Businesses Bow to Outrage, Reverse Course on Drag Shows for Children

Children prepare to watch drag queens perform at the Chattanooga Pride parade in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Oct. 2, 2022. Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times

For unspecified reasons, Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Big Chill and Grill restaurant and bar has backed down. It will ban children from its Drag Queen Bingo nights.

It’s one of several businesses nationwide to scale back on offering what some argue is age-inappropriate content and services for children.

“We are now running DQB [Drag Queen Bingo] as an 18+ event,” The Big Chill and Grill announced on its Facebook page on Oct. 3. Only six days earlier, it had hosted an event aimed at children.

Businesses have often supported radical pro-LGBT events and practices that drew public ire, only to change course after the response attracted coverage by news organizations.

Although it’s not clear why the Big Chill and Grill changed course, recent events have suggested that public anger has had a strong influence over whether companies back radical content marketed to children.

The outside of the Big Chill and Grill, which hosted a "child friendly" Drag Queen Bingo night in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Sept. 26, 2022. Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times

It’s not just mom-and-pop outfits. Powerhouses like Disney and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have also backed down after a public outcry.

Drag Defeated

In Tennessee, drag events for children have rapidly retreated.

Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville canceled an all-ages drag event, and the Carl Perkins Civic Center in Jackson nixed plans for a drag show open to children.

More than 1,000 people signed a petition from a Chattanooga group, the Hamilton County Conservatives, demanding the end of drag shows for children.

“The best laws are those that are moral, constitutional, practical, serve the greater good, are supported by the majority of the citizenry and protect the most vulnerable among us,” the petition stated.

In Idaho, event organizers postponed a child-friendly drag show, citing “safety concerns.”  The organizers did not provide specifics.

The Epoch Times contacted the Big Chill and Grill, but the business declined to comment.

Several local businesses sponsored the Chattanooga Pride parade and held drag shows for children. Photo taken in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Oct. 2, 2022. Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times

Ijams Nature Center and the Carl Perkins Civic Center didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.

Secret, Then Stopped

On the national level, exposure also resulted in the temporary pausing of Vanderbilt University Medical Clinic’s [VUMC] gender-transition program, as reported by The Epoch Times.

Vanderbilt’s program included surgeries such as hysterectomies (to remove the womb), mastectomies, and chemical castration of children as young as 16.

All the patients were 16 or older, none received “genital procedures,” and parental consent was obtained for all patients, according to company deputy CEO, Dr. C. Wright Pinson, as previously reported by The Epoch Times.

The clinic faced outrage on Twitter after a video revealed a hospital representative discussing how gender transition surgeries “make a lot of money.”

Daily Wire podcast host and commentator Matt Walsh exposed VUMC’s gender transition surgery policies for children.

He reported finding that videos on the group’s website encouraged sex organ mutilation surgeries as a moneymaking tool for VUMC. Conscientious objectors to this practice were “problematic,” and those who expressed them would face “consequences,” a VUMC doctor said in a video.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., is pictured on July 16, 2013. Mark Humphrey/AP Photo

Furthermore, VUMC partnered with transgender activists who attended medical appointments with patients to encourage doctors not to “misgender” them, according to videos Walsh collected. VUMC’s videos also said that VUMC has given puberty blockers and opposite-gender hormones to children as young as 13.

Soon after, VUMC removed several videos detailing its practices from its website.

VUMC issued a formal letter to Tennessee state Rep. Jason Zachary (R) on Oct. 7.

“VUMC began its Transgender Health Clinic in 2018 because transgender individuals are at high risk for mental and physical health issues, and have been consistently underserved by our nation’s health care systems,” the letter reads.

It further states that VUMC has followed the current guidelines for transgender care by the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health.

VUMC also said it allows employees to conscientiously object to gender characteristic mutilation surgery.

Walsh said he plans a protest against child mutilation on Oct. 21 outside the Tennessee State Capitol, according to the Daily Wire’s website.

Government Against Gender Mutilation

In September, Tenn. State Rep. Jason Zachary, along with 61 other Tennessee House Republicans, sent a letter to VUMC asking that they pause “surgical mutilations of minor children,” as reported by The Epoch Times.

Lawmakers called on VUMC in a letter to halt the procedures with legislative action pending.

Disney has provided significant support for marketing LGBT ideology to children. Photo shows fireworks over The Sleeping Beauty Castle as part of the premiere of "Remember...Dreams Come True" the biggest fireworks display in Disneyland's history during the 50th Anniversary Celebration at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, Calif., on May 4, 2005. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

“We are winning,” Walsh announced triumphantly on Twitter on Oct. 9.

In another apparent example of companies responding to public pressure, Disney Plus removed the animated horror-comedy show "Little Demon” from its platform on Oct. 4, after its release about a month ago, according to Survive the News.

Nationwide parental rights group One Million Moms gathered over 52,000 signatures for a petition to cancel the show.

The show told the story of a woman who was impregnated by Satan and has an antichrist teen daughter. It includes graphic violence, nudity, and satanic rituals, according to an article by the Christian Post.

“Little Demon” was rated TV-MA for mature audiences, the television equivalent of an “R” rating.

In the past, Disney Plus has stated that it won’t put R-rated shows on its platform.

The Epoch Times asked Disney why it canceled the show but has yet to receive comment.