Since the start of "Pride Month," concerning videos have been shared on social media of parents bringing their young children to drag shows at gay bars. In some cases, the kids have actively participated, dancing along or giving them money. In response, some state lawmakers plan to draft legislation to protect kids from "inappropriate sexual content by adults."
"The events of this past weekend were horrifying and show a disturbing trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with sexualizing young children,” Texas State Rep. Brian Slaton wrote in a statement. “I promised my voters that I would stand up for their values and fight to protect Texas kids. I was re-elected on that promise and I intend to keep it by authoring legislation to defend kids from being subjected to drag shows and other inappropriate events."
While what happened in Texas is bad, it's perhaps more disturbing that taxpayer dollars were used by the Smithsonian American Art Museum to host a "Pride Family Day" that included an "age appropriate" drag show.
The event Saturday encouraged families with young children to march outside the art museum in Washington with D.C.’s Different Drummers, a band made up of LGBTQ musicians; to “enjoy a dance party” hosted by an LGBTQ+ advocate and DJ; and to observe a “lip-sync drag show” hosted by four drag queens labeled “some of D.C.’s best performers.”
The art museum also encouraged families with young children to remain active throughout June by using its “Family Pride Zone” website, which offers Pride-inspired crafts, coloring sheets, and videos featuring drag queens and LGBTQ DJs.
Jay Richards, director of The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, told The Daily Signal, “It is absurd to refer to a drag queen show as ‘age appropriate’ for 3- to 5-year-olds.”
"A drag queen, by definition, is a man dressed up in an extreme and hypersexualized stereotype of a woman. It’s hard to imagine what parents would want to expose their children to men painted in “woman-face.” And to add insult to injury, this is sponsored by a public institution supported with our tax dollars."
Added Jared Eckert, a research assistant with Heritage’s DeVos Center:
"The taxpayer-funded Smithsonian event is just the latest attempt to infect young minds with harmful gender ideology. Despite the event’s advertisement, there is no case in which adult performers are ‘age appropriate’ for kids. Now more than ever, we need … amendments to stop federal dollars from promoting harmful ideology in any of its forms." (The Daily Signal)
The first image shows an ad with the drag queens at the "family friendly" event.
Upcoming PRIDE shows!
— sprigatonito (@rigat0ni) May 30, 2022
SAT 6/4 - Smithsonian Drag Show (Family friendly!) @ F Street Plaza
SUN 6/5 - Uncut Gems @ @dc9club
FRI 6/10 - RPDR AS7 @ @tradebardc
SAT 6/11 - GAG! at @ Upper West Side Cafe
Great casts and variety! Come thru! Tickets linked below :) pic.twitter.com/oB4qehvYh4
This isn't the first time taxpayer funds have been used to bring drag queens around kids.
A middle school in NYC brought in drag queens to teach kids how to apply drag makeup. This program is also funded by taxpayer dollars. pic.twitter.com/BBoiiCQdDF
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 7, 2022
And some Democratic state lawmakers openly discuss the possibility of forcing "Drag Queen 101" on schoolchildren.