GOP targets drag shows with new bills in at least 14 states

[onthedarkside]

 

Early in the 2023 legislative session, at least 26 bills have been introduced in 14 states by Republican legislators taking aim at drag events — an abrupt movement that has emerged this year amid a wider conservative backlash to expanded LGBTQ rights.

 

There’s no recent precedent for the bills, which seek to ban children from drag performances, block the shows from public venues or force locales that host drag events to register as “adult-oriented businesses,” according to LGBTQ advocacy groups.

 

A Washington Post analysis of state legislation dating to 2015 shows the first bill in that period seeking broad restrictions on drag shows was pre-filed in November for this year’s legislative session.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/14/drag-shows-republican-bills-bans/

 

[Tug]

Does the gop have anything of importance to add to the governance of our country or are they all just a sideshow cartoon?Talk about cancel culture gee wizz if you don’t want to see trannies don’t go to the show.the show is the gop 100% political theater to borrow a phrase from mrs Sara Sanders all hat no cattle ???? 

[Jingthing]

The GOP is all about anti LGBT all the time. Just like Putin. Fascists think alike.

 

[Hanaguma]

54 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

The GOP is all about anti LGBT all the time. Just like Putin. Fascists think alike.

 

What do drag shows have to do with 2SLGBTQQIA+?  

 

Nothing wrong with keeping kids away from them, they are creepy in the extreme.   Drag queen story hour in public libraries? Yech. 

[300sd]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

The GOP is all about anti LGBT all the time. Just like Putin. Fascists think alike.

 

So what do you call parents that take innocent children to watch garbage like that? Upstanding citizens!

[Tug]

37 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

What do drag shows have to do with 2SLGBTQQIA+?  

 

Nothing wrong with keeping kids away from them, they are creepy in the extreme.   Drag queen story hour in public libraries? Yech. 

That is the job of parents not the job of the government it’s a distraction and theater

[Jingthing]

13 minutes ago, 300sd said:

So what do you call parents that take innocent children to watch garbage like that? Upstanding citizens!

Theater lovers.

[Baht Simpson]

In the U.K., men dressed as women have been telling stories to children in pantomime theatre for over 100 years with no adverse affects.  The kids love it. It is only pearl-clutching Christians who are offended by drag. 

[Jingthing]

11 minutes ago, Baht Simpson said:

In the U.K., men dressed as women have been telling stories to children in pantomime theatre for over 100 years with no adverse affects.  The kids love it. It is only pearl-clutching Christians who are offended by drag. 

It's one of these fake issues the American fascist party promotes as important because they have no interest in addressing real problems.

[Chomper Higgot]

2 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

What do drag shows have to do with 2SLGBTQQIA+?  

 

Nothing wrong with keeping kids away from them, they are creepy in the extreme.   Drag queen story hour in public libraries? Yech. 

Is this the voice of experience or the voice of blind bigotry?

 

It can only be one or the other.

 

How about letting parents decide what their own children may or may not see and not dictate to other parents what their children may or may not see?!

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

Mostly I don't like the GOP, and especially Trump and all that.

But sometimes they are right = correct.

When people see that the radical left want to expose their children to drag queens and the not so radical left let it happen, then people should not be surprised when voters want to vote conservative. Not hard right, but also not woke left.

Why is it so difficult for the moderate left to tell the radical left to shut up. Put them into that radical little corner where they belong. We really don't need drag queens for children and people who don't know anymore what a woman is and all that.

[OneMoreFarang]

9 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Is this the voice of experience or the voice of blind bigotry?

 

It can only be one or the other.

 

How about letting parents decide what their own children may or may not see and not dictate to other parents what their children may or may not see?!

Should parents take their children also to strip shows? And if not, why not?

At the strip shows they will see at least real women with women's clothes and not men with women's clothes pretending to be women. 

[Hanaguma]

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Is this the voice of experience or the voice of blind bigotry?

 

It can only be one or the other.

 

How about letting parents decide what their own children may or may not see and not dictate to other parents what their children may or may not see?!

 

 

It might have something to do with the rude and overtly sexual nature of the vast majority of drag shows.  Attempting to suddenly recast them as "wholesome entertainment for the entire family" is utterly ridiculous. 

