A new survey suggests that a strong majority of American adults, including most parents of school-aged children, don’t believe ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ events featuring men dressed as women are appropriate. for a young audience.
About 60% of American adults consider events such as Drag Queen Story Hour to be inappropriate for children, according to a nationwide telephone and online report by Rasmussen Reports. investigation.
The survey of 1,000 US American adults was conducted October 26-27 with a sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points.
The survey asked respondents “how appropriate are Drag Queen Story Hour events for children” held at many libraries across the United States, in which “men dressed as women perform for young children”.
About half (51%) of parents of school-aged children said they thought Drag Queen Story Hour was “not at all” appropriate for children, compared to 44% of all US adult respondents who said the same thing.
Only 29% of all respondents said it was appropriate, with 11% saying they considered the events “very appropriate”.
One in 10 respondents (10%) said they weren’t sure Drag Queen Story Hour was appropriate for children.
According to the official to place for the now-renamed Drag Story Hour, the chapter network seeks to use “the art of drag to read books to children in libraries, schools and bookstores” and help them “see people who defy rigid restrictions of gender and imagine a world where everyone can be authentic.”
The survey also found that 71% of respondents believe Drag Queen Story Hour should receive no taxpayer funding, compared to 14% of adults who support such funding. About 15% of respondents were unsure.
In New York alone, since 2018 taxpayers have paid more than $200,000 to fund the program, where drag queens interact with school kids as young as 3, according to the New York Post. reported in June, citing city records.
Jonathan Hamilt, executive director of Drag Story Hour, declined a request for comment from the Christian Post, calling the investigation “grossly biased.”
Founded in 2015 by authors Michelle Tea and Juli Delgado Lopera in San Francisco, Drag Story Hour is a nonprofit organization made up of several local chapters across the United States, each independently run and funded, according to its site. website.
The new survey finds Democrats (47%) are much more likely than Republicans (17%) to say Drag Queen Story Hour events are “at least somewhat appropriate for kids.” Twenty-two percent of respondents not affiliated with either political party said the same.
Majorities in both major political parties — 89% of Republicans and 56% of Democrats — oppose taxpayer funding for Drag Queen Story Hour.
Young adults under 40 (47%) are more likely than adults ages 40-64 (20%) and adults 65+ (17%) to say Drag Queen Story Hour is at least somewhat appropriate.
Married respondents are more likely than unmarried respondents to think Drag Queen Story Hour is inappropriate for children.
Despite opposition from parents and Christian organizations, Drag Story Hour insists on a statement that any suggestion that the movement has “an agenda to indoctrinate children misunderstands [LGBT] experiences and is rooted in homophobia and transphobia.”
“It’s really beautiful to have drag queens painting children’s faces and telling stories,” Lopera said in a testimonial. “It’s a kid’s world to be very imaginative. If kids were allowed, they’d dress up every day. I don’t think they think about gender assumptions. They just see drag queens as other people who show imagination.”
That’s not how Rich Penkoski sees it.
Penkoski is a street preacher and pastor in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where he is part of an effort to get the city to limit drag shows in public spaces after one took place in September in a public place.
To date, Penkoski said more than 2,000 people have signed a petition calling for a ban on drag shows in public places in Bartlesville.
According to Penkoski, the city hosted a “family-friendly” drag show sponsored by Oklahomans For Equality. This group says it “seeks equal rights for LGBTQ+ individuals and families,” according to its mission statement.
Penkoski said the performers for this event were not Oklahomans but were brought in from Texas and Arkansas. He argues that these events are not family friendly but “graphic and sexually suggestive”.
“From undressing to grabbing their genitals and men in women’s lingerie shaking their half-naked buttocks in children’s faces while children hand them dollar bills is akin to a striptease,” said he declared.
Penkoski shared images and video footage with the city council and lobbied state officials.
Penkoski quoted a video of what he says is an 11-year-old girl at a local pride event shouting the phrase “little d—energy” as Penkoski and others arrived to protest the event.
“You don’t see kids behaving or talking like that except at Pride events because Pride is about sex and promoting sex to kids,” he said.
For him, fighting drag shows and other similar events requires understanding what he says is a kind of “code” language.
“[Drag Story Hour] is ‘family’ in the sense of ‘family’ as an old-school queer code for identifying and connecting with other queers on the street,” Penkoski said. “The goal is not to strengthen family biological but to facilitate the child’s transition into the ideological family.”
As drag shows remain a national trend, a Texas state legislator is calling for a state ban on drag shows and other sexually inappropriate displays for children following reports of minors attending an event featuring drag queens at a Dallas gay bar.
Invoice as a “family pride experience”, Mr. Mister Bar hosted a “Drag The Kids To Pride” show on June 4 as a “spin-off” of the bar’s Champagne Drag Brunch.
The event – which offered “limited seating for young performers to take the stage solo or with a queen of their choice” – offered mimosas for adults and special “mocktails” for guests under 21, according to the description on Eventbrite.
A bill introduced in the Louisiana legislature would criminalize drag shows in the presence of children. If passed, the bill would require any establishment that hosts an adult cabaret show to require patrons to show identification proving they are 18 years old.
In 2020, a bill was introduced in Missouri aimed at preventing drag performers from reading to young children in public libraries.
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be contacted at: [email protected]
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