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Men Who Dress Like Women and the People Who Hate Them [1]
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Date: 2023-03-05
I’ve never been to a drag show. I don’t want to ever go to a drag show. If you want to go to a drag show I’m fine with that as long as I don’t have to go, too.
So, you could probably figure out that the latest conservative production of “Drag Show Madness” doesn’t do much for me, other than to serve as a reminder that the real extremism in this country continues to come from the Right.
The Washington Post reports that so far this year at least 26 bills aimed at drag events have been introduced in 14 states by Republican lawmakers in what the newspaper characterizes as “an abrupt movement that has emerged this year amid a wider conservative backlash to expand LGBTQ rights.”
The sad part is that a legitimate concern about what types of entertainment that children are exposed to is lost in the rhetoric and the Republican Party’s ongoing culture wars instigated with the goal of dividing us to enhance their political chances rather than actually address a real issue.
Sarah Warbelow is legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group. She acknowledged that “Drag performances, like all sorts of other performances, run the gamut in terms of who they’re designed for.
“There are certainly some drag performances that are intended for adult audiences, just like there are R-rated movies. And then there are other performances that are for all ages, like G-rated movies.”
That makes sense. Many Republican lawmakers pushing the new bills say their efforts are aimed at limiting the exposure of children to drag shows -- not at the events themselves, the Post reported.
If that’s the case, why the hysterics?
“I am not trying to ban drag shows, and I’m not trying to take away anyone’s First Amendment rights,” Republican Tennessee state Sen. Jack Johnson said. “But you should be able to take your kids to a public park or library and not be surprised by seeing sexually explicit entertainment taking place.”
Sexually explicit entertianment right out there in public parks? In libraries? How often does that actually happen?
“Just like we wouldn’t want strippers on poles in schools - even if their body parts are not exposed -- we don’t want drag performers to be present in front of children,” said Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti.
Strippers on poles? Is that really an accurate comparison? We never had strippers at our school. I’d had been okay with that.
Not surprisingly, the movement against drag shows has sparked some violent protests, the Post reported. Even the Proud Boys have gotten involved in the action. You know the Proud Boys, that upstanding Christian group that’s just hanging out until our next insurrection.
Some conservatives claim drag performances are trying to “recruit” or “groom” children. It seems “grooming” has become the default accusation for many on the Right. Drag show performers are grooming. Teachers are grooming. Liberals are grooming. Really?
What some Republicans want to do is label all drag shows as the sinful events their voters from the Christian Right think they are. That’s why some of the options being considered by lawmakers include banning all children from such performances, blocking shows from pubic venues, and forcing locales that host drag events to register as “adult-oriented businesses.”
That’s just overkill looking for a soundbite.
What about shows that are just good clean fun? What about things like Drag Queen Story Hour held in schools with the aim of teaching children general diversity and acceptance through readings and shows?
Once again, that’s not grooming. A man in a dress reading a story to your son isn’t going to inspire him change his sexual orientation and/or preference. Those things are set by God as he makes each of us individuals and not robots.
The common-sense answer is to rate these shows like we do movies and then restrict children from going where it’s appropriate. I understand these are live events, unlike a film. Someone in a drag show could go off script. There could be penalties for that kind of stupidity.
But anyone in a live production can do that. What’s to stop somebody playing Willie Loman in “Death of a Salesman” on Broadway from pulling down his pants while lamenting about his life on the road.
You can read the Post’s story here.
LGBTQ activists and drag performers say this legislative movement is the latest GOP effort to spread anti-gay and anti-trans sentiments. We’ve seen Republicans get pretty crazy about things like that. They see it as a winning talking pointing in their ongoing effort to convince people who don’t benefit from their policies to vote for them.
It’s hard to not agree that the GOP has it out for the LGBTQ community. Last year 315 proposals to restrict that group’s rights were introduced in state legislatures across the country – triple the number of similar bills introduced in 2019, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
This is a First Amendment issue. The party of “freedom” and “liberty” is showing that it doesn’t see those words as all-encompassing terms. Rather they’re code for “We want America to be like we’d like it to be, back in the good old days.”
For the true believers, this hate is very real. For the political opportunists, it’s a message they see as a winner. In both cases, it’s a very dangerous way to look at things.
Whether these bills stand up to court challenges remains to be seen. Jerry Cox, president of the Arkansas-based Family Council, admits that “A bunch of these bills will fail in court. But then we will learn which ones will stand, and future bills will be modeled after them.”
There’s something ominous about that. Will Republicans use the same approach they did with women’s reproductive rights: tailoring laws so they’d be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority of that corrupt body will give their approval, just like they did when they overturned Roe v. Wade?
This is still another move by an extremist party that has no plans, no policies, and no interest in real governing. So, they just run around with their pants on fire, hoping you will, too.
Of course, there’s a way we can put a stop to that.
Just wear a dress.
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Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody.
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