A radical religious cult has overtaken American schools with the stated purpose of upending normalcy and “queering” students of all ages, according to a new book.
In The Queering of the American Child: How a New School Religious Cult Poisons the Minds and Bodies of Normal Kids (New Discourses, $9.99, 224 pgs., Kindle), co-authors Logan Lancing and James Lindsay describe these cult members as classroom sorcerers who rely on signals, warnings, and rituals to brainwash children.
“You can think of the queer classroom as a magic circle, with the Queer Activist stepping inside and acting as a sorcerer, casting spells and incantations,” they write. “This magic is designed to capture and orient a child’s imagination for revolution.”
Lancing and Lindsay explain children are being exposed to a Queer Education, a worldview and practice informed by postmodern Neo-Marxism, to help them “construct a false reality where children lose their ability to perceive the real world.” Then, once the student is fully “destabilized,” the sorcerer “introduces a secret, divine knowledge … that introduces to the child the idea that they live in a prison that must be destroyed.”
“That prison,” they write, “is society; the prison is the child’s mind; the prison is the child’s body.”
For anyone ill- or misinformed about the ongoing culture wars unfolding in schools across the U.S., these claims may seem far-fetched or even deranged. But throughout the book, the authors don’t ask the reader to take their word for it. Rather, they often let the Queer Activists, who set and drive the agenda from grade school through higher education, speak for themselves.
“For all the criticism teachers receive for ‘indoctrinating’ students, turning them into liberal-minded cry-babies, not much has been said in defense,” two scholars wrote in a 2019 paper from the book Rethinking 21st Century Diversity in Teacher Preparation, K-12 Education, and School Policy. “At the very least a shy denial is made. It is time for educators to own this criticism and admit that is exactly what we do.”
Of the over 250 citations in the book, the majority are lifted from staunch proponents of Queer Theory and the applied practice, or praxis, of the worldview.
The Queering of the American Child provides an in-depth and readable exploration of how most educational institutions have become captivated by adherents to this radical ideology. The authors explain Queer Education, the latest development in a lineage of thought that includes Marxist theology, critical theory, and Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, is a worldview that necessitates activism. Practitioners see a world of cisheteronormativity, which causes oppression. If oppression is to ever come to an end, that which is “cis” or “hetero” or “normal” must be abolished by revolutionaries who embrace that which is queer, meaning anything that disrupts or dismantles the notion that something can or should be normal.
Purveyors of this ideology must “queer” the classroom because they “believe people are too stupid to realize that anything deemed ‘normal’ is categorized as such through a pure fabrication of unjust power,” Lancing and Lindsay write. Queer Activists “think they can force people to believe the ‘truth’ of Queer Marxism” and thereby “arrest the steering wheel of History and drive us all off the ledge.”
The authors admit this radical system of cult-like beliefs would be funny if the activists in education hadn’t “proved to be remarkably effective. Today, they already have one hand on the wheel, and our kids are in the car.”
When asked what motivated Lancing to embark on the research necessary to write the book, he replied, “The short answer? I had kids.”
“I take my responsibilities as a father seriously,” he told SCNR in an interview. “I knew the schools had changed radically in the last 20 years and wanted to get a better understanding of what’s going on.”
Lancing began by reading some of the most oft-cited academics in “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” educational literature – an experience that left him “shocked.”
“Specifically, I came across a paper that argued that ‘educators have a responsibility…to draw students into a possible crisis,’ one which ‘can lead students to feel paralyzed with anger, sadness, anxiety, and guilt,’” he said. “In that moment – as a father – I knew I had to dedicate a significant amount of time to figuring out what the hell is going on.”
Apart from his own research, Lancing credits education advocate Kelly Schenkoske, YouTube broadcaster Lisa Logan, and the “joyful warriors” at Moms for Liberty for “sounding the alarm and sharing crucial information.”
Lancing also followed Lindsay’s work through the New Discourses Podcast, which has dedicated many hours to analyzing and critiquing “Critical Social Justice.”
When Lancing finished his manuscript, he sent it to Lindsay for constructive criticism.
“Dr. Lindsay has been researching this stuff for a long time and understands it so well that he and two of his colleagues were able to pull off the now infamous Grievance Studies Affair,” he said.
Though Lindsay thought the manuscript was “excellent,” he had some ideas for improvement.
“His contributions were such that it made sense to publish under both of our names as co-authors,” Lancing said.
He continued: “I’m doing everything I can to understand what’s really going on in schools today. As parents, we must be prepared to inoculate our children from the wholly destructive cult religion much of society is attempting to initiate them into.”
Lancing added: “Queer Theory is an enormous child abuse scandal.”
Even though The Queering of the American Child offers a bleak overview of what’s transpiring in U.S. classrooms, the book also offers an antidote, which Lancing alluded to in his interview:Today, parents must take total ownership over their children’s education. For some people this could mean homeschooling. There are millions of homeschooling parents now, many of whom are more than generous and can help you understand what that might look like for your family. For those that don’t have that option on the table, for whatever reason – develop ironclad relationships with your kids. One must assume that, not only is there a good chance your children will not learn to read, write, or do math proficiently in their schools, but also that you will have to help them unlearn pernicious ideas and behaviors at home. Assume full responsibility for tracking and managing your child’s educational progress. Drop the phones and talk to your kids.
