DiscussionDrag Queen Story Hour: One of the worst public relations fails I've ever seen

submitted by JulienMayfair from self.LGBDropTheT

Sorry if this is slightly off-topic, but as I keep hearing more and more about controversies surrounding drag queens, I can't help but think that we (speaking in a general plural for all things LGB) have brought this on ourselves.

First, what really is the point of Drag Queen Story Hour? Is its purpose supposed to be so obvious that no one needs to explain it? It seems like it's some kind of outreach from the gay community to the broader world, but if it is, what were they thinking? It seems to me that the backlash over it far outstrips any good it could possibly do. The optics are terrible. And you knew that sooner or later, some drag queen with a sketchy personal history was going to be found doing the program. What could go wrong?

There are SO MANY ways in which the LGB could do positive outreach to improve our general public image. We could show up in support of all sorts of perfectly respectable charities. But no. It had to be putting drag queens in front of kids.

Is it arrogance, stupidity, or a combination of both?

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[–]TransspeciesUnicornI sexually identify as a mythical sparkly equine 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I also kind of wondered, why Drag Queens and not Drag Kings? Why just Drag Queens specifically? I really have no idea what the point of it is. It's just really weird and kind of creepy anyway. Like it'd be if they decided to make a Burlesque Dancer Story Hour. Why would you specifically get people who work in adult entertainment reading to kids? I mean if someone who happens to be a Drag Queen or Burlesque Dancer wants to volunteer at their local [insert whatever institution here] and work with kids just as a person that's one thing. But doing it specifically AS a Drag Queen or Burlesque Dancer or whatever other adult entertainment worker is weird and questionable.

If they're doing it to try to normalize gay people with kids then why the fuck would they choose Drag Queens to represent us all? Drag Queens aren't even representative of your average gay man. It's almost like they're trying to make us look bad on purpose.

[–]GenderSpecial 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If they're doing it to try to normalize gay people with kids then why the fuck would they choose Drag Queens to represent us all? Drag Queens aren't even representative of your average gay man. It's almost like they're trying to make us look bad on purpose.

Exactly!!!!! If the point is to normalize gay people, they’re doing it wrong. If the point is for entertainment, then they’re entertaining the wrong audience.

What is the point and how do we let the world know that most LGB people don’t support drag queen events for children???

[–]GreykittymommaMagical lady 💜 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

This.

Ask yourself why drag queens are the only gays represented during these story hours THEN you have to acknowledge that not all drag queens are even gay. So what are drag queen story hours really about?

Boosting the self image of drag queens?

I have met plenty of them, they tended to hang out with strippers and I don't want either of those groups of people near my kid. Sorry, hard pass.

[–]chazzstrong 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Drag Queen "story hour" has one goal: to sexualize children as young as possible. It's the same as schools like the one in Chicago where the Dean just got caught admitting they had people come in and pass around dildos and butt-plugs to students to teach them about LGBTQ issues....because obviously everything you need to learn about "queer" people you can learn from sex toys.

I used to scoff at the 'the world is ran by pedo elites' theories, but now...now I fully believe them. Shit like Belinciaga, Nikolai Mushegian, everything we've seen and heard from undercover journalists and educators.

I don't think I'd scoff at any conspiracy theory these days, to be honest.

[–]GreykittymommaMagical lady 💜 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Fully agree!

[–]On_Wheels 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Remember Epstein's Island. The world is run by pedos, and sadly LGB are being used as a smokescreen by them.

[–]jim_steak 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I don't think it's fair to criticize the gay community for this, because ultimately drag queens are just performers who show up to these events because they are paid to do so. Who's actually organizing and attending the events? They're usually put on by librarians and attended by parents with their kids, so I would have to guess most of the people who are actually responsible for the events are straight women who like gay culture and drag. The hysteria around these events is totally overplayed as well - I agree kids shouldn't be at a drag show but that's not what these are.

The events might be bad PR, but there really isn't any such thing as the LGB community to manage things like that. In most major cities the community is just centered around bars and nightclubs, and there certainly isn't anyone in charge of managing PR or telling drag queens they shouldn't go to events they're being paid to do. In my opinion, if these events are inappropriate it comes back to the parents who are bringing their kids into the environment. If Drag Queen Story Hour is about sexualizing children and grooming them to be molested by pedophiles, what is going on with the people who are bringing their kids to the event?

