Texas drag shows become a right-wing target amid rising extremism

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One drag queen who spoke to The Texas Tribune said drag appearances and kid-friendly drag shows are often about exploring the fluidity of gender expression.

“I like performing to give them that,” she said. “I like to bring joy to other people.”

Drag performers and LGBTQ advocates say the groups targeting shows are misrepresenting what happens at them. They say demonstrators are using children as an excuse to propagate hate and violence against queer people — something people calling for protests and claiming that drag shows are never appropriate for children deny.

Far-right extremist groups and white nationalist hate organizations like the Proud Boys and Patriot Front have become more engaged in anti-LGBTQ demonstrations, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, which tracks political violence and protests. In the 1980s, as the AIDS epidemic wreaked havoc on a generation of LGBTQ Americans and federal officials bungled the public health response to what they deemed a “gay disease,” drag shows became an integral part of the LGBTQ community.

Drag queens who spoke with the Tribune acknowledged that there are plenty of drag performances that are not appropriate for children. Particular performers and regular late-night shows at venues across Texas are known for raunchy banter and references to sex, which is the allure for adults who attend these drag shows at nightclubs and bars that already don’t allow children inside. But performers say that’s not what happens at daytime, kid-friendly shows.

“This idea that it’s indoctrination is just hate. It’s just mindless,” Bandit said. “I think it’s kind of stupid. I think ultimately it’s sad because [they] are ignoring the real issues and the real problems that actually do hurt kids, you know?” “What we’re seeing is a full-scale rise in discriminatory rhetoric online and harassment online,” Bibi said. “It’s targeting the LGBTQ+ community. It’s targeting the Jewish community. It’s targeting migrants. It’s targeting anybody who may be a little bit different than the people that are perpetrating this misinformation and disinformation.

 

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Statistically speaking kids are safer with drag queens than with Republican Matt Gaetz. Number of mass shootings stopped by Trans/drag queens = ONE Number of drag queens prosecuted for abusing kids in US = ZERO

'It's not going to lick itself.'

CPS should be present at these shows

Isn’t that special.

Let the shows happen, then alert CPS on the parents that are showing up with their kids.

that’s the problem.

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