RuPaul is speaking out against the proposed ban on minors attending drag shows in Texas.
During a recent appearance on “The Late Late Show", host James Corden acknowledged that drag has become mainstream globally, adding, “which makes to me and so many people what’s happening in Texas all the more shocking.”
Corden brought up the ban was that was proposed by lawmakers, which would not allow minors to attend drag shows in the state, before asking RuPaul his opinion on the matter.
“This is a diversion tactic to take the narrative away from the gun debate into something to scare people into thinking about something else and they’ve been successful,” the 61-year-old drag icon said. “They have changed the narrative away from the gun debate into this drag queen thing. It’s like y’all want to help your kids? Take away them guns, that will help your kids. Drag queens ain’t hurting nobody!”
The host of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars: Winners" went on to quote one of his famous lines, adding, “You know, you’re born naked and the rest in drag. Everybody’s in drag, OK?"
On Monday, June 6, two weeks after the shooting in Uvalde that left 19 children dead, Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton introduced legislation to ban minors from attending drag shows across the state. Slaton, a Republican, was prompted by a viral video on Twitter of children who attended the “Drag the Kids to Pride Drag Show” at the Mr. Misster bar that weekend, which was a “family friendly spin-off” of the bar’s “Champagne Drag Brunch.”
“Drag shows are no place for a child,” Slaton wrote on Twitter alongside a statement on his letterhead.
In the statement, Slaton wrote, “The events of this past weekend were horrifying and show a disturbing trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with sexualizing young children.”
“As a father of two young children, I would never take my children to a drag show and I know Speaker Dade Phelan and the rest of my Republican colleagues wouldn’t either,” he continued. “Protecting our own children isn’t enough, and our responsibility as lawmakers extends to the sexualization that is happening across Texas.”
In recents weeks, there has been a rise in threats made against LGBTQ+ rights advocates and activists in order to shut down events during Pride Month.
On Saturday, June 11, five members of the Proud Boys, a far-right white supremacist hate group, targeted a “Drag Queen Story Hour” at San Lorenzo Public Library in California. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said that a hate crime investigation had been opened.
A statement from Lt. Ray Kelly said that the men shouted “homophobic and transphobic slurs at the event organizer.” One man also wore a t-shirt with a photo of an AK-47 in the middle along with the words “Kill Your Local Pedophile” above.
On the same day last weekend, 31 members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front were also arrested outside of a Pride event in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, leading to a rise in death threats made against local police officers.