As drag shows for children appear to become increasingly widespread, one child advocate warns of the consequences of the dangerous push to normalize inappropriate behavior for youngsters.
There was once a time when parents warned children about accepting candy from strangers. But as Child Protection League (CPL) Board Chair Julie Quist told The Epoch Times, “now parents encourage their children to give drag queens money and to sit on their laps to be fondled by them.”
Child Protection League Board Chair Julie Quist. Courtesy of Julie Quist
While some advocates say “drag is not dangerous,” and “exposing your kids to a drag performance can be a good thing,” others insist that “introducing sexually exaggerated female characters played by men isn’t at all appropriate for children” and what adults should be doing is “standing between children and mature, violent, and/or sexually explicit things.”
“It is unthinkable, and it’s frightening how quickly society got swept up into this to where suddenly it’s normal,” Quist expounded. “It’s a social darkness. Parents used to protect their children from strangers. Now they hand their children to strangers.”
Drag Queen Story Hour
Despite the risks of known inappropriate activities at these events, an increasing number of taxpayer-funded public libraries are still offering Drag Queen Story Hour for children.In September 2019, photos surfaced on social media of a drag queen named Carla Rossi as he “frolicked on the floor with young children crawling over him at a Drag Queen Story Hour” at Portland, Oregon’s St. John’s Library. After being exposed for having inappropriate contact with the children, he blamed them “for the backlash he experienced.” The photos, which were posted on the Multnomah County Library’s own Flickr account, were quickly deleted. But not before LifeSiteNews preserved the images (pdf).
In October 2019, a report by Anne Taylor exposed how a drag queen named “Sasha Sota“ put on a ”real show stopper” at Ridgedale Library in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Sota—dressed in “a sleeveless, midriff T-shirt and a little pink mini-skirt”—sat in a chair “with his legs spread wide, exposing his nylon covered crotch in front of children sitting at eye level.” Taylor was there, and according to her report, “he did this often.” The librarian—wearing a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt while “shadowing the Drag Queen” during the event—admonished those who might be offended, saying “if anyone gets upset—even grownups—you can leave.”
Anne Taylor, writer, mother, and volunteer child advocate. Courtesy of Anne Taylor
In June, a report surfaced saying Taylor’s story was false, claiming “unedited versions of the image show that the performer was wearing opaque nude tights that covered their genitals.” The “unedited versions of the image” were not provided. However, Hennepin County Library Communications Manager Joshua Yetman “confirmed in a phone interview” that it was a “fact.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Taylor asked The Epoch Times rhetorically, reiterating how the performer knowingly and repeatedly exposed his crotch to the children. If anyone in the room was wondering, “the veil was lifted—literally and figuratively.”
According to Taylor, a mother and occasional CPL volunteer, the objective of the transgender push “has always been an attempt to destroy the children.”
“They want to go after the whole family,” Taylor asserted. “That’s what this is about.”
“And what is the easiest target? The children. How you do that is through the evil we’re seeing. The purpose of drag queen story time is to groom the children. That is how you go after the innocent. That’s how you go after their minds. That’s how you go after the family,” she said.
As Taylor noted, some of the drag queens at these “family friendly” events are now being exposed as pedophiles and male prostitutes.
Sex Offenders and Male Prostitutes
In March 2019, a group called Mass Resistance exposed that Alberto Garza—a 32-year-old drag queen who had been reading to children at Houston Public Library’s Drag Queen Storytime under the name of Tatiana Mala Nina—is a child sex offender who was convicted of assaulting an 8-year-old boy in 2008.In April 2019, Mass Resistance exposed William Travis Dees—a member of the “Space City Sisters” drag queen group who used the name Liza Lott for his transgender alter ego—had served as a greeter for children at the Drag Queen Story Hour at the Houston Public Library in Texas. In 2004, at the age of 16, Dees was convicted of having “indecent sexual contact” with four children, ages 4, 5, 6, and 8. He is listed as a “high risk sex offender.”
In August 2019, Mass Resistance exposed the criminal background of a third man, David Lee Richardson, who went by the drag name of “Miss Kitty Litter.” Richardson—who read to children at the Texas Library System in Austin—was arrested and convicted of male prostitution in 1996.
