Scalene Onixxx reads during Drag Queen Storytime at the Cellar Book Store in Riverside, California, in 2019
Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images
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Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images
Scalene Onixxx reads during Drag Queen Storytime at the Cellar Book Store in Riverside, California, in 2019
Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images
The LGBTQ+ community has long celebrated self-expression with drag shows featuring performers in costume and makeup, posing as either male or female. Witness the popularity of the Emmy Awards RuPaul’s Drag Race. But Republican lawmakers in Florida, Arizona, Texas and other states are trying to crack down, with a proposal to ban minors from participating in drag shows.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has suggested he could order his state’s child protective services department to investigate parents who bring their children to such performances.
“We have laws against danger to children” DeSantis said in a press conference at Fort Meyers Beach last week, after a video of children participating in a drag bar in Dallas surfaced. “They’ve put money into underwear, and that’s completely inappropriate,” he said. “It’s not something children should be exposed to.”
Florida Representative Anthony Sabatini took it even further, Proposal to end adult parental rightsand consider it a felony if they bring their children to a tug-of-war show.
Bryan Slaton, a Republican representative in Texas, said he would also propose a bill to ban pulling programs in which minors are present. “Perverted adults are obsessed with the sexualization of children,” he complained in a statement.
In Arizona, Republicans say they are alarmed, too. “If men want to dress like women and if adults want to participate in these super erotic performances, they have the freedom to do so. It crosses the line when children are subjected to acts of sexual abuse. this tug”. they wrote in a joint statementadded that they send a message of “complete and complete perversion” to children.
Arizona Senator Vince Leach told NPR he is hearing more and more parents complain about drag shows in the presence of children, and he is now drafting legislation to address the issue. this.
“It’s a drag on society,” Leach said in a phone call this week. “These performers are, in my opinion, disgusting.” He said he was bothered by newspaper pictures of preschoolers “stuffing bills in their panties” at drag shows. “These are kids looking at something they’ll never be able to get out of their minds. We don’t let kids into the joints, we don’t let them in the movies. rating X…so that’s why we’re allowing this to continue.”
Across the country, the heat is on for drag performers, especially during Pride Month.
Last weekend, West Palm Beach “Pride on the Block” Event canceled his planned drag show after Canadian police reported a 17-year-old man had made anti-LGBTQ comments online and threatened to shoot those present at the event.
In California last weekend, a group of men believed to be part of the far-right Pride Boys broke a story time events at the San Lorenzo library. Kyle Chu, whose last name is Panda Dulce, prepares to read to preschool and kindergarten children. Wearing AK-47-equipped shirts, the men shouted homophobic and homophobic threats.
“The Proud Boys shouted ‘who brought the tranny?” and started insulting me, calling me a pedophile and a groomer,” Chu told Teen Vogue. “Confronting bigots who deeply misunderstand who you are and what you stand for, it’s terrifying.”
A security guard quickly escorted the group out of the house, and Zhou continued reading to the children. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has opened a hate crime investigation.
In response to comments made by DeSantis, his powerful rival, Democrat Nikki Fried notice she supports drag programs. She told the website Florida Politics“If parents want to take their kids to a drag show, it’s up to the parents. And it’s entertainment. The kids don’t turn out gay because they went to a drag show.”
During a civil rights conference, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel described complaints about children’s exposure to drag queens as a “fake issue” that is dividing people. Detroit News quotes her like saying that drag queens lift children up when they have emotional problems. Nessel, the state’s first openly gay person elected to statewide office jokingly called a drag queen for every school. “The drag queens make things better,” she said. “The drag queens are fun.”
TV talk show host Andy Cohen tweeted, “I’ll take my kids to a drag show before taking them to a gun show.” And comedian, actor, singer and author Randy Rainbow posted this tweet: “I’m introducing a bill to protect drag queens from children.”
