RuPaul Andre Charles, drag queen and host of the show RuPaul’s Drag Race, has decided to say the quiet part out loud. Earlier this month, he decided to make a public statement on the political culture war over drag shows, including a restrictive Tennessee law that came in response to explicit drag shows being marketed to kids.
In a video released to Instagram, RuPaul stood in front of an American flag. “They think our love, our light, our laughter and our joy are signs of weakness,” he stated. “They’rewrong, because that is our strength. Drag queens are the Marines of the queer movement.”
And that is precisely it. Parents and educators and sane citizens who disapprove of sexualized entertainment to kids don’t want the “Marines of the queer movement” reading to their children at libraries. They don’t want the “Marines of the queer movement” being featured at county fairs or at high school student events. And they don’t want the “Marines of the queer movement” being brought into schools to shape their children’s views on sex and sexuality.
Opposition to the new trend of drag shows for children has nothing to do with opposition to love or light or laughter or joy. It has everything to do with the fact that these shows aren’t about that — they are the vanguard of the queer movement.Many of us have gotten a pretty good look at the queer movement, and we don’t want it anywhere near our kids.
