Drag queen story hour in Idaho?

Sunny

Sunny

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Maryland
Idaho drag queens mobilize as conservatives float anti-LGBTQ proposals - The Washington Post

This was in today's Post (originally in the Seattle Times). Has the world gone completely mad? As far as I can tell, this has nothing to do with gay rights; it's the most extreme of the extreme fringe trying to stir things up and give themselves some publicity.

The article repeatedly refers to anyone who objects to drag queens providing story hours and other entertainment to very young children, as "Christian conservatives," and "the right-wing." Apparantly the people promoting this insanity have decided that it belongs in Idaho, of all places.

My favorite paragraph refers to one of the drag queens, Miguel Pesina. The use of pronouns got me so confused that I had to reread the paragraph several times before I realized that "they" just referred to Pesina. Yet, the rest of the article refers to "he" and "she."

When Pesina, 32, was in grade school, they kept a low profile to avoid being bullied as a Brown, chubby gay kid with an effeminate voice. Forming their drag queen persona in college helped them explore their gender fluidity, they said.

So I guess that any parent who feels that this is inappropriate, to put it mildly, is automatically a right-winger?
 

A friend of mine posted about this activity on FB about a year ago. I don't know if the one she posted about was in Idaho but I believe it was done in a library or book store. I don't think drag queens should be reading stories to our children. And I'm certainly not a right wing conservative.
 
I think it is important for children to have the opportunity to be exposed to other than the so called norm. Exposure to diversity promotes tolerance. I have known many drag queens throughout my career, not unusual given the amount of prejudice they encounter. They are not weird, perverse, fringe, only vying for

attention, but merely people trying to live their lives in a society which often not only shuns
them, but actively seeks to harm and even kill them. If having reading hour with children

promotes understanding then let’s go for it. Perhaps the next generation of drag queens will be less marginalised. It is also important to note, the majority of paedophiles are white, straight males. Where is the concern around them reading to children? Also, individuals are born with their sex.ual preference, it is not communicable. One can’t catch “gay.”
 

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OMG, I hope the right wing Nazi people don't find out about all the good children's books that have girls dressing up as boys. What is that story where the girl is pretending to be a boy and the older lady tosses something at the girls lap and the girl spreads her legs to catch it, thus confirming the lady's suspicion that it is really a girl?
 
I was naïve about drag queens until my band was invited to play at a gay birthday bash in the wealthy hills near San Francisco. I didn't know what "gay" was. It was insane!! We played by the swimming pool, and there was a putting green and a trolley car that brought guests and food/drink down to the pool!! Lavish is a weak word for what this was . Then I noticed that there were no women at the party. I asked one of the band members and he looked at me funny and said "It's a GAY party". Then I got it. Later a group of drag queens showed up and danced and one of them sang a rendition of "Summertime". First impressions last. I have always liked trans people. They are fascinating. I would gladly explain my understanding of them to my children and grandchildren. They are humans too deserving of acceptance.
 
Just to head off those who are clutching their pearls at the notion that this is inappropriate for very young children, I have nothing against gay people, trans people (we have one who is dearly loved in our family), or drag queens in settings for adults. I think kids and adults dressing up as the opposite gender, as part of a costume or a theatrical performance, is harmless entertainment fun. But the persona, and the wink-wink, highly sexualized performance that usually accompanies drag queens, is something else. This is not a healthy thing to introduce into a very young child's life. They have plenty of years ahead of them to meet drag queens.

IMO, this nonsense cheapens the very real concerns of the gay population, who have fought long and hard for their rights.
 
Sunny said:
Idaho drag queens mobilize as conservatives float anti-LGBTQ proposals - The Washington Post

This was in today's Post (originally in the Seattle Times). Has the world gone completely mad? As far as I can tell, this has nothing to do with gay rights; it's the most extreme of the extreme fringe trying to stir things up and give themselves some publicity.

The article repeatedly refers to anyone who objects to drag queens providing story hours and other entertainment to very young children, as "Christian conservatives," and "the right-wing." Apparantly the people promoting this insanity have decided that it belongs in Idaho, of all places.

