Letter: Nothing to fear at this year’s Pride festival

To the Editor-

After a couple of great drama-free Pride festivals, Stevens Point’s annual event is facing an uptick in threats this year. Why the increased moral panic? This hatred is pushing to not just discourage, or discriminate against LGBTQ2+ people in this community but to drive them out altogether.

The attacks are organized and well funded by hate-mongering Christian nationalists, conservative legislators, and the people who fund them, and especially by the newly minted, pearl-clutching Q-amons called Moms for Liberty.

Going after a form of entertainment called Drag (people dressing up in exaggerated costumes of different genders for fun) and being a giant buzzkill to a time-honored tradition during Pride, these child-protectors have left the safe confines of their churches to monitor libraries, public restrooms and story times and to shriek, shrilly, about protecting the children. All while cutting funding for everything from food assistance to public education, and ignoring the spate of violent mass-shooting taking the lives of thousands of children across the country every year.

But let’s focus on drag queen story times. By all means. When 90 percent of all child sex abuser are either family members or others close to victims like (youth pastors, priests, coaches, and family friends) the biggest threat to children seems to be coming from the VERY RARE, VERY PUBLIC PERFORMANCE of…reading children’s books while wearing a wig and heels. *GASP*

Drag is performative. It is an art form which has been in existence for literally thousands of years. Everyone from the ancient Greeks to Bugs Bunny has gotten in on the act.

You know what else is performance? Movies, television, and stand-up comedy. All of those things are tailored to their audiences. Some of these things are not for young children. In the first half hour of the movie Iron Man, Tony Stark, the character played by Robert Downey, Jr., aggressively flirts with an attractive female reporter and promptly falls into bed with her. He also has a stripper pole in his private jet, which the all-female (attractive, no uggos or fatties!) flight attendants make use of while pulling off their uniforms

Can you guess how many seven year-olds have seen Iron Man? A LOT. A lot of them.

I don’t see a lot of people boycotting Marvel or protesting outside of movie theaters.

Lots of people dressed up or down to read stories to kids. Mr. Rogers, Captain Kangaroo, comes to mind.

But the prudes out there want to scream about sexualizing the children; grooming them, if you will. Never mind that the crime of grooming children usually occurs over months, if not years, by, mostly heterosexual men.

People crippled by fear, shame, religious dogma, and ignorance strike out at a teeny, tiny percentage of queer people who are just there to read a story to a bunch of kids. By conflating queerness with pedophelia, they create a monster where none exists.

A straw man with fabulous makeup and nails.

Kids do NOT see a drag queen as sexual. Nor should they. They don’t see the world the way adults do. So rather than project fear and hatred, maybe a few adults should try setting a good example of showing tolerance and love for their fellow human beings. Or you know, they can choose not to take their kids to a drag queen story time. And leave the families that want to enjoy them alone.

Lisa Pett
Stevens Point