for minors.

Regarding the exclusion of parents, O’Haillin-Berne said that although parents “are invited to participate in alternative activities … , we do not allow parents on site for safety concerns.”

These safety concerns derived from a “general sociopolitical climate” that is “inhospitable and hostile to L***Q+ children,” she said, and could “cause psychological and physical harm to q***r youth.”

O’Haillin-Berne didn’t indicate which groups are considered “inhospitable and hostile” by Indiana Youth Group, nor whether parents are among them.

Indiana Youth Group CEO Chris Paulsen previously told The Indianapolis Star that parents thought to be unsupportive of L***Q+ ideology are inhospitable.

The Daily Signal reported Wednesday that Indiana Youth Group runs a program, Prism, which it describes as a “rapid rehousing project … focused specifically on serving L***Q+ young adults.” The group says that its program rehouses these L***Q+ young adults from “unsupportive” homes and parents.

At the June 7 event, Indiana Youth Group presumably would be able to advertise Prism without parents’ knowledge.

About the barring of parents, O’Haillin-Berne also said that “most youth don’t like their parents h*****g around while they’re trying to enjoy time with friends and peers.”

Notably, O’Haillin-Berne omitted “meeting d**g royalty” as one activity at the Youth Carnival. She mentioned “a DJ, youth talent show, and standard carnival activities like facepainting, games, and crafts,” but left d**g q***ns off the list although the registration form mentions them.

The event is scheduled from 1 to 6 p.m. June 7 at Indiana Youth Group’s activity center in Indianapolis, nicknamed “The Pit.”

The response so far from lawmakers, including Banks, has been universally negative.

Banks also criticized the advertised sponsor of the Youth Carnival in a tweet, writing: “What the hell is the [Indianapolis Airport Authority] thinking?”

State Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, tweeted a similar question: “Why in the hell is the [Indianapolis] Airport Authority involved in something that bars parents from seeing what their children are being exposed to?”

The Indianapolis Airport Authority, the only organization described by Indiana Youth Group on its poster as “presenting the event,” has balked at being singled out. Officials there told The Daily Signal that the airport authority is one of “many sponsors.”

State Rep. Jake Teshka, R-South Bend, said he believes the planned event should be grounds for removing Indiana Youth Group from the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ vanity license plate nonprofit program, which receives taxpayer funding:

In a written statement, Teshka told The Daily Signal:

The idea that there would be a festival based solely on sexual identity and replete with sexual themes aimed at youth is in and of itself very troubling. To think that organizers would explicitly forbid parental involvement is simply untenable.

In the legislature I have fought for the recognition of parents’ right to direct the upbringing of their children. It’s disheartening to know that an organization supported in part by the state would further try to separate parents from kids.

Others have begun to question the ethicality of holding P***e events that include children in any form.

Jay Richards, director of The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, provided this statement to The Daily Signal, which is the leading think tank’s multimedia news organization:

A campaign launched under the banner of ‘p***e’—one of the Seven Deadly Sins—was never a good idea. But with the infusion of g****r ideology into its ranks, ‘p***e’ now stands for sexualizing children. And to succeed, children must be alienated from their parents.

I doubt many who campaigned for same-sex marriage imagined that targeting kids, exposing them to porn, and teaching them they might be born in the wrong body would be next on the agenda. At some point in the future, I suspect the g****r activists will look back and identify this as the moment they went too far. They’ve turned not only their parents but even much of the coalition they claim to speak for against them.

I can think of lots of words to describe such a campaign. ‘P***e’ isn’t one of them.

My rounds at The Wall were over. I looked up the hill, and another group of Veterans was coming down to relieve me from my watch. I made my way up to the bus and passed Frederick Hart's sculpture of three American soldiers in Viet Nam. It had been 28 years since I left Viet Nam, but I noticed the machine-gunner is carrying ammo improperly and none of the three are wearing helmets. But, what the hell, they looked like dog faces...not Marines.