My favorite paragraph refers to one of the drag queens, Miguel Pesina. The use of pronouns got me so confused that I had to reread the paragraph several times before I realized that "they" just referred to Pesina. Yet, the rest of the article refers to "he" and "she."

When Pesina, 32, was in grade school, they kept a low profile to avoid being bullied as a Brown, chubby gay kid with an effeminate voice. Forming their drag queen persona in college helped them explore their gender fluidity, they said.

So I guess that any parent who feels that this is inappropriate, to put it mildly, is automatically a right-winger?
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I could compare this to something that was happening a few months ago when people were being labeled for having their own individual opinions. Now you know how it feels. Of course it's not normal.
 
chic said:
I could compare this to something that was happening a few months ago when people were being labeled for having their own individual opinions. Now you know how it feels. Of course it's not normal.
Click to expand...
What in effin' hell is normal? Since the most ancient of times there were men dressing as women for the entertainment of other men. Thousands of years! Maybe not average, but given the track record, normal for humans. Not normal. Sounds like a plus sometimes.
 
Sunny said:
Just to head off those who are clutching their pearls at the notion that this is inappropriate for very young children, I have nothing against gay people, trans people (we have one who is dearly loved in our family), or drag queens in settings for adults. I think kids and adults dressing up as the opposite gender, as part of a costume or a theatrical performance, is harmless entertainment fun. But the persona, and the wink-wink, highly sexualized performance that usually accompanies drag queens, is something else. This is not a healthy thing to introduce into a very young child's life. They have plenty of years ahead of them to meet drag queens.

IMO, this nonsense cheapens the very real concerns of the gay population, who have fought long and hard for their rights.
Click to expand...
I know of no drag queen who would be so utterly gauche and inappropriate as to bring the risqué part of their performance art into play while dealing with children. It is very prejudicial to suggest such a lack of common decency. That has me reaching for pearls in a hurry.
 
Pepper said:
What in effin' hell is normal? Since the most ancient of times there were men dressing as women for the entertainment of other men. Thousands of years! Maybe not average, but given the track record, normal for humans. Not normal. Sounds like a plus sometimes.
Click to expand...
Elizabethan actors dressed as women in order to play female parts.
 
Shalimar said:
I know of no drag queen who would be so utterly gauche and inappropriate as to bring the risqué part of their performance art into play while dealing with children. It is very prejudicial to suggest such a lack of common decency. That has me reaching for pearls in a hurry.
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@Shalimar , thank you! So many people getting their panties in a twist with their preconceived notions... The anti- LBGTQ hate campaign in the 70s-80s by such types as Anita Bryant has made a lasting impression. BTW, for those who don't know, "drag" does not necessarily mean "gay".
Also, to whom it may concern: you can't "catch gay". Gay people don't rove the countryside trying to "recruit" people onto the gay team.
"Pray away the gay"?...another swindle of the naive.
 
Chic: "Now you know how it feels?" Now I know how what feels? What in tarnation are you talking about? (Although I get the point; everything has to be about poor you.)

RadishRose: Good point. If the "drag" element is irrelevant, why dress up in bizarre female outfits at all? Why not just have stories read by men and women in ordinary attire?

Nathan: Yes, many of the drag queens are not gay. (And many are.) Being gay has nothing to do with this issue; I couldn't care less what anyone does in their private life, and it's none of my business. I would have no issue with a gay person reading stories to young children. So let's not change this issue into a gay rights agenda. I thought I made that clear from the beginning. It's the "drag" part of it. It's a fringy sexualizaion that has no place in a story hour for 3-year-olds. And, Shalimar, if you think that someone dressed up as a drag queen will keep everything innocent, wholesome, and squeaky clean, then it's you who are naive.

Shalimar: Yes, women's parts had to be played by men in Shakespearean times. I remember that from the Movie "Shakespeare in Love." In that movie,, Shakespeare's girlfriend finally puts a stop to it. I have no idea how accurate that story is; I have a feeling it's laregly fiction, and the discrimination against female performers took a lot longer to get rid of.

But this has nothing to do with drag queens, and is really a separate topic. The male performers in Shakespearean times who were playing the parts of women were not drag queens.

