Weaponizing children for political warfare should be out of bounds 

The new stunt of staging "family friendly" drag queen reviews and readings for children illustrates the apparent weakening of one of the few remaining points of consensus in the increasingly bitter culture wars: "Kids are off limits."

For example, one small positive point in our political warfare is that, while first ladies have been fair game, the minor children of the president have been generally left alone. Obama's daughters, George W. Bush's daughters, and Chelsea Clinton, all received minimal and generally favorable media coverage. Biden, Reagan, and Bush Sr. had no minor children while in office. Other than Rosie O'Donnell's shameless suggestion that Baron Trump must be autistic, he was pretty much left alone. This restraint must have taken a lot of self-control on the part of the rabid partisans.

But recent years have seen the shameful use of children as "props" in political demonstrations in both conservative and liberal causes. We have all seen young children at demonstrations with their rabidly partisan parents carrying signs that they were unable to either read or understand, and joining in scripted chants for the TV cameras. Still, taking kids to drag reviews is a new low.

Why do it in the first place? What's the objective? Drag has always been an adult thing involving the sexually suggestive. What possible interest of the child is being served? While I have heard many children demanding a trip to Disneyland or to Chuck E. Cheese, I have never heard even one express an interest in going to see men dressed as women, whether reading or in a cabaret act. If you are just trying to engage kids in reading, what makes a drag queen an especially suitable person to read to children? Why not, say, superheroes? This stunt is being done by parents trying to demonstrate how progressive they are, not for the benefit of their kids.

If your objective is merely to expose kids to different lifestyles, why drag queens? They don't represent the LGBTQ community, most of whom dress in gender-appropriate clothing and don't affect the exaggerated mannerism of drag queens. How much "training" can a small child grasp? At an early age, the most intellectually digestible and useful lesson can be easily distilled down to, "Some people are different than you. Don't mess with them."

Want to stop the bullying of LGBTQ kids? Start enforcing the rules and suspend bullies, although the educational establishment seems allergic to the idea of suspending problem kids. It is unfortunate that teachers have been hamstrung in maintaining control by laws such as the California statute forbidding the suspension of disruptive students.

It is obvious that one of the objectives is to taunt those with traditional values. It is easy to visualize the free-associational thought process that produced this tactic. Some confrontational activists were searching for something they could do that would really outrage middle America, but without getting them arrested. "Hey! Drag queens! Why not take kids to drag reviews and readings by drag queens? It's not illegal, but it will really piss those people off ... ." And then, after provoking the intended outcry, they can launch into the predictable display of performative victimization.

It is pretty obvious from stunts like these that the unstated agenda is to not only provoke middle America, but to normalize gender fluidity and sexual exploration. These kids are being "weaponized" for the "war on gender." But is this helpful? Like it or not, these kids will be growing up in a conventionally gendered world determined by biology, so why confuse them? Kids will get the message that their existing gender is "wrong" and that they should be something else. Plus, the rest of the LBGTQ community, most of whom are happy with their gender, will be impacted by association with the public reaction to these tactics. Provoking and offending the rest of society seem like poor methods to achieving the goal of societal acceptance.

Nearly everyone feels protective toward children, so why exploit them in a way that offends and polarizes people? Politically, it will not win over any of the centrist voters that the Democrats need to win elections, and playing to the progressive fringe and those who like to challenge all convention is a losing strategy. Are Democrats in such thrall to the herd instincts of their liberal tribe that they are willing to figuratively swarm, lemming-like, off of the cliff in solidarity with the relatively small portion of the the Democratic constituency who just want to outrage moderates and conservatives? Δ

John Donegan is a retired attorney in Pismo Beach, who would look fetching in a skirt, but who doesn't have the legs for it and lacks the musical talent to do cabaret. Send a response to [email protected] and New Times just might publish it.