‘Take away them guns’ – Ru Paul blasts proposed drag show ban

Earlier this month, lawmakers in Texas proposed a ban on minors watching drag shows across the state. RuPaul has some thoughts on that.

 

Republican politician Bryan Slaton, from the Texas House of Representatives, has filed a bill that outlines plans to “ban drag shows in the presence of minors in Texas.”

 

On Monday, June 6, two weeks after the horrific shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children dead, Slaton introduced a legislative ban on… drag.

 

The law would ban minors from attending drag shows across the state.

Obviously kids are already banned from age-restricted venues that show drag with adult themes, but the genre of drag entertainment that is choreographed specifically FOR young people (a bit like Panto in the UK, for example) is a whole other, much more age-appropriate, matter. 

 

Slaton, obviously a Republican, was prompted to propose the law by a viral video on Twitter of children who attended the “Drag the Kids to Pride Drag Show” at the Mr. Misster bar, which was a family friendly spin-off of the bar’s “Champagne Drag Brunch.”

 

Slaton claimed the legislation would be “protecting kids from drag shows” and other so-called “inappropriate displays”. 

“Drag shows are no place for a child,” Slaton wrote on Twitter alongside a statement on his letterhead. 

 

Drag Queen Story Hour – an organisation that brings drag queens to libraries, schools, and bookstores to read stories to children across the US – said attempts to criminalize Drag make “zero sense.”

Jonathan Hamilt, executive director of DQSH, told Independent that the organisation refuses to “give in to politicians who are too bigoted and boring to comprehend”, adding that its wonderful “vision for a world in which every child can be safe fully expressing who they are”.

 

Unquestionably as a result of all this poisonous rhetoric about drag being passed around social media spaces by the far-right, earlier this week a group of men stormed a Drag Queen Story Hour in California.

 

The ‘Proud Boys’, those behind the attack, are a far-right white supremacist hate group with anti-LGBTQ+ affiliations, who terrifyingly entered the library, which was filled with kids and parents, to cause trouble.

One man wore a t-shirt with an image of a large AK-47 in the middle, and the words “Ki** Your Local Pe**hile” plastered above it in yellow. 

 

The drag queen in question, meanwhile, is a former teacher with 10 years of experience and a masters in social work, who has also been a charity volunteer most of their life. 

Earlier this week, New York City Mayor, Eric Adams spoke in defence of drag queens after GOP politicians and public figures on social media went on an attack, accusing drag artists of ‘grooming’ kids.

 

Also this week, during an episode of the Late Late Show, James Corden brought up the proposed ban, before asking RuPaul his opinion on the matter.

 

Ru STATING THE COPLETE FU*KNG OBVIOUS said:

“It’s a diversion tactic to take the narrative away from the gun debate into something [else], to scare people into thinking about something else. And they’ve been successful – they have changed the narrative away from the gun debate into this drag queen thing. Y’all want to help your kids? Take away them guns, that will help your kids! Drag queens ain’t hurt nobody. You’re born naked and the rest is drag. Everybody’s in drag. Child, please.”

 

Watch the clip below (2 minutes in):

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by GLUE magazine 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@thegluemagazine)

 

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