Drag Queens Are After Your Kids
For years, the primary response to criticism of the LGBTQ+ activist community has been “We only want to be left alone.” This is a lie and I have the receipts to back it up. In reality the institutional leaders of the LGBTQ+ activist community, including university professors and organizations such as Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) are calling for something far more sinister. The battle cry of our rainbow-clad adversary is not “leave me alone to be myself!” No, the call which began as distant chanting now rises from the carpeted floors of public libraries, shakes the colorful halls of rural elementary schools, and unashamedly demands “Give us your children!”
This series will attempt to fairly examine the paper/manifesto Drag pedagogy: The playful practice of queer imagination in early childhood. This wonderful work reveals the true motives behind DQSH as it is written by members of the LGBTQ+ community. This paper makes statements quite contrary to what organizers have declared publicly. Our journey begins with an introduction to the authors, followed by a brief review of three terms essential to understanding the Drag pedagogy paper. This article will conclude by uncovering the smoking gun promised.
The Authors of the Paper Drag Pedagogy
The authors of the paper are credited as Harper Keenan & Lil Miss Hot Mess (Mz. Mess’ Christian name was not provided.) The biography section of the paper provides a glimpse into who our authors are, an important point of context to be sure. Mr. Keenan’s credentials begin: “Harper B. Keenan is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, where he currently serves as the Robert Quartermain Professor of Gender & Sexuality Research in Education.” Mz. Mess’ credentials are no less impressive mind you! From her biography: “Lil Miss Hot Mess is a [drag] performer and board member for Drag Queen Story Hour, and the author of the children’s book The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish (Running Press Kids, 2020). She is also a PhD candidate in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, where she researches and teaches on digital media, surveillance, and media arts.”
As can be clearly seen, our authors are not mere activists. We are not dealing with your blue-haired wine-aunt that you keep your kids away from at the family reunion. This is an academic paper prepared by a university professor and a member of Drag Queen Story Hour’s board of directors. I want to sincerely thank the authors for their work. It is through their diligent labor and very precise articulation of their position that I hope to demonstrate to you, dear reader, that DQSH is a tool created to groom children into adopting a sexually deviant lifestyle in order to destabilize schools and families.
A Brief Vocabulary
The following section will cover some vocabulary. It is important to ensure that the readership understands how the three following words are understood by the authors of our spotlighted paper, Drag pedagogy.
Queer (noun, adjective): … a personal refusal to adhere to, or identify with, static, essentialist categories such as woman/man, gay/straight, feminine/masculine, and more … As an identity, queer is fluid, malleable, and transgresses boundaries as a way of establishing agency and unity. Queer refuses to be locked into any permanent state of identification … many also appropriate queer as an identity for anyone who refuses normative ways of being and interacting in the world (Source: Barnett, Joshua Trey, and Corey W. Johnson. “Queer.” Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice, Sherwood Thomson (ed.). Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, p. 581.) Queerness is intensely personal and utterly ambiguous. This is the point. By trying to define “queerness” we are acting against its fundamental presuppositions, namely, the rejection of categories outright. Queerness is rebellion, not only against mom and dad or your Sunday-school teacher, but an active lifestyle centered on rejecting “normative” institutions.
Pedagogy/Praxis: The definitions of pedagogy and praxis are firmly rooted in the category of jargon. These terms simply refer to the structure, goals and practice of teaching. In the context of DQSH, this applies to teaching small children, presumably under the age of 10 years (Merriam Webster).
Grooming: RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization and work tirelessly to combat abuse. They describe grooming as follows: manipulative behaviors that [an] abuser uses to gain access to a potential victim, coerce them to agree to the abuse, and reduce the risk of being caught … It’s usually employed by a family member or someone else in the victim’s circle of trust, such as a … teacher (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) (emphasis added). Grooming usually begins with “play” that slowly introduces inappropriate elements to the relationship between the groomer and the victim. It is critical to the predator to keep the victim confused, to smother questions of why this is happening or how they truly feel. Children instinctively look to adults for answers, groomers exploit this fact to provide the child with answers they can later exploit for their own sexual gratification.
And Now to the Point
I will not mince words here. I intend to demonstrate that the purpose of DQSH is to groom children into adopting a queer lifestyle in order to foster a revolutionary destruction of Western culture. The abstract of our text concludes with: Ultimately, the authors propose that “drag pedagogy” provides a performative approach to queer pedagogy that is not simply about LGBT lives, but living queerly (Drag pedagogy: The playful practice of queer imagination in early childhood). Political Pastor Translation: We are here to teach children how to live queer.
I’d like to highlight a few things. “Queer pedagogy” as we now understand, consists of the methods and practice of teaching small children about the rejection of structure, normalcy, morality, and religion as concepts. “Queerness”, the rejection of normalcy and can be applied to one’s gender (i.e. personal) identity. We are told that DQSH is not about showcasing LGBTQ+ people in order to garner empathy and tolerance. Instead, the authors choose to end the abstract by saying the quiet part out loud. The aim of DQSH is to groom children into adopting an LGBTQ+ lifestyle. Putting this all together, what we have been given is not merely an unbiased explanation of Drag Queen Story Hour, but a spirited advocation for the grooming of small children in order to destabilize schools and families.
Not Clear Enough?
