LGBT advocacy is a critical part of Maria Walsh’s agenda. Since 2015, marriage has been ‘redefined’ in Ireland, after a campaign marred by aggression and intimidation. In addition, campaigners whose religious beliefs influenced their position were widely barred from national media. Notwithstanding, Maria believes that there is still ‘work to do.’ For example, when asked in April 2018 by Erica Bracken: ‘Do you think there is still a long way to go to achieve equality in LGBT rights in Ireland?’ Maria replied: ‘I believe we as a community have immense work to do.’
Promoting LGBT Issues to Young People
In a 2015 interview with VIP Magazine, summarising her year as the Rose of Tralee, Maria emphasised the prime place which ‘LGBT issues’ had taken in her tour of the country. Central to this had been Maria’s participation in “question-and-answer sessions in schools and universities around the country” which she has found to be a “specific highlight of her year.” The topic of the sessions? LGBT issues.
Maria’s promotion of LGBT was mainly to young teenagers: “A lot of people I talked to were 16 or 17 and going through that pressure stage, and you’d hope that maybe some people would come away thinking that if she can do it, I can too,” Maria said. According to VIP Magazine, the young people present could “ask questions about LGBT and Maria hopes that these discussions will have helped in the understanding of LGBT issues more.”
Values not Morals
Maria’s use of “question and answer” sessions to change Irish youth is not a surprise. Such sessions provide an ideal opportunity for what is known as “value construction.” For LGBT activists, “values” are personally constructed and not inherited from parents, school or church. Hence, activists tend to employ the word “values” in their work, and not “morals” or “beliefs,” words which are more absolute in nature.
“Question and answer sessions” provide an ideal environment in which to change the beliefs of young people. The first step in reconstructing the “values” of young people is to make them ask and answer questions about their own beliefs. This technique, widely practised in many schools now, is conducted under the assumption that there are no absolutes – no right or wrong. The new Wellbeing initiative in schools is especially conducive to such techniques.
When Maria discusses with young people her “own personal experiences of growing up and coming out as gay” all moral value decisions become relative, personal, and situational. Rather than embrace absolute morals, young people are encouraged to “decide what’s right for them.” Reaching such decisions is done without recourse to any objective standard of right and wrong.
Rather than embrace absolute morals, young people are encouraged to “decide what’s right for them”…without recourse to any objective standard of right and wrong.
Voiding Parental Influence
Young people, once stripped of the morals which they have received from their parents, are prime material for reconditioning. Hence, it is no surprise that Maria portrays herself as a huge fan of young people. For example, she tweeted on 24 February 2019 that “the most important part of future change is speaking to and learning from our youth.” To some, this might seem a glib overstatement; rather, changing the beliefs of young people is key to Maria’s agenda.
Having lost their confidence in absolutes, children at the mercy of activists can be brainwashed to believe almost anything. The advantage of visiting schools, from the LGBT activist’s perspective, is that young people can be influenced in an environment void of parental influence. In such an environment, children are psychologically manipulated into simply replacing the beliefs their parents instilled in them with the beliefs and morals of the activist. Worst of all, however, children will emerge believing that no-one, whether parents, school, or church, has any right to challenge their “new” beliefs. The “question-and-answer” format of the exercise will have duped them into believing that they have come up with these new “values” by themselves.
Having lost their confidence in absolutes, children at the mercy of activists can be brainwashed to believe almost anything.
Maria’s multiple visits to schools have adopted this strategy, encouraging youth to question their beliefs and adopt new “values.” In one school she visited earlier this year, Maria even raised the LGBT flag outside the school on the day of the visit. Understandably, such blatant activism caused a backlash on social media, with objections that it was “not part of the curriculum”, “brainwashing kids,” and an attack on “traditions and culture.” Notwithstanding, Maria has continued speaking to schoolchildren all across Ireland, from Mayo to Dublin, discussing such topics.
Using Public Office for Social Change
Maria admires others who have already used public office to advocate for a social change agenda. For instance, Maria has singled out American homosexual Katherine Zappone, the current Minster for Children and Youth Affairs (who, ironically, has never had children of her own). Like Maria, Zappone is well-known for her focus on young people. She recently launched the world’s first LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy and committed hundreds of thousands of euros of taxpayers money annually to make youth services “more LGBTI+ aware.” This came around the same time that figures showed a record number of children in emergency accommodation.
The LGBTI+ Strategy implements a radical transformation of the educational system in pursuit of a private agenda. In short, its aim is to scrub our schools clean of any vestige of Christian belief.
Admiration of Katherine Zappone
Maria is a keen supporter of Minister Zappone and regularly retweets her on Twitter. It can only be assumed that she is also a supporter of the LGBTI+ Strategy. This unprecedented strategy implements a radical transformation of the educational system in pursuit of a private agenda. In short, the aim of the Strategy is to scrub our schools clean of any vestige of Christian belief.
The LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy mandates training for all school principals, teachers and educational staff on how to instruct children from a young age on sexual matters. Furthermore, the Strategy is conducted in an amoral, permissive framework. In summary, Zappone’s Strategy serves to stigmatise modesty and inhibitions and instructs children to question parents’ values and instead look with open minds at dangerous alternatives. Absolute moral standards are traded for ‘self-made choices.’ The amoral ethic of the strategy is unsurprising: Zappone is a fan of witchcraft and commended it in her book The Hope of Wholeness, where she speaks of witchcraft as affecting her ‘in a way Christianity, i.e. “the Jesus Story”, never could.’
Maria’s admiration of Minister Zappone is only another indication of her commitment to the LGBT agenda. Readers must decide whether the elements of that agenda outlined on this page and this website make her a suitable candidate for MEP.
Maria admires the American-born homosexual Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, who has committed €100,000s to LGBTI+ issues even as figures show a record number of children in emergency accomodation.