Why Can’t We Get Rid of Drag Queen Story Hour?
June is here and Pride Month is back—but it’s not all rainbows and parades like it used to be.
For years, Americans were told that so-called Pride events were all about tolerance and equal treatment, something we should celebrate like the Fourth of July. Ultimately it didn’t sell. Pride celebrations have become inextricably linked to the broader LGBTQ+Infinity agenda that extends well beyond gay rights and embraces the idea that gender is fluid, biological sex is irrelevant, and traditional institutions such as marriage, faith, and family are relics of an oppressive past. Pride parades usually feature lots of drag queens and nearly naked men, more than a few of whom are dressed in anti-religious costumes (scantily dressed men in nun outfits are common). They are no place for children.
Americans have pushed back. Many, even on the left, believe that a big factor in President Donald Trump’s re-election is because he is for “us,” and his opponent, Kamala Harris, was for “they/them.”
Polling consistently shows that most Americans oppose allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports and support maintaining sex-specific spaces, such as locker rooms and restrooms for women.
Pride celebrations in many cities can’t find sponsors anymore as corporations reconsider whether it’s worth alienating customers to add their brand to a “pride” event.
Americans delivered a resounding “no thanks” to Bud Light after it featured Dylan Mulvaney, a man pretending to be a woman, in its advertising. Customers also turned their back on Target after it marketed a line of cross-dressing clothing.
So why has there been so little progress in eliminating drag shows for children, most commonly manifested in what has become known as Drag Queen Story Hours?
Texas has spent several legislative sessions attempting ban drag shows that target kids. Senate Bill 12, which passed in 2023, prohibited sexually oriented performances in the presence of minors and on public property. Texas has gotten leave to enforce the law, but court challenges continue.
Some educational leaders, including Texas public school librarians, believe it is important that children see drag shows. They insist drag queen performances are part of the mainstream, so they belong in public schools.
It is interesting to note that, as late as the 1950s, educators allowed and even advocated for black face shows to be performed in public schools, not just across the south but across the nation.
A couple years ago, I wrote an article titled “Drag Shows are Blackface,” to show that the message and intent behind drag shows and black face are not just similar, they are virtually identical.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture describes blackface this way:
“Minstrelsy, comedic performances of ‘blackness’ by whites in exaggerated costumes and make-up, cannot be separated fully from the racial derision and stereotyping at its core. By distorting the features and culture of African Americans—including their looks, language, dance, deportment, and character—white Americans were able to codify whiteness across class and geopolitical lines as its antithesis.”
Replace “blackness” with “womanhood” and the comparison is impossible to ignore. Drag performances typically portray women through exaggerated makeup, costumes with oversized breasts and hips, mannerisms, voices, stereotypes including, catty, bitchy and stupid, alongside highly sexualized behavior. Like blackface before it, drag turns a human identity into a theatrical caricature.
Most Americans recognize that blackface is rooted in racist stereotypes and perpetrates heinous indignities toward black people. Blackface is not illegal – all Americans have freedom of speech – but few adults would consider attending a blackface show today.
Why isn’t it the same for Drag Queen Story Hours? We can’t even get Drag Queen Story Hours outlawed in front of children. Scantily dressed men across the country routinely invade public schools and public libraries where they read gender identity-infused stories to kids. Boston is hosting nearly two dozen “story hours” for children as young as 3 during the month of June.
According to its perpetrators, the goals of the Drag Queen Story Hour movement are to teach “imagination, self-expression, and the fluidity of gender at every age. Through glamorous, playful, and proudly queer role models, it creates joyful spaces that reflect the diversity of the world we live in.”
That’s one way to look at it. Another is to recognize that drag carries the same hate-filled message contained in blackface, except it is directed at women. If we really want to celebrate Pride Month, let’s get rid of Drag Queen Story Hours.
Here’s my previous article, “Drag Shows are Black Face.”
Have a great weekend!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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