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Some Republicans try to foment an ethical panic about LGBTQ folks supposedly “grooming” youngsters for sexual exploitation, and so they have made drag exhibits a centerpiece of their arguments.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has been notably outspoken — he threatened to have baby protecting companies examine dad and mom who take their youngsters to tug exhibits, and he’s attempting to yank the alcohol license of a Miami restaurant that hosts drag exhibits with youngsters in attendance. Republican legislators in states together with Florida, Texas and Arizona try to ban minors from attending drag exhibits — as if that have been the most important risk going through America’s youngsters. Some drag occasions have been interrupted by protesters and others have been canceled due to threats of violence.
So it was in all probability not stunning that my stepfather, Washington Publish columnist Max Boot, struck a nerve with an article final week by which he celebrated the American values exemplified by such liberal havens as Provincetown, Mass., the place our household spent a few weeks in August driving bikes, kayaking and going to the seashore. “I even took my step-kids to a drag present,” he wrote.
This prompted an incredulous and acerbic monologue on Thursday evening from Tucker Carlson on his top-rated Fox Information Channel present, punctuated by his trademark sarcastic snicker.
“So,” Carlson mentioned, “if there’s one sentence that form of sums up the NPR revolution we’re residing by means of and we’re going to say it once more, ‘I took my stepkids to a drag present.’ Sadly, the stepkids weren’t interviewed about their perceptions of the drag present, however ‘I took my stepkids to a drag present’ has acquired to be the best boast of all time. Are you able to say that? Have you ever taken your stepkids to a drag present? Most likely not. … They’re not taking their stepkids to tug exhibits on the Rust Belt diners, I’ll inform you that, however they are going to once we’re completed with them.”
Carlson’s viewers echoed his outrage on-line. “Your youngsters are going to speak about you bringing them to a drag present to their therapist 15 years from now,” one particular person tweeted. One other wrote to my stepfather, “You dragged your youngsters to a drag present? Hilarious and creepy.” Different emails have been filled with abuse and even threats.
This outrage appears to be premised on the fallacious assumption that drag exhibits are strip exhibits or intercourse exhibits. I can’t communicate for all drag exhibits — I’ve solely seen one — however the one we went to just lately was clear, healthful, innocuous enjoyable.
The star of the present was Kevin Levesque, a Canadian performer whose stage persona is Miss Conception. The present consisted of Miss Conception quickly altering wigs and outfits to play villains from well-liked motion pictures — the Depraved Witch of the West from “The Wizard of Oz,” Cruella de Vil from “101 Dalmatians,” Annie Wilkes from “Distress” and the Keep Puft-Marshmallow Man from “Ghostbusters,” amongst others — whereas singing parody songs and telling jokes.
The viewers was full of individuals of all ages, together with many youngsters youthful than me (I’m 16 years outdated). Miss Conception had nice dramatic power and aptitude. At one level she led a gaggle of women and men, girls and boys from the viewers in a conga line across the theater. There have been a couple of mildly risqué double entendres, however there was nothing sexually suggestive or obscene in the entire act. It was billed as household leisure — and it was. Any child can discover much more salacious and offensive materials in 15 seconds on-line. (Belief me.)
I’m a debater, and I’m used to taking a look at either side of an argument. I’m keen to concede that maybe there are extra sexually suggestive drag exhibits on the market that might be inappropriate for younger youngsters. However, as I’ve discovered, drag exhibits even have an extended, storied pedigree.
Males have been performing in ladies’s clothes in historical Greece and Elizabethan England. Historians level to pioneering drag queens resembling William Dorsey Swann, a Black, overtly homosexual man who carried out round Washington within the late nineteenth century, and Julian Eltinge, a vaudeville performer of the early Twentieth century who sang as a feminine impersonator. Within the mid-Twentieth century, mainstream tv comedians like Milton Berle and Flip Wilson placed on clothes for laughs.
Drag exhibits have change into extra well-liked and extra widespread in recent times as LGBTQ rights have change into extra overtly accepted. This has led to irresponsible accusations, with no factual foundation, that drag queens “groom” youngsters, getting ready them to be victims of pedophiles. The idea of many appears to be that taking minors to a drag present constitutes baby abuse. However I wasn’t abused or traumatized on the drag present in Provincetown. I used to be entertained.
Those that criticize drag exhibits ought to go to 1 — and take their youngsters. They’ll in all probability be pleasantly shocked by what they discover.
Alexander Vidra is a highschool junior in New York Metropolis.
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