Readers torch parents upset over ‘Pink Pony Club’ usage at Phoenix school

Few things ignite a culture war faster than a controversial pop song played in a public school, especially when it involves a pro-LGBTQ+ anthem. Case in point: Valley conservatives got their panties collectively wadded after Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” was briefly played during a music class at Phoenix’s Desert Trails Elementary.

Parents clutched pearls. Critics cranked up the outrage machine. Moral panic followed on schedule. Someone, somewhere, may have even declared, “Won’t somebody please think of the children?”

Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity, a right-leaning parents group, sparked off the hullabaloo by objecting to the song being used in grade-school curriculum.

Only students did not hear the hit version of “Pink Pony Club” that has racked up more than a billion Spotify streams since 2023. They heard a boomwhackers version, played on those color-coded plastic tubes kids use in elementary music class.

The group criticized both the song’s use at Desert Trails Elementary and the fact it was promoting “queer liberation & joy,” treating the situation like a five-alarm cultural emergency.

Their rancor was more than matched by Phoenix New Times readers. Not to pile on the song, but to absolutely torch the outrage itself.

When New Times reported on the matter, readers swarmed two Facebook posts promoting the story with hundreds of comments, roasting the right-wing panic over the song being played in the school.

Many readers shrugged off the panic by flashing back to the far raunchier soundtracks of their own school days, like Kelly:

“At my middle school dance they played ‘I Kissed a Girl’ no one gave a shit.”

Brian recalled an era when a certain hip-hop anthem blared from the windows to the wall at school-sponsored events:

“Same parents listened to lil jon at middle school dances talking about sweat dripping off balls. Lets chill out”

Marc chimed in with a memory of the kind of tunes kids heard at local roller rink way back when:

“They must not remember what we used to request at the skating rink.”

Meanwhile, Darlene zeroed in on the irony with a raised eyebrow and a well-aimed side-eye.

“Anger from the same crowd who tell the ‘snowflakes’ to not be so offended by everything? I can see that.”

Beaver took the hysteria to a possible, ’80s movie-villain endpoint.

“We are now entering our Footloose phase, there will be no dancing, and no Devils music for our youth.”

Kelly criticitzed her own kind in defense of “Pink Pony Club”

“I’m definitely a conservative parent, and I don’t think I would throw a fit like this. My son was just on a field trip to New York in October and a street performer was playing this song on an electric instrument. We sang along with it.”

Geoffrey mocked the panic by pushing its imaginary consequences to their most ridiculous extreme.

“Oh no! How many of the children moved to LA and started dancing at the Pink Pony?”

Chris boiled the whole episode down to a perfect punchline.

“And they got in a rage, got into their SUVs and played Prince on the way home…”

Katelyn added that all the sound and fury signified nothing.

“Plot twist: nobody actually cared”

Peggy dismissed the whole uproar with brevity, bop energy and a generational mic drop.

“Get over it. It’s a great catchy tune. BTW I’m 72 and I love it”