[Bluespunk]

7 hours ago, onthedarkside said:

There’s no recent precedent for the bills, which seek to ban children from drag performances, block the shows from public venues

Surely that’s the parents choice to make. 

[Bluespunk]

5 hours ago, 300sd said:

So what do you call parents that take innocent children to watch garbage like that? Upstanding citizens!

Yes. 
 

They are supporting theatre and artists. 
 

As long as the content is suitable for children, I don’t see what the problem is. 

[candide]

So much B.S. said about drag shows. Some people have too much imagination. Most shows are just funny, with drag queens singing songs such as Lili Marlene, not strip tease shows.

Here is a sample of drag shows, I don't see what's revolting in the shows.

https://www.eventbrite.com/d/united-states/drag-show/

 

[bendejo]

There was a place in NYC called Club 82.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_82

 

An old-time vaudeville-style dancing girls review.  All the dancers were men in drag, except for one natural-born woman -- part of the experience was to try to spot her.

Who were the clients?  NYC working-class housewives!  They would charter buses and get shirtfaced drunk and whoop it up for a few hours.

Other cities will have the same kind of places with the same clientele.

One night on the way to the Fillmore East (a few blocks away from it) with a friend we passed the place, a bunch of empty buses parked outside, and he said his mother was there that night with her ladies' club.  We were both teenagers at the time, scratched our heads in wonder of why housewives would enjoy such a show.  I guess the answer was they were able to get drunk and stupid without caring about what men would think of them.

No children involved, no one under 18 admitted.

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

7 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Should parents take their children also to strip shows? And if not, why not?

At the strip shows they will see at least real women with women's clothes and not men with women's clothes pretending to be women. 

Hyperbole and strawman all rolled into one.

 

[Bkk Brian]

There's a very dark underbelly of extreme right wing loons who would like to control and censor what parents can or can't do, what teachers can or cannot teach. From OP link:

 

"Last month, five armed members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence, confronted families attending a Salt Lake City show."

 

Here's the no paywall link to the Washington Post article. https://archive.ph/6BxX8

 

What next, ban TV because some parents may let their children watch a show they consider not suitable?

 

Of course parents have to show responsibility and some fail but lets get this in perspective, drag shows?

 

Here in Phuket there's 2 or 3 large ladyboy cabaret and comedy shows that are packed nightly, I've never been but they are not touted as adults only and judging by the bus loads of tourists that go nightly its just entertainment.

[Chomper Higgot]

6 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

It might have something to do with the rude and overtly sexual nature of the vast majority of drag shows.  Attempting to suddenly recast them as "wholesome entertainment for the entire family" is utterly ridiculous. 

You’ve not answered the questions I put to you.

 

 

[EVENKEEL]

My guess would be that all the posters on here who think drag shows for kids is just good entertainment have never had kids. Just a guess. 

 

And yet those childless folks want to dictate what's appropriate for kids. For once I wish the very small % of the LGBTQ community would just go on about their lives quietly and stop dictating what the majority of Americans should do or tolerate.

[Credo]

6 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

My guess would be that all the posters on here who think drag shows for kids is just good entertainment have never had kids. Just a guess. 

 

And yet those childless folks want to dictate what's appropriate for kids. For once I wish the very small % of the LGBTQ community would just go on about their lives quietly and stop dictating what the majority of Americans should do or tolerate.

My guess is that all those people who seem to take such an inordinate interest in drag queens are not good parents.   Are kids forced to go to drag shows?  Are there even drag shows for kids?   

 

Drag shows are a form of entertainment.  If you don't want your kids to attend, then don't take them.  

 

[Chomper Higgot]

9 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

My guess would be that all the posters on here who think drag shows for kids is just good entertainment have never had kids. Just a guess. 

 

And yet those childless folks want to dictate what's appropriate for kids. For once I wish the very small % of the LGBTQ community would just go on about their lives quietly and stop dictating what the majority of Americans should do or tolerate.

Your guess, is once again wrong.

 

An error which completely undermines your second assertion.

 

How about, not making laws to control what parents choose is or is not acceptable for their own children.

 

Nobody is forcing you, or anyone else to go see any drag show.

 

 

[Credo]

1 hour ago, EVENKEEL said:

My guess would be that all the posters on here who think drag shows for kids is just good entertainment have never had kids. Just a guess. 

