Labour MP Rosie Duffield criticises image of school children holding Pride flags

Labour MP Rosie Duffield has criticised a primary school for posting photographs of their pupils posing with the Pride progress flag.

Rosie Duffield, who held her Canterbury seat with a substantially reduced majority in this month’s general election and is well-known for her contentious views on trans issues, re-shared the image from gender-critical pundit James Esses.

The picture was originally uploaded by a primary school in London – which PinkNews is not naming – and shows children holding rainbow flags as part of a Pride celebration day.

“These tiny children can have no real concept or meaningful understanding of sexuality/gender identity, theirs or anyone else’s,” Duffield wrote. “They should be left alone to discover these things for themselves as teenagers/young adults, not while still using dummies.”

In his original post, Esses said: “Pride month is over, yet here is a London primary school forcing ideology on young children. One of the children is even holding up a sign which reads: I can’t even think straight.”

He named the school in the post and urged staff to “stop sexualising and indoctrinating children”.

In response, the school’s other X/Twitter posts have been hit by a barrage of abuse from anti-LGBTQ+ bigots who accused staff of harming children and being “groomers”.

However, other social media users have condemned Duffield’s post and pointed out many people know they are queer from a young age but are unable to express it.

“I can assure everyone that LGBTQIA+ kids know they’re ‘different’ from so young… and actually giving them the words to articulate it rather than silencing them is the way to produce healthy, happy adults. Signed everyone who went to school under Section 28,” one person wrote.

Another told Duffield: “I knew I was different from a very young age, like lots of gay people do. I grew up in an atmosphere of official, legally enforced silence which taught us that difference was shameful. This is moral panic bulls*it, and your party should discipline you for encouraging it.”

And a third wrote: “I knew from very young that I was gay, but I grew up in the age of Section 28, and nobody talked about it and it did untold amounts of damage to me. It took until two years ago, and a whole lot of therapy, to actually come out. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”