In June, Brice Patric Ryschon Williams—a drag queen who danced explicitly for children—was charged with 25 counts of child pornography in Pennsylvania.
Despite being shown video evidence by a group of men who crashed their “Drag Queen Story Hour” that the drag queen hired to read to children at California’s San Lorenzo Library on June 11 had recorded a video rapping about children performing oral sex on him, the library staff and news media defended the drag queen and called the men who exposed him “extremists.”
Some drag story hour advocates insist these events are not attempted grooming and that “drag queens are not the ones sexualizing drag story hour.”
However, on Sept, 17, 2018, Dylan Pontiff, a drag queen who goes by the name Santana Pilar Andrews—who helped organize a story event for kids at the Lafayette Public Library in Louisiana—stood before the Lafayette City-Parish Council and admitted he was trying to groom children through the program.
Screenshot of Criminal History for Drag Queen David L. Richardson, who reads to children during Drag Queen Story Hour under the name of "Miss Kitty Litter," showing his arrest on Oct. 11, 1996, for male prostitution. Texas Department of Public Safety/Mass Resistance
Drag in Church
On April 27, Grace Church High School—a progressive, private Episcopal school in Manhattan’s East Village that charges over $59,000 for yearly tuition—sponsored it’s sixth annual “Pride Chapel” event, where a New York City drag queen named Brita Filter gave a live performance. A video, posted on social media, shows Filter dancing up the aisle from the back of the chapel in go-go boots and an orange-and-blue dress cut so short it exposed Filter’s thong-clad bottom.A May 15 report revealed that the Collier County chapter of GLSEN—which stands for gay, lesbian, and straight education network—planned to host its inaugural Youth Pride Conference at Naples United Church of Christ in Naples, Florida, on May 21. Children, aged 12 to 18, were encouraged to attend the event, which offered free breakfast and lunch, a drag show, and breakout sessions headed by speakers who would discuss topics such as “forbidden queer literature,” “inclusive sex education,” and “intersectionality and prejudices within the community.”
As reported by Florida’s Voice on May 15, the “progressive pastor” of the church Rev. Dawson B. Taylor resigned due to the backlash over the event and after it was learned that he was organizing a secret “gay prom” without the knowledge of public school administrators.
Yet, despite the backlash and the need for police to monitor the area to keep protesters off the property, the show still went on.
On Feb. 26, Community of Christ Church in Lapeer, Michigan, hosted Drag Queen Storytime for children, featuring drag queen Jon Benet.
On April 29, CBN News reported that Trinity Lutheran Church of Greenville, South Carolina, was hosting a “Drag Me to Church” event featuring “Lady Douche” on May 12.
Screenshot from video recorded on Sept. 24, 2022, by undercover, independent journalist Tayler Hansen, capturing a shot of himself disguised in drag as he was taken on a private tour of the Transparent Closet at the First Christian Church of Katy, Texas, where minor children are encouraged to take home transgender clothing, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of their parents. With permission from Tayler Hansen
The Epoch Times reported on Sept. 21 that the First Christian Church (FCC) in Katy, Texas, “quietly removed a self-described ‘Goth’ drag performer with a criminal conviction from what has been advertised as a family drag bingo event,” scheduled for Sept. 24. Jaysen Kettl, a drag queen who went by the name of Tisha Flowers was to be “one of two performers at the sold-out event.” But he was removed after parents discovered Kettl “was convicted of being involved in a school shooting plot in 2004.”
As reported by The Epoch Times on Sept. 30, FCC was using the event to quietly promote its new Transparent Closet to unattended children, without the knowledge of their parents. The Transparent Closet “is a FREE clothing boutique designed for trans and exploring teens, youth, and young adults to have a safe place for clothing needs and beyond.” One of the church workers admitted they provided the children with bags from Home Goods to take home their new trans clothing to deceive parents who were not supportive.