 

And yet those childless folks want to dictate what's appropriate for kids. For once I wish the very small % of the LGBTQ community would just go on about their lives quietly and stop dictating what the majority of Americans should do or tolerate.

 

 

Drag queen says Kari Lake was one of his biggest fans before campaign

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Kari Lake is one of the leading Republicans running for Arizona governor and has been highly critical of men dressing up as women in drag to perform on stage. Now one of the Valley’s premier drag queens says Lake was a close friend and one of his biggest fans before launching her campaign.

 

Richard Stevens, who’s known on stage as “Barbra Seville” said he has known Lake for 20 years and was shocked and personally hurt when she decided to target drag queens as part of her campaign. Lake said drag queens pose a danger to children. “I was very thoughtful with my wording. I didn’t want to refer to her in a derogatory way. 

https://www.kold.com/2022/06/21/drag-queen-says-kari-lake-was-one-his-biggest-fans-before-campaign/

 

Here's a photo:

 

 

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2022/06/28/kari-lake-pushes-back-drag-queen-cease-and-desist-letter/7748750001/

[Bkk Brian]

26 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

My guess would be that all the posters on here who think drag shows for kids is just good entertainment have never had kids. Just a guess. 

 

And yet those childless folks want to dictate what's appropriate for kids. For once I wish the very small % of the LGBTQ community would just go on about their lives quietly and stop dictating what the majority of Americans should do or tolerate.

You guess wrong. on all points.

[Chomper Higgot]

I wonder if it’s occurred to these serially offended rightwingers gnashing their tooth over ‘drag shows’ that at the time of his writing, all the female roles in Shakespeare’s plays were performed by men, and boys.

 

Juliet,  was played by a young man, the gentle words of a young woman’s love spoken by a man in drag. 

 

Kate, a shrew played by a man in drag.

 

And of course, from Hamlet, Queen Gertrude (played by a man in drag) gives us, ‘The lady doth protest too much, me thinks’. (The lady was of course a man in drag).

 

The question needs to be asked, why this obsession with other people’s gender and sexuality, why the constant outrage, why doth the rightwing protest so much?

 

 

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

5 minutes ago, Credo said:Drag queen says Kari Lake was one of his biggest fans before campaign

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Kari Lake is one of the leading Republicans running for Arizona governor and has been highly critical of men dressing up as women in drag to perform on stage. Now one of the Valley’s premier drag queens says Lake was a close friend and one of his biggest fans before launching her campaign.

 

Richard Stevens, who’s known on stage as “Barbra Seville” said he has known Lake for 20 years and was shocked and personally hurt when she decided to target drag queens as part of her campaign. Lake said drag queens pose a danger to children. “I was very thoughtful with my wording. I didn’t want to refer to her in a derogatory way. 

https://www.kold.com/2022/06/21/drag-queen-says-kari-lake-was-one-his-biggest-fans-before-campaign/

 

Here's a photo:

 

 

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2022/06/28/kari-lake-pushes-back-drag-queen-cease-and-desist-letter/7748750001/

Yep, pure theatre, performed to inflame the serially offended rightwing base.

[Credo]

Oh and here's another one of your good Republican legislators:

 

 

Photo from https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/20/politics/george-santos-drag-queen-claim-brazil/index.html

 

[OneMoreFarang]

6 hours ago, candide said:

So much B.S. said about drag shows. Some people have too much imagination. Most shows are just funny, with drag queens singing songs such as Lili Marlene, not strip tease shows.

Here is a sample of drag shows, I don't see what's revolting in the shows.

https://www.eventbrite.com/d/united-states/drag-show/

 

I don't know what is normal and what are exceptions. But it seems at least some of those performances are revolting - at least for me, a straight male.

 

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

56 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Here in Phuket there's 2 or 3 large ladyboy cabaret and comedy shows that are packed nightly, I've never been but they are not touted as adults only and judging by the bus loads of tourists that go nightly its just entertainment.

There are also lots of gogo bars in Phuket. Lots of people go there. It's just entertainment. 

If I would have children, I wouldn't take them to drag shows or ladyboy shows or gogo bars.

But in the theoretical game that I would have to take them somewhere then I would take them to the gogo bars. Sexy real girls are a lot more natural than men who pretend to be women.