Pastors’ Plan to Cancel Drag Show Backfires Beautifully

Hilariously, a group of pastors’ attempt to cancel a drag show in New York has backfired in the most delicious of ways. This show, called Drag Me to Brunch, was held at The Lockstone, a local event center.

The letter, sent privately to The Lockstone and published openly online, asked that the event center cancel the show, since Pastor Tim Lindsay and 23 other clergy members didn’t want to see the queens performing at a 21-plus event. Of course, The Lockstone declined this request, and the open letter only gave the event more publicity. The show sold out.

A few highlights of the letter are assertions of drag shows being inherently sexual, the normalization of drag shows leading to drag queen story times, and the age-old misogynistic idea that sex workers and adult media stars are less-than and should never be allowed around children.

Drag shows are not inherently sexual. They may be suggestive, but shows that contain suggestive jokes and performances are often 21-plus or adults only. In the case of drag story times, they are never sexual or suggestive. Queens are not monsters; they’re people who are capable of appropriately interacting with children just the same as anyone else.

The sudden hate campaign against drag shows by the church and conservatives definitely reads as projection or deflection. Conservative politicians, many religious social media influencers, and various churches have a fraught history of concerning interactions with vulnerable individuals, both children and adults. So many different studies have been conducted, and the statistics don’t lie, despite being a narrow measure of those who were willing to come forward and speak on their experiences.

Of the adults who were capable of coming forward, at least 60% of most congregations have experienced some form of sexual misconduct within their congregation, often from the pastors, while there are no ties whatsoever between drag queens and grooming.