Okay, so no one will answer me. Look. As such, I’m not against drag shows as adult entertainment. Way, way back in the day, I went to Finocchio’s in San Francisco and had a great time (admittedly, that was long before I became a Christian).

However it was deffo adult entertainment and there wasn’t a child in sight.

I’ve been trying to find out why modern progressives are pushing so hard for children to HAVE to attend drag shows or drag reading hour at public libraries. Even if the content is totally child appropriate, why is it absolutely necessary for young children to be in the presence of men dressed up as women (and some of the “dressing up” is pretty bizarre)?

So on social media, whenever I find a pro-children at drag show post or tweet, I ask that question. So far, crickets.

So I made the mistake of Googling the question knowing that Google’s algorithms are written to give me just one answer: drag shows are great for kids.

Even Libertarian Reason said the issue was way overblown by the Right. CBC.ca said pretty much the same thing, but it took salon to say the quiet part out loud.

Two things.

The first is that, for some reason, drag is becoming more mainstreamed in entertainment:

Drag has become a part of mainstream pop culture and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has elevated the art form.

As the saying goes, I may not know art but I know what I like. Okay, to be fair, a lot of entertainment, whether I enjoy it or not, can be considered an “art form,” so I’ll let that one be.

Now here’s the other related reason:

The show has been instrumental in bringing the art of drag to the mainstream. Through the commercialization of drag and the success of the show, RuPaul Charles has made the LGBTQ2+ community more visible and acceptable in mainstream popular culture.

Mainstreaming drag into non-LGBTQ spaces is, in effect, “normalizing” LGBTQ expression in the wider world. The idea of taking kids to drag shows is to normalize the community.

This was the point of the “Let Them Play” episode of the TV show “Quantum Leap” which I reviewed not long ago. The normalization of an aspect of the LBGTQ culture that wants to move into the mainstream and be considered as normal rather than odd or strange as many people see it now.

More from the salon article:

The idea that drag toys with gender roles and notions of appropriation makes it inherently universal. The acceptance of “Drag Race” by the mainstream is progress, appreciation for queer history and art that was, until relatively recently, associated with deviance and shame.

The article, written by a Mom whose middle son came out as gay at age 9 and who is now age 12, says:

In parts of the United States, Republicans are trying to pass a bill to ban kids from drag shows and call social services on parents like me. In a society bursting with images of women and girls as sex objects, rampant gun violence, and hate driven by ignorance, I’m glad my kids can enjoy an art form that starts the conversation about queer history, oppression, and activism. My son sees himself reflected in these artists, and his brothers are growing up with exposure to a culture that normalizes this diversity. It’s part of educating all of us about our evolving societal landscape.

So let’s see (yeah, the image just below doesn’t seem particularly “family friendly” to me).

Are drag shows inherently dangerous to children? If my grandkids saw one drag show once (as far as I know, they never have and certainly nothing as inappropriate as the image just above) and accepted it as, let’s say, the way circus clowns dress up in outrageous costumes and perform, it might be fun. Of course, the goal of these drag shows, as I’ve already demonstrated, isn’t just entertainment or having fun. It’s about forming perceptions and opinions in very young minds as to what is normal in their environment and what is not (but more what is).

But there’s more to it, a lot more.

I’ve previously written about Noella McMaher who, at age 10, is the youngest professional trans model. That’s right. Noella was born male and supposedly came out as trans at 2 1/2 approaching 3.

That’s bizarre and unrealistic in my opinion, so I believe other adult influences were at work on Noella rather than simply a natural, biological “reality.”

Also consider Desmond Napoles born in 2007 as a boy and who, at age 8, was dancing in full drag regalia in the New York City Pride March.

At age 10 (YouTube video) and 11, he performed in front of adult audiences at gay clubs (YouTube video). An 11-year-old boy performing at a gay club where adult males are waving dollar bills at him as if he were a stripper.

Here’s Desmond today.

NOTE: I can’t get the link to https://www.desmondisamazing.com/ to work for some reason so you’ll have to copy and paste it into your web browser in a separate tab.

The salon article makes all this sound…um, “normal.”

Desmond Is Amazing is a child who began his art of drag early, learning from RuPaul and the other queens on the show. He has performed in the New York Pride Parade, walked in New York Fashion Week runways, and appeared in Vogue.