[–]JulienMayfair[S] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

For the most part, I agree with you, within certain parameters.

The hysteria around these events is totally overplayed as well - I agree kids shouldn't be at a drag show but that's not what these are.

True, but the problem is in creating an event the appearance of which is readily adaptable to anti-gay narratives. As an example, I was recently re-reading the novel He, She, and It by Marge Piercy in which she interweaves a dystopian future and a story about a Jewish rabbi creating a golem in Prague of 1600. In one section, the golem is sent out to find a teenage Christian girl who's gone missing and whose disappearance the rabbi worries will be blamed on the Jewish community. He sends the golem out to find here, and she is found locked up (and pregnant) in the house where she was working as a servant. The crisis is avoided. My point is that the rabbi understood that whatever the truth was, he was already hearing rumblings that the Jews would be blamed for the girl's murder, even though she hadn't been murdered.

Likewise, Drag Queen Story Hour may be mostly or entirely innocent, but the problem is that it creates images that can easily be twisted by people with an anti-gay agenda to promote anti-gay hysteria. And there have been cases where the drag queens doing the readings have not been properly vetted and turn out to have criminal histories.

"What about the children??" has long been a strategy used to attack the LGB. Creating events that create images that provide fuel for these slanders is not a good idea, even if the events themselves are relatively harmless.

You have to control your public image. No one else will do it for you. And if straight women are promoting these shows, I think we need to tell them to stop it.

I hope I don't step on anyone's toes here, but I think back to the 1990s and the image of "thugs" endlessly disseminated via gangster rap videos. I don't think that did the general public perception of the black community any good whatsoever. It was producers and record companies profiting by marketing something that made money, even if it dealt in negative stereotypes.

[–]jim_steak 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I agree that it's a bad look, I think I'm quick to defend the drag queens because I see a lot of right wing content online that is calling these events "gay child grooming" and I think that's ridiculous. It's the same thing as with the trans kid stuff - that gets called LGBT indoctrination but the vast majority of parents transitioning their kids are straight couples, just as the vast majority of school teachers talking about gender identity are straight people. It all loops back into trans issues too - gay people get blamed for these mentally ill (mostly) straight men and women who are forcing themselves on everyone in our name.

I would love to see better PR for the gay community but first I think there actually needs to be some sort of community outside of just nightlife. It's hard because so many of the activist spaces for LGB people have been captured by gender activists who set the tone for the whole community, and I imagine many gay people wouldn't want to join some kind of gay only organization for fear of being attacked by those elements.

[–]On_Wheels 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree that community outreach by gay people without the involvement of trans or "queer" people is a good idea. I think it's best to leave kids out of it, people get (understandably) insanely defensive over their children and kids will end up believing what their parents tell them anyways. Best to focus on adults, and maybe teenagers.

[–]cars 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

DQSH was never meant as anything but a way for woke parents to reassure themselves that their kids are getting exposed to diversity. Because these woke parents usually see LGB people through campy and kinky stereotypes, the woke parents think that drag queens are "authentic queer culture" and don't separate that culture from LGB people. This is also why people insist on kink and public nudity at Pride -- they think that removing the kink and public nudity means pandering to "heteronormativity", even though plenty of LGB people hate kink and public nudity.

If I was a kid and had to attend DQSH, I would have probably been scared by the drag queens.

[–]JulienMayfair[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

kink

I have no problem with kink practiced by consenting adults in private spaces. What we don't need is half-naked guys in pup-play kink gear playing with kids in the street as a photo op.

[–]PatsyStoneMaverique 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Pedophiles, Jules.

[–]QueenBread 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I guess I'm late to the reply section, but.... the answer is very simple. "Drag queen story hour" exists to get little kids accustomed to the idea that men pretending to be women is normal and cool. In the hopes that, when those kids grow up, they will protest less about men infiltrating women's spaces and forcing them back to the situation of subservience they were into just a century ago.

Bonus points for how "drag queen story hour" also lowers kids'attention against predatory, suspicious adults.

Extra bonus points for how it forces to keep us peasants focused on protecting our kids instead of thinking about jobs, healthcare, economy, housing, global warming, immigration.....