From Behind Enemy Lines – Prurient

JLR posted this:

Trans Democrat Congressman Says Pornography Is ‘Educational’ for Children
https://gellerreport.com/2026/02/trans-democrat-congressman-says-pornography-is-educational-for-children.html/
The Minnesota State Legislature is in session and is considering a bill to age-restrict access to pornography. State Rep. Leigh Finke, a transgender Democrat, argued in committee that restricting access to pornography would limit kids’ ability to get educated about gender issues…Finke introduced a bill that will remove the exclusion of pedophiles from the protected class of “sexual orientation”, making it illegal to discriminate against child rapists.
video – 00:00:42 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2024698759184081347

The Dem says, and I quote: “Prurient interest could be, for many people, the very existence of transgender kids.”

So leaving aside the idiocy of the entire statement in that video, I want to focus for a moment on a single word: prurient. It’s important. Words are important. This one is more important than most, BECAUSE it came out of THIS Dem’s mouth.

Prurient: having or encouraging an excessive or inappropriate interest in sexual matters, especially the sexual activities and intimate affairs of others. (via Google and Oxford Language Dictionary)

I have listened to the video many times now. It’s been on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter (where, I believe, it originated), and other social media. The word “prurient” caught my attention, because of its meaning. It has a very specific meaning, as you can see from the definition above. There is no usage of this word where prurient doesn’t mean something excessive or inappropriate.

There are two ways to take the above congress critter’s statement. First, and the one that knee jerked in my brain, is that trans (and queer, but that’s for later) kids should be allowed to show excessive or inappropriate sexual interest, because it’s important to their person. You can imagine I was a bit upset with that. It’s a terrible thought, that any child should be allowed to and be encouraged to show excessive and/or inappropriate sexual interests. The second way, which later occurred to me, is that it is the adults who have the prurient interest, simply because trans kids exist. This is just about as bad, and my head immediately went to the kind of perverts who groom little girls (or in this case perhaps, little boys forced or coerced or brainwashed into dressing like girls) to “enjoy” sexual attentions.

There is no way I can read or hear the congress critter’s statements (in or out of context, I might add) where these two scenarios don’t come to the front. The congress critter is literally saying one or possibly both of the above things. In public. Demanding it be allowed.

Then the kicker is thrown in. Queer kids (and at least for me, orientation – gay, straight, bi, pan – is different from how one feels in the body one is born in) aren’t getting sexual education in schools that is dedicated to them. There’s no sex ed for queer kids. Oh no!

As a person who is, in today’s parlance, considered queer (I use the term pansexual myself, and as a young adult, I used bisexual)… I can tell you that I did just fine without “queer faced” sex education.

I had this discussion in a conservative group on Facebook the other day. Sex education is not there to teach you how to have fun. Kids are going to do that all on their own, and other than raising them with good morals, there’s not much we can do to stop it. We can only teach them to respect their bodies and the bodies of others, and explain that intercourse can lead to STDs (including babies, which linger for a minimum of 20 to 25 years, no matter what medication you take). THAT is what sex ed should be covering in school. If you put a penis into a vagina, here’s what could happen, and here’s what is likely to happen. If you put either of those things in other places, your mileage may vary, but you’re not likely to get pregnant, and most of the diseases that can be passed along are a lot more minor and relatively treatable. Please don’t have sex, but if you’re going to, please use barriers and whatever meds you have legal and moral access to.

I don’t object to teaching kids about birth control. I’ve seen no studies that indicate it leads to more sex among teens, and a LOT of studies that indicate it stops teen pregnancy or at least slows it down a lot. I believe it should be fully taught, however, and should include such things as the gory details of giving birth. I’ve found, in my wealth of personal experience, that seeing someone give birth pretty much kills prurient interest of teens wanting to have unprotected sex. But that’s my opinion, and it’s probably best kept in the home. But yes, I think schools can and should be permitted to explain what happens to bodies as children mature from elementary to middle to high school students. It can be frightening, and not every parent is aware enough or chill enough to teach their kids. Allow an opt out for parents who either already teach that stuff and don’t feel their kids need another class in it, or who object on religious grounds (I can think it’s stupid and still support their right to do so).

In any case, what I was trying to get to was that when I was in school I had sex ed. We had girls and boys separate, which was supposed to make us more comfortable talking. It didn’t, but they tried. It really requires a special kind of teacher. Sex ed shouldn’t be taught by anyone who uses sarcasm as their main form of communication, or who will shut doors that kids open. If a kid asks a question, they deserve an answer… because if they don’t get it from a trained instructor, they’ll either go try it on their own (almost always a bad idea) or they’ll turn to friends (usually a bad idea) or the internet (NEVER a good idea). I asked questions that were important to me, and I got shot down. It left me traumatized, and yes, I went out and learned things on my own.

Just as an explainer, I was asking in a very couched way about what happens when a boy ejaculates on/over your privates, instead of in them. That was what my rapist did to me, and I was absolutely stark terrified I would get pregnant. The teacher snorted, and said you could only get pregnant if he came inside… which I later found out was not true. His merely being inside me could have released enough sperm to get me pregnant. Had I received that knowledge at the time, I might have sought out help from a hospital or the police, and my life might have been very different. Instead, I went home and took the 20th hot shower, scoured myself until I bled, and cried in my bedroom.

Regardless of all that, I knew I was “different” from the other kids. For a long time I thought I was gay. I liked to look at girls. Not “peeping in the locker room” style, because that would have been inappropriate and gross, but I did find my dad’s dirty magazines and spent countless hours looking through them. And reading (there really are a surprising number of decent articles in those early Playboy magazines). But here’s the thing… I liked boys, too. A lot. And liking boys was a lot easier. For a long time, I had very prurient relationships with first boys my age, and then with older men (who had no idea of my age, btw). But I always liked girls… and eventually had a few experiences, and that opened a number of doors.

Why am I talking about this? Because no matter what they taught or didn’t teach in sex ed, I figured out my orientation all on my own. Sex ed should fit everyone, and include the important things (how not to get pregnant, what happens to bodies as they mature, etc etc), which have nothing to do with who you might be interested in. My interest in girls and boys alike didn’t change the fact that a penis in a vagina could equal an infant. And it’s those basic facts that should be covered in sex ed. And that’s all that should be covered in sex ed.

Older teens and young adults are going to fall in love with who they fall in love with, and there’s no force in nature that can stop it. It’s not a lesson that a teacher or a classroom can convey, nor should we even try. Who you fall in love with and decide to have a relationship with is up to you. The only thing you need to know, going into it, is to be certain everyone is consenting, that ages are similar enough (at least until adulthood), and to be safe in your explorations. None of that is just for straight kids or just for gay kids or whatever. Doesn’t matter if you’re queer, trans, straight as a board.

What I told my kids, as they went out to college and to interact with the world:

Don’t add to the population. Don’t subtract from the population. Don’t do illegal stuff, and if you do, don’t get caught. If you do end up in jail, establish dominance quickly and you’ll do fine.