The Other ‘Family Friendly’ Drag Shows
As The Epoch Times reported June 20, gay bar in Texas called Mr. Misster hosted a “Drag the Kids to Pride” event. At the performance—billed as “a family-friendly drag show”—drag queens danced and slithered on the floor as children were encouraged by their parents to give them money.While the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation targeted the liquor license of a Miami restaurant called the R House for exposing children to “sexually explicit” drag queen shows, a local Florida report said experts argued that obscenity charges would be a tough sell in that case because obscene acts in the adult entertainment industry generally include specifics such as touching, sexual manipulation, or exposing an erection—which they say did not happen at R House.
It did happen, however, at an establishment in Tennessee.
The video, which surfaced on social media on Sept. 25, shows a small girl stroking the groin of a drag queen dressed as a Disney character at Wanderlinger Brewing Co. on Chattanooga Pride Youth Day.
On July 30, the U.S. military hosted its first ever “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summer Festival” at Joint Base Langley-Eustis. Billed as another “family friendly” event, it featured “bouncy houses and face painting for the children” as well as a drag show by Joshua Kelley, a Navy Drag Queen who performs under the name Harpy Daniels.
Screenshot from video posted on social media of a June 4, 2022 drag show at a gay bar in Dallas, Texas--billed as "family friendly"--where children were encouraged to participate in the performance and to give the performers money. With permission from independent journalist Tayler Hansen
There are Gay Pride parades where naked men wear Bugs Bunny masks and hop along the street in front of children and where men wearing nothing but a pair of not so tighty-whitey underwear and work boots, stand twerking in front of little girls. There are “family friendly” drag brunches where drag queens bounce their bare fake breasts for dollars from children and “family friendly” drag shows at gay bars where parents encourage their children to give them money and dance with performers while neon signs with lewd messages glow on the walls behind them.
‘It’s Virtue Signaling’
Despite protests from parents, school boards across the country have been approving and defending sexually inappropriate curriculum and books to increasingly younger children.According to Quist, society as a whole is being indoctrinated to believe that sexuality is natural for children and the push to normalize drag shows for children is just part of the Marxist plan to destroy the family unit by shattering the innocence of children.
“People have been indoctrinated into believing that children are sexual from birth,” Quist explained, adding that “it’s a key part of Alfred Kinsey’s sexual revolution that came through in the 60s, which has now come to full fruition. There are no boundaries.”
Kinsey—known as “The Father of the Sexual Revolution“—was one of 50 individuals touted as ”pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes“ who ”contributed to the advancement of the LGBTQ community in a substantive way” when inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City’s Stonewall Inn” on June 27, 2019.
American sexuality researcher Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) works with his staff while preparing the final manuscript of his book 'Sexual Behavior in the Human Female,' in 1953. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
However, those in the more conservative world say Kinsey “was a pervert and a sex criminal“ who ”solicited and encouraged pedophiles, at home and abroad, to sexually violate from 317 to 2,035 infants and children for his alleged data on normal ‘child sexuality.’”
“That’s the narrative,” Quist propounded. “It’s the new revolutionary narrative, and the parents who are getting caught up in it are not aware that they have been fooled into accepting the paradigm that everything is OK; everything is normal; everything is good. They’re jumping onto the big bandwagon of belief that exposing their children to everything is good for them. But to those who recognize how brutal this is to the mind of a child, this behavior is insane.”
Quist noted how Planned Parenthood, which strongly advocates for abortion rights and is the nation’s number one provider of the service, is not only pushing the idea that it’s healthy for children to be sexual, it is actively grooming children to be sexually active.
“But early sexuality for children is not a healthy thing,” Quist countered.
Studies have proven that early sexualization in children is “dangerous,“ causing ”measurable harm, such as body image dissatisfaction, eating disorders, low self-esteem, poorer academic performance, depression, and anxiety.”
Still, according to Quist, more and more parents are being caught up in this new “social movement” because they “want to feel like they are part of this popular new culture.”
“It’s a thing now,” Quist said. “It is a real thing, and because it’s so in your face and so many other people disapprove, some parents find it more appealing. It gives them a sense of superiority; ‘I’m with it. I’m edgy. I’m more inclusive than you.’ It’s virtue signaling. It’s groupthink. But they’re not thinking through what the consequences will be.”
Darlene McCormick Sanchez contributed to this report.