And…

CBC Gem is streaming “Drag Kids,” a documentary profiling four children as they prepare for a performance in an all-ages drag ball at Montreal Pride. Drag Syndrome is a group of London performers with Down Syndrome who have embraced the art of drag. The winner of the first season of “Canada’s Drag Race,” Priyanka, is former YTV (children’s network) host Suki. Another famous Canadian queen, Kendall Gender, calls herself a “sober queen” and makes a point of doing all-ages shows, something she feels makes a difference for kids looking for their own identities and communities. These initiatives speak volumes about the cultural shift that has taken place through mainstream acceptance. Drag is no longer tucked (so to speak) away in the underground. The art of drag has changed, and the audience is growing to include new generations of fans with enlightened expectations.

“Enlightened.”

That’s what this is supposed to be.

Little boys don’t come out as trans as toddlers and 8-year-olds or younger don’t just suddenly decide to be drag/trans.

As I’ve said in other articles, adults are manipulating children in order to achieve adult goals. Some of them are understandable on the surface. Gay men and women, for the most part, don’t have an agenda beyond just getting along in life. They want to be accepted for who they are, go to work, shop, pay their bills, love who they love, and just go along day by day. Children attending drag shows probably doesn’t come on their radar much.

But that’s not true for everyone and it’s not true for various advocacy groups who are manipulating both the “on the ground” LGBTQ population and (as they desire) the rest of us, especially kids.

When Christians, Jews, and Muslims disagree or express our opinion, there are three responses. One is that gun violence is a lot more dangerous to children than drag shows. Two is that churches are more likely to have dangerous pedophiles preying on children than drag shows. Three is that Christians are bigots who are trying to force our beliefs on others and to cancel the LGBTQ community.

But we see a growing problem here.

There is the drive to popularize and normalize trans kids using the entertainment industry and to also use children’s books as a mechanism for sexualizing children.

Granted, a drag show or a book isn’t the same as being shot, so there is a point about gun violence being far more dangerous to life and limb. But beyond that, what is all this doing to our children, especially in how they imagine themselves?

A month or two ago, my son (uncle to my grandchildren) was talking with me and my seven-year-old granddaughter. We were talking about relationships and men and women marrying when my son brought up how he had male gay friends who were also married. My granddaughter looked at him like he’d grown a third eye in his forehead.

I asked her if anyone at school had talked about men marrying men and she said no. It just wasn’t part of her lived experience at age seven and she was okay with that. I’m okay with that, too. Sure, if one of her parents came out, or her teenage brother came out, or she had friends at school who came out, then we’d have a conversation, but apparently none of that has happened in her life.

So going to a drag show or reading a graphic novel illustrating sexual acts with same sex children is not only not necessary, but probably harmful for her at her age, especially that last part. Also, scroll up to that image of a little girl stuffing cash in a man’s see-through panties and tell me that isn’t potentially harmful.

What would it take for anyone to believe that a toddler (I have a 2 1/2 year old granddaughter and I don’t think gender is even a concept for her yet) to “come out” as trans? Why would an eight-year-old boy start dressing in drag, marching in pride parades (some adult had to get him in the parade), and especially perform in front of a full, male, gay audience in a gay club?

No, I’m not accepting this as “normal.” I don’t think kids have to go to drag shows. When my wife takes our granddaughters to the public library, a typical librarian reads to them and that’s totally fine.

If parents choose to take kids to drag shows, for whatever reason, I hope they at least vet the show to make sure it’s appropriate for their child. Unfortunately, this has become a cause where some parents gain “social justice” points by saying “Hey, look at me. I’m exposing my kid to a drag show. Aren’t I progressive?”

The flip side is that it’s okay to NOT take your kid to a drag show. It’s okay to let your kid be a kid for a little while longer. Saying they could see the same content on TV or the internet is no excuse. Start paying attention to what your kids consume. As parents and grandparents, you have the right to monitor and restrict what your children see and hear (in spite of all the rhetoric that children MUST be exposed to 100% of all information in the world, even if it is age inappropriate).

Here are the tweets that inspired this missive today. None of them answered my question. So I found the answer for myself. Now I know why they never responded.

This isn’t hate, it’s protection.