I boarded the bus in my sodden clothing and sat thinking about how it started raining on New Year's Day, 1967, and continued until February 26th. I remember the bone-wrenching fatigue as we desperately coped with nature and the North Vietnamese. To this day, it is an amazement to me that we could put men in space, but couldn't get A-rations to South Viet Nam's I Corps.

All of the troops on watch in the darkest hours struggled to stay awake. Some straightened safety pins and taped them to the muzzles of their rifles. They placed the muzzle under their chins, and when they nodded, the pin pricking their chin woke them. Others slapped their own faces viciously to keep themselves alert. Still others extended their arms skyward and left them there until the blood drained. When they lowered their arms, the pain from the recirculating blood entering their arms successfully drove off sleep. I chewed tobacco while on watch so the heartburn would keep me awake. We all feared death, but to be dead and missing or, worse yet, to be maimed for life and nonfunctional were the great horrors.

I wish all the armchair generals who have never heard a shot fired in anger could have seen the new guy who struggled for life and identity. The fight was over, and we were evacuating casualties. A Marine had suffered a head wound that had robbed him of the ability to speak. He didn't have his dog tags. The corpsman had put an evac tag on him and expressed concern because he didn't know the Marine's name. The wounded man rolled onto his side and wrote his name in the dirt with his finger, as we watched in stunned silence.

In 1965 the Marines, as always, came to fight. My tour in Viet Nam was near the beginning of America's involvement in the War. When I joined the battalion in 1966, I saw no drug problems, no racial strife and no support for the 'hippie dope fiend, c*******t perverts' protesting at home. The Marines I served with ate and drank together, chased women together, and fought and died together. The greatest feat of accomplishment in battle is to make fear work for you and not against you. Fear that overwhelms you might cause you to let your buddies down. You had to be confident that when the carnage began, your buddy was standing tall with you, and when it ended...he would still be there.

We lived, fought and died by a code that to my perceptions is seldom embraced in civilian climes. It is a given that the bonds forged in the crucible of combat are enduring and impervious to the erosion of time. Some say the reunions of Veterans are nothing more than attempts to regain their youth. I think all of us who served 3rd Btln. know we left our youth in Quang Tri Province, as did our fathers on the shores of Iwo Jima. I'll never regain my youth, but I can enjoy the ties that bind our hearts together by meeting and reminiscing and kindling anew the fond memories of our buddies who have crossed the river. We still listen with great respect to our colonels and stand in awe of our sergeants' major.

Finally, the bus was full. On the way back, we again shared our memories of who died where and how. As we reminisced, I recalled with great feeling the memorial service we had following our reunion in Florida.

The colonel stood at the podium after the prayers and began to speak as the last strains of 'Amazing Grace' faded from the bagpipes. His back was to the Atlantic Ocean as he spoke of our dead. He said, "They're behind me now, standing in three ranks at attention."

I saw them, still wearing the rags they'd died in. Their helmets were on and the chinstraps fastened. The rifle belts and suspender straps looked just right, and the rifles were at sling arms. I looked closer and saw the platoon corpsman beckon to me. He said, "Come on, Jarhead. Liberty goes most ricky-tick." The architect was standing by him and gave me a thumbs-ups. The insurance agent called to me, "Yeah, come one, Sarge...no room for stragglers in the Corps."

And I thought, "Hold what you got. Gimme some slack. I love y'all. I'm coming."

Postscript: Mr. Lowrie was a Texas peace officer. He wrote numerous short stories, a play, and a novel. He served in the Corps from 1962 to 1968, and won the Bronze Star Medal with combat 'V.' He passed away in 2013.

You seem to have some serious problems with reality.

I have never posted a picture or meme of a t*****e except caitlyn jenner, who is a conservative republican.

All other photos of levine and brinton are posted by various right wing posters numerous times.

And I mock and ridicule dull blade because of his/their incessant attacks on nearly anything I post.

I have called him out for posting suspicious photos of kilt wearers which have no relationship to anything I post.

And if the truly stupid prefer to avoid possible insults, then they should not be in attack mode of topics i start,

and they should start their own, which I hardly ever read, and rarely comment on.

Seems to be such a simple solution.