This is just the surface. Our upcoming followup article on Drag pedagogy will be full of direct quotations from the paper itself. Readers are encouraged and welcome to read the paper Drag pedagogy for themselves. In the coming part two of our series, we will begin to examine the source in earnest! Buckle up buckaroos, it’s going to get wild.
Drag Queens Really Are After Your Kids (Part 2)
In part one of Drag Queens Are After Your Kids, we introduced the wonderful work Drag Pedagogy and its glowing endorsement of Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH). In this installment I will continue to lead you through the maze of postmodern queer thinking. Queer theory (as covered in part one) is the understanding that what is construed as “normal” or “typical” in society is inherently negative (source). In Part Two, I intend to let the work speak for itself in large part. The paper in question spells out exactly how and why the groomers in the LGBTQ+ activist sphere intend to transform your children.
Our authors, as you will remember are not to be taken lightly. Lil Miss Hot Mess and Mr. Keenan are both accomplished academics and ardent supporters of Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH). They begin their manifesto with a brief “herstory” of DQSH stating: DQSH grew from queer author Michelle Tea’s personal desire to connect her toddler with queer culture (Drag pedagogy). What is queer culture? Remember that “queerness” is a fundamental rejection of organized society, a political stance, and a sexual identity. This is the culture that our authors and other proponents of DQSH wish to press upon toddlers.
Continuing with an overview of DQSH in action, our authors write: DQSH performers read a handful of children’s books… Book selections often include queer and/or trans characters, gender-transgressive themes, or narratives about not fitting in and finding one’s voice. Some translate drag’s penchant for taboo to kids’ ideas of silly topics, like making a mess or potty time (Brooklyn Public Library, n.d.) (Drag pedagogy) (Emphasis added). I would like to bring your focus to that last sentence. Imagine, if you will, what manner of subjects or topics which would be covered under “drag’s penchant for taboo”? Also, bear in mind the link drawn between such behavior and children’s “potty time.” I don’t know about you, but I do not want drag queens introducing their penchant for the taboo into my child’s potty time! I would be remiss if I failed to mention that this section of the paper includes a photo of Mz. Hot Mess terrifying a group of children at a DQSH event.
In the next section our authors provide a crystal-clear description of their vision for your child’s classroom: There is an adult teacher leading a classroom of young students. What is different, though, is that the teacher is a drag queen. She breaks the limiting stereotype of a teacher: she is loud, extravagant, and playful. She encourages children to think for themselves and even to break the rules (Drag pedagogy). Break the rules? Imagine how confusing this must be to a young child. That is the point, to confuse children, in order to deplete them of their inherited identity. Imagine, from the perspective of a child. A bearded man in makeup and a ballgown has come to tell you that he wants to play with you and teach you to break the rules. The damage this causes to a young mind is obvious and wholly intentional. The foundations of who these children are, what is right and wrong, what is true and what is subjective, are all gleefully called into question. To the queer activist, these pillars must be demolished to foster a queer identity within the student.
The paper continues to offer examples of Drag Pedagogy in action: In other words, what we refer to as strategic defiance is encouraged. What might strategic defiance look like in a classroom setting? How might teachers encourage children to talk back, rather than suppressing dissent? (Drag pedagogy) (Emphasis added). Consider what the author means by the use of the word “strategic”. In a broader context, fostering collective unruliness also helps children… (Drag pedagogy). Similarly, drag aesthetics can provide an avenue into exploring children’s curiosities about social norms, which often reflect inconsistencies in what they have been taught (Drag pedagogy). Whether or not you agree that toddlers should be challenging social norms, what exactly do our authors hope to “explore” with your kids? Thankfully, our authors explain further: Drag queens may not respond with answers [to questions], but with questions meant to complicate perceptions of gender and society (Drag pedagogy). Classroom teachers might similarly work to address children’s feelings of shame by highlighting the arbitrariness of norms… (Drag pedagogy).
This isn’t only about the classroom and this isn’t about “exposing kids to new ideas” as we are often told. Our authors state as much: We seek to move beyond assumptions that the purpose of a programme like DQSH should be only to expose children to “diverse” stories or easily digestible morsels of LGBT history and culture. Though DQSH publicly positions its impact in “help[ing] children develop empathy, learn about gender diversity and difference, and tap into their own creativity” (Drag Queen Story Hour, n.d.-a), we argue that its contributions can run deeper than morals and role models (Drag pedagogy) (Emphasis added).
This tells us a lot. We see our authors believe that the propagation of the LGBTQ+ or Queer worldview is an implied aspect of DQSH. We have also been provided with a plain admission of doublespeak on this subject. Proponents of DQSH would have us believe that they desire inclusivity while in their own literature, they advocate for the grooming of children into queer activists. This kind of gaslighting is usually more difficult to prove, bravo to the authors for their excellent work! This systemic deconstruction of normalcy in the minds of small children is not a by-product of DQSH. No, your child’s familial identity, cultural heritage, religious tradition, and their very belief in truth must be stripped away entirely. To the queer activist, these confining prisons of reality have been established and perpetuated by capitalists bent on upholding the establish patriarchal, white-supremacist systems of oppression. Children are viewed as little more than easily molded stock, an unspoiled harvest of minds to gather under a rainbow flag and nurse with their toxic worldview. What does this mean in the simplest of terms? Drag Queens are coming for your kids.