In 2015, drag queens reading in libraries suddenly became a "thing."  While I see these men as grotesque appropriations of womanhood, they were sold as cute, sparkly people who make reading fun.  Once the camel's nose was in the tent, drag queens performing for children started appearing everywhere, not just in libraries, where weird parents intentionally bring their children, but at nightclubs and across schools, where children are captive audiences.  It's become so endemic that Libs of TikTok has put together a seemingly endless thread of such appearances.

Back in the early 1990s, some men I knew when I worked in San Francisco performed as part of a Drag Queen a cappella group.  Unlike many of the drag queens parading around today, these guys were actually talented performers, so I enjoyed the first show I attended.  By the second show, though, I'd had enough.  While some songs were clever parodies of pop culture issues, way too many were obsessed with sodomy (in more detail than most people should ever want to know), fecal matter, and STDs.  That's when I realized that people who define themselves by non-traditional (some might say deviant) sexuality tend to obsess over that sexuality and, moreover, seem to have stopped developmentally at the "poo-poo is funny" stage of humor (around three years old).

Armed with that knowledge, I've found very disturbing the number of drag queens swarming children's reading rooms.  Were my kids still small, I wouldn't want them under the tutelage of someone whose entire identity revolves around his genitals and what he does with them.  However, when parents objected, they were schooled as "transphobes" and "homophobes," and most backed down.

So the drag queens have continued to dig their way into children's lives.  It's not just at libraries.  The big children's entertainment media companies are on board.  Andrew Levitt, an untalented drag performer but highly talented self-promoter, inveigled his way into Nickelodeon, appearing on the children's show Blue's Clues and You and singing about LGBTQ identities in a video aimed at children.  And now Disney has Levitt urging little children to celebrate gay pride and drag queens with him.

Image: A public library promotes "Kiddie" drag.  Twitter screen grab.

In addition to reporting on the entertainment media stories, Libs of TikTok suddenly realized that she'd been posting a lot of tweets about drag queens performing for children at libraries, summer camps, nightclubs, and public schools.  (And, almost invariably, the school administrators insisted after the fact that they had no idea what was going on.  Uh-huh.  Sure.)  Libs of TikTok decided that the "drag queens targeting children" phenomenon needed to be explored and embarked on a seemingly endless thread to do so.  Here are just some of the tweets from that thread:

A gay nightclub in Minnesota held a drag show for children earlier this month. One of the performers said in an interview “I want to give the kids an opportunity to see what drag queen/king life is like on a day to day basis.” https://t.co/dGfdsD7OHS pic.twitter.com/zLcYBgTt1O

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 31, 2022

A bar in Dallas, Texas is advertising a drag show for children including the oppurtunity for some kids to perform with the drag queens on stage. This is the drag queen host. pic.twitter.com/L14WloK5ie

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 31, 2022

.@aclib is advertising drag queen story hour specifically for preschoolers. The library is funded primarily by local property taxes. pic.twitter.com/SbpsWzMDq8

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 31, 2022

Last month we saw a teacher hosting a drag show for students in Pennsylvania. https://t.co/EfvSA0rqHN

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 31, 2022

In Jasper Indiana, a pride event with a drag queen performance is being advertised for all ages and they are encouraging kids to bring cash to tip the drag queens. pic.twitter.com/jKBUCM8Rqx

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 31, 2022

In Weston Vermont, a public library had a drag queen story hour for all ages with stories focused on gender and activism. They write “drag queen story hour captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood” pic.twitter.com/QRYrqrGE26

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 31, 2022

You can see the whole thread here.

Despite their sparkly make-up, drag queens are not wholesome.  They are, as I said, grotesque parodies of real women and, usually, wildly sexualized parodies.  As Matt Walsh has said, you'd never dream of letting young children watch real women dance as these men do.  The fact that they are pretending to be women doesn't make what they're doing any less overtly sexual or abnormal.  Parents need to stop being intimidated by the endless barrage of insults and take a stand against their children being groomed by an endless parade of tawdry (and frequently talentless), self-loathing, and misogynistic men.