Kansas and Taxpayer Funded Drag Shows
Article - 4 minute read
Kansas made international headlines on Monday, October 24 after British news source DailyMail.com came out with an article titled ‘Republicans tear into Kansas’ Democratic Governor for taxpayer-funded ‘all ages’ drag show called the ‘DADA Ball.’ This article revealed pictures of drag queens performing in front of both adults and children at the ‘DADA Ball.’ After the release of the story, other news sources came out writing articles also on the DADA Ball.
However, left-leaning news source the Kansas City Star came out with an article the same day as the Daily Mail’s article, attempting to discredit the Daily Mail’s reporting.
“Among the backers of the event host is the Kansas Creative Arts & Industries Commission, which is a part of the state Department of Commerce. The department is led by Kelly’s lieutenant governor, David Toland,” the Daily Mail article states.
It also mentions that the department denied funding the drag show, a point of which the Kansas City Star also highlighted.
However, Daily Mail noted a KMUW advertisement for the event which stated, “Chainlink Gallery Place is facilitated by Harvester Arts, in partnership with Bokeh Development, the Wichita Community Foundation and Lifeboat Creative and with support from the Kansas Creative Arts & Industries Commission and Knight Foundation.” Emphasis added.
The Kansas City Star’s article made it seem as though Kansas Commerce spokesman Patrick Lowry was calling the Daily Mail’s reporting “blatantly wrong.” However, if you actually read the Daily Mail article, you will see that this is a quote Lowry gave to the Daily Mail that they included in their article to get the other side of the story.
“This is blatantly wrong. Neither the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission nor the Kansas Department of Commerce sponsored the DADA Ball event that took place on October 22, nor did they give a relevant grant to any of the sponsoring organizations,” Lowry said.
Lowry did admit that both host organizations did receive grant money from the state, but the money was not directly used for the events.
Founder of host-group Harvester Arts Kristen Beal said mention of the arts commission was a mistake.
However, Director of OpenStudios Elizabeth Stevenson said as a request by the commission the art commission’s logo would be placed on all their promotional material after receiving a $10,000 Reimagined Spaces grant.
This calls into question as to how it would have been a “mistake” on the Harvester Arts advertisements, especially as someone must deliberately take the logo, place it on the advertisements, and look them over.
According to the Kansas City Star’s reporting, Beal said in an email that “this event and all programming that takes place at Chainlink Gallery Place is funded through the Knight Foundation and by private donors.”
The Kansas City Star also says, “The organization has received funding for a visiting artist’s residency unrelated to the Dada ball.”
OpenStudios, also in Wichita, has been talked about as well due to another “family-friendly” drag show called “Mall Monster Mash” which took place on October 28.
As previously stated, they did get a $10,000 grant from the state which was for utility and administrative costs in their space. OpenStudios is a program run by the non-profit Fisch Bowl Inc, offering artists free studio space. Stevenson said no funds from the state will go toward the planned Halloween event, but due to the requests of the art’s commission their advertisements for the event will have the commission’s logo.
The Johnson County Republican Party took to Facebook to show the advertisements for the drag show by OpenStudios.
In a vendor spotlight for Koji T. Liby, a picture of two pierced tongues French kissing, even depicting swapping saliva, is showcased. The bottom of this vendor spotlight reads, “ALL AGES.”
Democrats and Republicans have been going back and forth on this issue with Republicans tearing into Democrats while Democrats deny any taxpayer funding going to the events. Nevertheless, this issue is one that Kansas Republicans are using against Governor Laura Kelly and her administration, along with the fact that she forced government lockdowns that resulted in small businesses deemed “nonessential” to be shutdown, some for good, and the inevitable record high inflation from Democratic policies. This is just to name a few things that Kansas Republicans are going after, but Democrats have been saying they’re using these drag shows because Republican candidate for Kansas Governor Derek Schmidt has “nothing else to run on.”
As Publisher of The Anderson County Review Dane Hicks said in his October 27 opinion piece in referencing (presumably) Kansas media, “Forever Democrat apologists, these media-types swallowed without question and then regurgitated for their declining readerships the fast and wafer-thin denials of Lt. Governor David Toland’s Department of Commerce and the Wichita organizations now outed as groomers. The media joined them in their chorus of ‘just because the state funded us and we sponsored drag shows doesn’t mean… well… nevermind…’”
With the drama of the “taxpayer funded drag shows,” among other noted issues, and with Election Day being tomorrow, it will be interesting to see who Kansans will favor for the upcoming term.
Thank you for exposing the depraved Laura Kelly administrations action against children and family values.