TV review | Calling LGBTI a derailed ideology has become a political instrument, this program shows

“I have noticed for myself what a lack of representation does to you.” With a concentrated look in the mirror and a rich assortment of sponges and brushes, Vincent Bijleveld worked on a glamorous transformation. The contours of his exuberant drag persona appeared unmistakably on Bijleveld’s face: Ma’Ma Queen. “That really gives you a distorted self-image,” continued the drag artist. “As if you are worth less.” That is why Bijleveld was so keen to participate in reading hours in which drag queens read inclusive books to children, to convey the message: even if you deviate from the status quo, you are allowed to be there.

Van Bijleveld, who told his story in Media logic (Human/VPRO), was not very threatening. Let’s just say: nothing threatening. Not his calm words, soft tone, pink Barbie shirt. This important episode of Media logicwhich actually deserved to be broadcast at a better time than 10:00 PM on a Sunday evening, focused on the question of how it was possible that a reading hour with Ma’Ma Queen, among others, caused so much fuss in April 2023. (including angry demonstrators agitating against gender terror, grooming and pedophilia) that it became national news.

The connection between drag queens and pedophilia is not based on facts, several researchers emphasized. However, it is part of a broader discourse in which LGBTI emancipation is presented as a derailed, dangerous ideology (just look at how often Wilders mentions the term “LGBTI” in one sentence with words such as “madness”, “madness”, “terror” and “propaganda”). David Paternotte, sociologist at the Brussels Université Libre, traced the origins of that rhetoric to the Vatican – according to him, the originator of the story surrounding dangerous gender ideology.

Deploying anti-LGBTI rhetoric

This rhetoric is now also used in the (extreme) right-wing corner. “You increasingly see right-wing leaders supporting the conservative agenda against gender and sexuality,” Paternotte said. For populists, a term such as gender ideology fits exactly within the picture of a system that imposes everything on citizens. They cleverly use anti-LGBTI rhetoric to mobilize the population in a broader struggle against the government, “the elite” and “woke,” explained professor of sociology at Radboud University Niels Spierings.

Ultimately, it is not only drag queens and LGBTI people who suffer from this. For example, the local faction of Forum for Democation (FvD) in Westland managed to prevent the arrival of Sense consultation hours: consultation hours of the GGD where young people can ask free questions about sexuality, contraception, inappropriate behavior and other important matters. In the (adopted) motion to block the consultation hours, the local FvD stated that Sense is full of “woke and LGBTI ideas, including talking about transsexuals and intersex people.”

But national figures showed that less than one percent of the questions at Sense consultation hours are about gender identity. Medialogica contacted FvD Westland and was told by faction leader Jasper van der Voort “that this figure is correct, but Forum continues to support the motion.” He also thought the broadcast was one-sided in advance.

This is how Van der Voort managed to make me curse the system on a quiet Sunday evening. Because why was I never told that you can judge a program in advance? How long have I been watching everything like a lame lamb before passing judgment? Madness! Terror! I rigorously turned off the TV: from now on I will write based on intuition. And anyone who tells me: “It is not true at all what you wrote about GTST; Ludo didn’t jonson anyone from a helicopter on Tuesday,” I replied: “That’s right. But I still stand by the review.”

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