That’s unfortunately just part of our existence… All this feels different and very real, and it feels a bit scarier.” As Drag Queen Story Hour director Jonathan Hamilt told ABC News, “Being a part of the LGBT community and a queer person in general, we’ve always experienced hate and slurs and homophobia and transphobia. Still, the current wave of anti-drag queen rhetoric and protests have forced drag queens themselves to worry for their safety. Conservatives made some nasty comments about Buttigieg after he took paternity leave, but the militant homophobia of Anita Bryant is thankfully waning. Just as Barack Obama felt the need to distance himself from the radical politics of his Black pastor, Pete Buttigieg succeeded as a gay candidate in part because he presented himself as committed to traditional American institutions (Harvard, McKinsey, the military). Partly, though, this has come about through gay men and women having to insist that they pose no threat to the established order. Great strides in the acceptance and visibility of LGBTQ people have been made over the last 30 years. Not all drag queens are gay men, but many are, and as Yasmin Nair notes, “the figure of the gay man in particular as a sexual predator still haunts culture and continues to re-emerge.” Nair quotes Anita Bryant, who waged an infamous campaign of homophobia in the ‘70s, saying “As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children therefore, they must recruit our children.” It is not surprising that as drag queens have put on events for children, conservatives have gotten angry and started accusing them of “ grooming” children for sexual activity. A protester at a family-friendly drag show in Texas, holding a sign that said “STOP GROOMING THE KIDS,” explained to a reporter: “I don’t believe that I should be seeing signs advertising for children to be dancing on stage with men in thongs and in inappropriate clothing and makeup.” A group of Proud Boys stormed a drag queen story hour in California, reportedly “screaming about pedophilia” and “terrifying the children” while shouting “we have to save the children.” Drag queen story hours made an appearance in Matt Walsh’s vicious transphobic Daily Wire documentary What Is A Woman? (which I recently reviewed) as further evidence of the threat LGBTQ people pose to the children of America. Cooke, National ReviewĪpparently some of this has spilled into the streets. How did drag queens get into schools in the first place? Why does anyone think it’s acceptable-let alone crucial-to keep them there?”- Charles C.W.
… Protecting our own children isn’t enough, and our responsibility as lawmakers extends to the sexualization that is happening across Texas.” - Texas State Representative Bryan Slaton, explaining why he is introducing a ban on minors watching drag shows … As a father of two young children, I would never take my children to a drag show and I know … the rest of my Republican colleagues wouldn’t either. “The events of this past weekend were horrifying and show a disturbing trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with sexualizing young children.“I’m introducing a bill to make it illegal for children to be exposed to Drag Queen performances.” - Marjorie Taylor Greene.It is child abuse to put a half-naked adult in the room with a small child and having them read a book. They should have their children taken away from them. “They are underqualified to have children.Period.” - Vickie Paladino, New York City Council Member Adult drag performers have NO BUSINESS in our schools, and they will not be in my district. “Any school in my district participating in ‘drag queen’ degeneracy risks losing their funding.A few recent extracts from the discourse: Within the broader backlash to LGBTQ people going on right now, there is a miniature right-wing moral panic about drag queens. Conservatives really don’t like drag queens.
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