Newest activism idea from North Central Kansas Pride is high key cringe
Opinion/LGBT Issues - 4 minute read
On April 7, 2023, you might notice more men than usual wearing dresses and skirts. This is because North Central Kansas Pride, a nonprofit out of Salina, Kansas, is doing a sort of “Red Nose Day” except a lot gayer and not to help children in any meaningful way. Instead, this would be to build “awareness” that drag is entertainment.
In a Facebook post, the North Central Kansas Pride page wrote,
“For the past couple weeks, I've been thinking about what we can do to send a message to people about Drag Queens and Kings. I'd LIKE to get a group together and stand outside the capitol in Topeka. That said, would there be enough people show up to support? I have a number of flags that we can take and fly.
“It seems that our lawmakers care more about a few trans people playing sports than the thousands of people needing health care or funding education.
“Something else we can do is wear a dress/skirt on April 7th. This is kind of like "Red Nose Day". The idea is to make people aware that Drag is entertainment.
“We need to unite and show people that we are here and not going anywhere.”
There are a few problems with this post, but before we get into that, I want to give a little bit of context. Senate Bill 149 is currently in Committee on Judiciary. What this bill does is expand the crime of promoting obscenity to minors to include drag performances. The bill does not make drag shows a crime in Kansas unless they are being performed in front of children. That is what this is all about. Promoting the idea that children should attend drag shows for “entertainment” purposes.
In their post, they claim that Kansas lawmakers care more about trans people in sports than healthcare or funding education—presumably taking shots at HB 2238, the fairness in women’s sports act. While this might be true for some Kansas lawmakers, a blanket statement like this should not be made as things like healthcare and funding education affect a lot of Kansans including Kansas lawmakers, so this does not wash.
Second, when government gets involved with healthcare, healthcare tends to become less affordable. When Medicaid and Medicare started in 1965 the government increased demand while also restricting the supply of doctors and hospitals. This caused healthcare prices to surge at twice the rate of inflation. By the way, Obamacare was basically the same thing. Government needs to stay out of healthcare.
Third, when it comes to funding education, our education system is way over-bloated. The Kansas Policy Institute (KPI) found that we will be spending over $17,000 per student in Kansas for 2023. For reference, annual tuition for a residential graduate student at KU is about $10,000 less than that. The idea that you can just throw money at something and it will be fixed is fundamentally flawed, but education lobbyists will always talk about how they need more money while downplaying the absolute failure of our education system.
The last thing that really misses the mark is this idea that people (and probably what they really mean is Republicans) don’t know that drag is entertainment. However, people are very aware that it’s entertainment, but most people understand it’s adult entertainment.
As a gay man who has gone to drag shows before, I’ve literally seen a drag queen rip off her skirt to reveal assless chaps midperformance. Also, and especially when I was an 18 and 19-year-old twink, the number of creepy old men who stare at you is a lot, and it’s just not an environment for children whatsoever, especially with the amount of drinking and drugs that go on at these events, because yes, drinking and drugs happen at drag shows. There was literally an all ages drag show in Lawrence, Kansas in December 2022 called, ‘Holi'slay'’ that promoted a cocktail hour.
I’ve had someone tell me that I need to go to an all ages drag show because they’re “different,” so I broke it to them that I have. The only things different about them is the time of day they’re put on and presence of minors. That is it. By the way, watching a five-year-old give a dollar bill to a big breasted drag queen that’s performing is uncomfortable.
I’m going to end this by saying, drag queens, kings, and trans people, everybody knows you’re here. You have made that abundantly clear. Nobody, except for the fringes of the far-right, expect you to go anywhere. We’re just telling you to leave the kids alone. That’s not homophobic. That’s not transphobic. You are actually causing more damage to the LGBT community by not doing so. So please, as a gay man, myself, just stop.
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Once again your take on an issue hits the points out of the park and you do it with authenticity. Thank you!