The ACLU is using the controversy over exposing children to sexualized performances to raise money for their organization. Lumping trans identifying people with gay and lesbian, the ACLU defends sexualized drag shows for children. The ACLU is determined to continually remind me why I resigned from that organizations after more than a decade of service as a board member. It’s not the same organization it used to be. It’s become a woke joke. (See Luring Children to the Edge: The Panic Over Lost Opportunities.)
This once venerable institution can’t be counted on to shoot straight anymore. What anti-drag legislation? I didn’t know that the free expression of drag queens was under assault—and I have been following this story closely. I didn’t know this because it isn’t. The ACLU is lying to ramp up fear and drive donations to their organization. The controversy has never been over drag queens per se. When drag comes on TV, if folks don’t like it, they change the channel. But clearly a lot of folks stick around and watch it because it’s on TV a lot. If drag was under assault we’d know about it. It is the opposite of suppressed—it’s promoted by the culture industry and in public instruction.
Parents are not objecting to drag but to sexual displays in front of children and the sexualization of youth. That would be not only most parents but most adults. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 60 percent of American adults consider “Drag Queen Story Hour” inappropriate for children. Less than 30 percent think such programming is appropriate for children, with only 11 percent expressing enthusiasm for the practice. I don’t need to look at the age cohort cross tabs on that survey.
If adults feel that way about Drag Queen Story Hour, imagine how they feel about the practice of taking children to strip clubs and pushing them to stuff dollar bills in the g-strings of the entertainer there. Have you seen the faces of these children? They look terrified. Even some of the parents who show up to virtue signal are taken aback. (See Drag Queen Lap Dance at Forsyth Tech: Humiliating the Gullible; If All This Strikes You as Perverse, You’re Right. It is; )
There is no movement against exotic dancing in America today, either. But if exotic dancers were performing in front of children, I think a lot of Americans would object. I know they would. Wouldn’t the woke progressives complain about exposing children to the objectification of girls and women? But isn’t that what’s happening with drag performances?
Whatever you want to do as an adult, that’s fine. Sexual displays are fine. I like them, personally. And not a little. I’m a sex-positive feminist. But free expression like any expression is subject to time and place constraints and age appropriateness. The protection of minors is an important part of maintaining a safe and healthy environment for child development. The sexualization of children is neither safe nor healthy. You’d think after everything that we’ve learned about the life-course impact of trauma early in children’s lives that this would not be an issue. (See What is Grooming? Seeing and Admitting Grooming.)
freedom and reason 