Should we really care about that? Yes, because the summer holidays are just beginning and such situations may happen in thousands of summer camps. And then what? Who will support the educator who refuses to call some Kasia or Paulina as Kacper or Paweł? And vice versa; who will support the children if the teacher joins the teenagers’ activities who play out their - real or manipulated - action of "gender change", checking the environment’s reactions? Who will guarantee parents today that such "makeovers" are not promoted at a camp or colony, and if that appeared, educators could take action to prevent it?

I write about “makeovers” because - as I commented recently - many of those described couples and groups at their emotional highs, as well as the youth generation - promoting their specific style around the streets of many big cities - make such an impression: they adhere to fashion, even if they do not fully understand, what it is all about.

This British maths teacher acted out of years of experience and intuition. The Catholic Herald quoted him: “I believe affirming children who are in gender distress in the classroom is psychologically damaging for them. I refuse to go against my conscience and cause a child harm and cannot apologise for that.”

One can easily imagine such a situation. The moment when the teacher decides: I will not enter the made-up situation, especially since I do not know what it is about. Affirming children who experience gender difficulties is psychologically damaging to them. This is not the time to expose problems, to show feelings, especially since teenagers have enough problems with it anyway - emotions spill out, and everything is in “statu nascendi”/ in the state of birth, you can say.

Are the summer camp tutors prepared for such situations? Most often, they are very young people like students, who have always been happy to earn some money this way. The case of a trivial sports competition at a summer camp already makes you think: what will the tutors do when a boy suddenly says that he feels like a girl and wants to compete with girls? There are enough examples of this issue in the public space; teenagers' smartphones work non-stop, and it doesn't take long for someone to get inspired. Who will say to them: "Dear children, you are having a bad-game time" when they - older children and deeply immature younger teenagers - are exposed to vulgar street situations, which they accept and “nolens volens”/ mindlessly draw examples from?

And the media, especially social media, heat up the subject. Some parents simply switch off, but some adults choose the opposite; they take part in the show, probably with mindless pleasure, buying appropriate clothes and gadgets for their children and - for themselves! Because trade immediately seizes opportunities and takes part in this dangerous game, not just for the short-term profit but in a long-term benefit strategy resulting from a complete shift of priorities.

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  When my colleague from the editorial office heard that I wanted to write about holidays under the rainbow sky, he laughed at first that the organisers of the ‘pride parade’ appropriated the rainbow arch, which once decorated the famous logo of Polish “Społem” Grocery Corporation. But immediately afterwards and quite seriously, he added that I should mention the massive commercial action - the ‘Big Sale’ campaign of a global dimension - prepared for June, the month of these ‘pride parades’. He said that all the major chain stores prepared millions of T-shirts, blouses, dresses, trousers, cloth bags and plastic bags, scarves, hats, shoes, belts, blankets and shawls, plush dogs and other gadgets at favourable prices. - Such good prices - he pointed out - that it's a pity not to buy them because summer is coming and such flowing colourful clothes will be nice to wear in the greatest heat.

Just look around and see to what extent we are flooded with rainbow fashion. But the subject is more complex.

"Are you sure you're not exaggerating these fears?" - a lecturer friend asks me.
– Well, what would you do if a student suddenly told you in a classroom that he didn't accept the “Mr” formula but wants to be addressed as "Mrs" - I ask in response.
- We don't have such problems here - laughs the lecturer, but immediately his laughter fades away because we both know that is not true. At his university, for several years, attention has been drawn by a serious professor who dresses up in women's suits - no one pointed this out to him, but also no one knows what to do about it. This man does not preach gender slogans, has not applied to change his name into a female’s name, and does not declare a female identity. There were even rumours in the lobby that the authorities planned to announce a ‘dress code’ for this university. Still, the idea has quickly fallen down, and not because of gender ideology.

After all, everyone has the right to dress up like a freak, and - at this particular university - there has been a popular model of a slightly scruffy-bearded man in a sweater, preferably hand-made, which dates back to the 1980s. And what do you do about that?

The lecturer I know poses a fundamental question: what about my rights to express my views, beliefs and identity? Should the respect for someone’s sensitivity be the sole criterion? If Kasia wants to be Kacper and expects me to respect her sensitivity, why does she not respect mine, which does not allow me to welcome that sort of rape on reality?

The UK Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) professional conduct panel called the teacher's intransigence as intolerant and “bringing the profession into disrepute”, and his license to practice was revoked. Officials said “that a prohibition order is proportionate and in the public interest” in order to maintain "confidence in the profession." This is the British answer to the question of whose sensibilities are to be respected.

I will emphasise that parents and students stood up for that great maths teacher who was dismissed and “prohibited from teaching indefinitely”. The Christian Legal Centre intervened, and the expert opinion of Maya Forstater from the renowned organisation Sex Matters was rejected. The hero of this story says: “Indoctrinating children across the country to celebrate and promote Pride, to fly the Pride flag is celebrated, but if Christian beliefs are raised or expressed in the classroom, you face having your career and life torn apart.”

As I write this column, on June 21, the United Nations Human Rights Council is meeting in Geneva to hear a report stating that Christian beliefs violate the rights of LGBT people. Only Christian? And could the report be followed by UN recommendations on sexual orientation, gender identity and suggestions of government interference in religious matters?

The Christian Legal Centre (CLC) in the UK believes that the case of the maths teacher is a turning point and that common sense needs to be restored. It seems that common sense is missing not only there but also in the entire frenzy-rainbow-ridden world. Rainbow - although perhaps we should put it more broadly, a transgender world - although these issues are said to be in conflict with each other, as the columnist Jan Maciejewski so consciously and reasonably observed.

The question is whether this common sense is enough for us - to make some more effort not to get carried away by the next wave of collective madness or – to take action and even oppose it. The holidays are ahead of us, so the stakes are high: for some time, even for many weeks, we lose children out of sight. Are we sure we managed to equip them well with adequate means of defence?

– Barbara Sułek-Kowalska

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

– translated by Katarzyna Chocian