Primary school children might soon be asked whether they're "gay" or "trisexual" - Why would a healthy society want to sexualise children?

Various news agencies, including the Daily Mail and the Times of India, have recently reported that British children as young as eleven could soon be asked about their sexual proclivities without their parents’ consent. It seems that the Equality and Human Rights Commission has commissioned a report which recommends that teachers, nurses and youth workers should monitor the sexuality of pre-pubescents, even keeping records of those children "unsure about their sexuality". This report also suggests that parental consent might be "good practice", but would not be a legal necessity!

The report's aims might seem laudable, in that its authors want to help prevent young people from being discriminated against or from falling victim to bullies. It worryingly claims, though, that "some young people begin to question their sexual orientation as early as age eight and may begin to identify as LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual) from early adolescence". I remember speaking with a child psychologist some years ago, who told me that eroticisation or sexual identification amongst young children was nearly always a sign of sexual abuse. Shouldn't, therefore, 8-year-olds who think they're homosexual be offered therapy, as opposed to encouragement that facilitates a holding onto fantasies that might be the result of early trauma? Aren't they far too young to know anything about sexuality?

Even more worrying still, according to the Daily Mail, the EHRC commissioned report "tells researchers not to dismiss gay feelings of interviewees as ‘a passing phase’." It also goes on to say that some youngsters "may use categories such as ‘questioning’, ‘queer’, ‘pansexual’, ‘genderqueer’, ‘asexual’, ‘pan-romantic’ and even ‘trisexual’". I have no idea what on earth some of these categories are! Are the authors of this report seriously suggesting that little children might class themselves as, "trisexual"? What is a trisexual, anyway? I thought we only had two genders in the human race!

In his 2010 Christmas Greeting to the Roman Curia, Pope Benedict XVI warned of the grave risks that come from introducing children to adult sexuality at too early an age. After this speech was made public, many of those opposed to the Church's moral teachings accused the Pope of hypocrisy, especially now that the enormous scandal of clerical child abuse has been highlighted in the media. Of course, the crimes committed against children are so serious that it is only just that the Church should face sanction for not protecting them from her perverted priests (the Pope mentioned this in his address). But, direct sexual abuse of children tends to be the work of individuals, who are rightly punished by society when their crimes come to light. No one denies this, and Pope Benedict XVI has himself spoken of the need for both Church and State to severely punish clergymen who have been found guilty of molestation.

Actions such as those proposed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, though, can be far more damaging in the long run. State-sponsored sexualisation of children, encouraged by the seemingly well-meaning, might eventually lead to a dangerous perverting of social morality. Young children could soon end up being viewed as sexual beings by the caring professions as well as society at large. Because those who are still at primary school will be asked sexual questions that most adults would find uncomfortable, society might begin to think that little children are actually "adult", or "sexual". Needless to say, the risk is that sexual abuse of children might end up being seen as something normal - for, if the EHRC claims that these youngsters are "gay" or "transgendered" then why not lower the age of consent, let's say to 11 or 12? If that happens, will society - as happened with homosexuality - eventually be forced into accepting the "rights" of paedophiles who wish to engage in sex with their confused victims?

The truth of the matter is that asking children whether or not they are "homosexual" or "trisexual" (whatever that is!) is warped. It is bordering on child abuse - and could very easily be exploited by those paedophiles who seek to lower the age of consent even further. Already, since the age of consent for homosexual sex was lowered to 16, it could be argued that many young boys have now been legally abused by much older men. Many of those teenagers were probably going through the strange and confusing phases that adolescence brings, and weren't destined for a "gay lifestyle". But. once a young person has been corrupted, it can damage an otherwise healthy sexuality for life. The last thing we should be encouraging as a society, is the sexualisation of pre-pubescents - which will lead to young children being forced into sexual experimentation or identities at far too early an age!

The report commissioned by the EHRC seems, at best, to be a very worrying incitement on the way British society is going, and a paedophile's charter, at worst. This is an example of the disturbing fact that once human societies begin to accommodate and promote disordered adult sexualities and paraphilias it is only a matter of time before people embrace the totally perverse - and extreme abnormality becomes an accepted norm.