Your parents will read this: Reading (as) parents in journalistic coverage of the Safe Schools Coalition Australia controversy

Abstract

This article focuses on the journalistic rhetoric surrounding the Safe Schools Coalition Australia. This rhetoric is significant for two reasons. First, readers have been interpellated as parents by both pro- and anti-Safe Schools commentators. The reader/parent is either persuaded to feel indignation and horror at that program’s attempts to sexualize innocent children (and thus want to oppose Safe Schools), or gratitude that the program is actually benefiting children (and thus want to protect Safe Schools). Second, journalistic rhetoric about Safe Schools is significant because of what it suggests about how gender and sexual diversity in schools have been reported on by journalists.