The liberal media rushed to defend Drag Queen Story Hour events for children following the shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs.
Various media outlets have not shied away from blaming conservatives for the shooting at Club Q that killed five and injured at least 25 others. Figures in the media, including MSNBC’s Joy Reid, have said the attacks on drag events for children have spurred hatred and violence against gay and transgender people.
Reid played footage of a drag queen changing the lyrics of “Wheels On The Bus” to “hair on a drag queen goes up, up, up.” The host said it is “sad” that drag queens being around children “scares right-wing people.”
“It makes me sad … that that scares right-wing people so much that they would try to ban it or your governor sued people over it, and then people act surprised when there’s violence against people who are trans and LGBTQ,” Reid said.
Pulse nightclub shooting survivor Brandon Wolf said it is harmless for children to view drag queens singing and reading stories to them at a public library. He said if such story hours are a major concern for a community compared to all other issues happening around the country, then the community is flourishing.
MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes said conservatives have become obsessed with drag queen story hours around children and have spread the false notion that kids are being indoctrinated. He criticized Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing the Parental Rights in Education bill into law, which prohibits the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades kindergarten through third grade, by suggesting that it led to hatred toward the community. (RELATED: MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Says It’s ‘Violent’ To Oppose Drag Queen Story Hour)
Later, he said performing in drag around children is an old tradition and thus it is “ludicrous” to be opposed to it.
“Drag is probably one of the oldest traditions in canon that exists, and children have been exposed to it for literally millennia so just as a point of historical fact, it’s like a ludicrous obsession to be like ‘oh, depraved modernity!'” Hayes said.
NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins argued that an all-ages drag brunch or story hour should not be targeted because drag queens are “human beings.”
“The Proud Boys will go and protest any drag brunch, any drag story hour, anything that a child might go to meet a drag queen just to show them that they’re human beings and people, they go there and they read Dr. Seuss there, they read regular books but it’s read by a drag queen and they have breakfast. It’s not some hyper-sexual event but that’s what it’s viewed as on the far-right,” he said.
NBC’s Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__): “An all ages drag brunch..that a child might go to meet a drag queen, just to show them they’re human beings & people. They go there and they read Dr. Seuss..It is not some hypersexual event, but that’s what it’s viewed as on the far right.” pic.twitter.com/n4pZhSQYy4
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) November 21, 2022
Drag Queen Story Hour has become prominent in schools and public libraries for toddler and elementary school-aged children. The program says it “captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models,” according to its website.