And one more point: Anyone who knows where I'm coming from religiously, politically, and personally, has got to know that I am 180 degrees away from the prejudiced, super-religious Luddite box some of you are attempting to put me in, even some of you who should know better. I am a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother; also, I am a former teacher. I know kids very well, and love them. I hate to see them used as a prop for some kind of wacko agenda.
 
Pepper said:
What in effin' hell is normal? Since the most ancient of times there were men dressing as women for the entertainment of other men. Thousands of years! Maybe not average, but given the track record, normal for humans. Not normal. Sounds like a plus sometimes.
Click to expand...
It's normal human behavior but giving a story hour to children? That's the bit I think is kinda flawed.
 
Shalimar said:
I think it is important for children to have the opportunity to be exposed to other than the so called norm. Exposure to diversity promotes tolerance. I have known many drag queens throughout my career, not unusual given the amount of prejudice they encounter. They are not weird, perverse, fringe, only vying for

attention, but merely people trying to live their lives in a society which often not only shuns
them, but actively seeks to harm and even kill them. If having reading hour with children

promotes understanding then let’s go for it. Perhaps the next generation of drag queens will be less marginalised. It is also important to note, the majority of paedophiles are white, straight males. Where is the concern around them reading to children? Also, individuals are born with their sex.ual preference, it is not communicable. One can’t catch “gay.”
Click to expand...
Not if we're talking about toddlers. Even at age 7 and 8, kids don't yet have the neurons required to compartmentalize issues and outside influences. Children internalize everything. Everything that goes on in their environment is about them. Like the classic "Mom and dad fight because I'm bad."

Sure kids need to understand the world and its people, but in stages. I didn't talk politics with my toddlers, but we could talk about the evils of littering. And I'm not saying kids are dummies; they literally do not have the same type and number of neurons in their brains as teenagers and adults. Nor fully developed neural pathways.
 
Sunny said:
Chic: "Now you know how it feels?" Now I know how what feels? What in tarnation are you talking about? (Although I get the point; everything has to be about poor you.)

RadishRose: Good point. If the "drag" element is irrelevant, why dress up in bizarre female outfits at all? Why not just have stories read by men and women in ordinary attire?

Nathan: Yes, many of the drag queens are not gay. (And many are.) Being gay has nothing to do with this issue; I couldn't care less what anyone does in their private life, and it's none of my business. I would have no issue with a gay person reading stories to young children. So let's not change this issue into a gay rights agenda. I thought I made that clear from the beginning. It's the "drag" part of it. It's a fringy sexualizaion that has no place in a story hour for 3-year-olds. And, Shalimar, if you think that someone dressed up as a drag queen will keep everything innocent, wholesome, and squeaky clean, then it's you who are naive.

Shalimar: Yes, women's parts had to be played by men in Shakespearean times. I remember that from the Movie "Shakespeare in Love." In that movie,, Shakespeare's girlfriend finally puts a stop to it. I have no idea how accurate that story is; I have a feeling it's laregly fiction, and the discrimination against female performers took a lot longer to get rid of.

But this has nothing to do with drag queens, and is really a separate topic. The male performers in Shakespearean times who were playing the parts of women were not drag queens.

And one more point: Anyone who knows where I'm coming from religiously, politically, and personally, has got to know that I am 180 degrees away from the prejudiced, super-religious Luddite box some of you are attempting to put me in, even some of you who should know better. I am a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother; also, I am a former teacher. I know kids very well, and love them. I hate to see them used as a prop for some kind of wacko agenda.
Click to expand...
My goodness, you do seem to often feel the need to attack others for simply disagreeing with you. As for agendas, with respect, it appears you are the one who lacks an understanding of the true purpose of drag. It is not automatically sexualised , nor are drag queens automatically unable to keep

things squeaky clean. Certainly, only perverse individuals in or out of drag would attempt to sexualise children. As for my supposed naïveté, my exceedingly brutal childhood and my intensive work with

vets and others suffering from CPTSD, sadly preclude any sort of naïveté or innocence whatsoever. Also, throughout my career, I have counselled over fifteen drag queens, on an individual basis, considerably more in group therapy. This speaks for itself.
 

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