As child-oriented drag shows appear to be taking center stage during “pride month” this year, Drag Queen Story Hour and other drag-related events in public libraries and schools have become somewhat of an institution in recent years.
As it happens, New York City has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to drag groups to perform and do presentations for public schoolchildren, often without parental knowledge or consent, The New York Post reported.
In one shocking example, the Post notes that the group Drag Story Hour NYC has received $46,000 in city contracts to appear in public schools, libraries, and street festivals — in the last month alone.
According to the group’s website, they have sent drag queens to 34 different public schools for 49 different performances in all five boroughs of the Big Apple.
In total, the group has received $207,000 in funds since 2018 for such events, which sometimes cater to children as young as 3.
“I can’t believe this. I am shocked,” state Assembly candidate Helen Qiu, the mother of a Manhattan middle schooler, told the Post. “I would be furious if he was exposed without my consent. This is not part of the curriculum.”
“I am considering pulling funding to any school in my district that is implementing Drag Queen Story Hour,” echoed City Council member Vickie Paladino (R-Queens). “We are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the pockets of hardworking New York taxpayers … to fund a program teaching little children about their gender fluidity? Not. On. My. Watch.”
We have reported on countless Drag Queen Story Hour events over the last five years (the NYC group recently dropped “Queen” from their name), but according to the Post, as the trend of mixing drag performers with young children has spilled over from public library story time to public school classrooms, new features have been incorporated into the events.
For example, some drag performers had children choose their own pronouns for an activity, while another taught a group of middle schoolers how to do drag makeup.
While some parents said they were casually informed that the drag event was coming up but given no option to opt their child out, others say they only found out when their children came home that a drag queen had visited their classroom.
“I didn’t get any notice,” complained one parent. “My daughter actually came home and told me that a drag queen came to the school … I feel like it would have been better for that conversation to happen at home.”
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