“The View” co-host Ana Navarro ranted against Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday for filing a complaint against a bar that hosted a drag show with minors present.
Navarro claimed DeSantis is attempting to portray LBGTQ people as “groomers” by suing a Miami bar called R House for allegedly exposing minors to sexually explicit content.
“He is suing them because there was one brunch where there was one child and there’s a video of that and he thinks that’s inappropriate and he thinks that’s worth, instead of passing property insurance in Florida, he thinks it’s worth going after the drag queens,” Navarro said.
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Actor and singer Billy Porter, who joined the panel Friday as a guest, said conservatives are pushing back against drag queens and the LGBTQ community because “the change has already happened.” He accused DeSantis and anyone opposing drag shows of labeling LGBTQ people as “pedophiles” for liking to wear dresses.
“In our news cycles, we lean into the negative all the time. If it bleeds, it leads,” he said. “We’re not talking about the positive, the positive part of all of this stuff, including that, DeSantis, is the change has already happened. Y’all are still trying to label us pedophiles because we put on dresses. Stop that! There’s like a direct line with these people. I don’t even like children!”
The Florida governor condemned the exposure of children to drag queens during a Thursday press conference. (RELATED: MSNBC’S Chris Hayes Says It’s ‘Violent’ To Oppose Drag Queen Story Hour)
“Having kids involved in this is wrong. That is not consistent with our law and policy in the state of Florida and it is a disturbing trend in our society to try to sexualize these young people,” he said. “That is not the way you look out for our children. You protect children, you do not expose them to things that are inappropriate.”
Republican Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini announced his plan to introduce legislation banning drag shows for children in early June. The legislation, if passed, would make it a felony for an adult to bring a child to a sexually-themed drag show. and would allow authorities to interfere and take away parental rights if these violations occur.
Republican Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton announced similar plans to ban drag shows for minors after a “family-friendly drag show” video went viral showing a drag queen with a sign behind him that read “it’s not gonna lick itself.”
Drag Queen Story Hour events have become prominent in schools and libraries to teach young children about “gender fluidity.” The program “captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models,” its website says.
Children have also been exposed to sexually explicit drag shows out in public, seemingly by parental consent. A California middle school subjected students to a drag queen by the name of “Nicole Jizz,” who danced in front of the children.