A North Texas Republican lawmaker announced an effort to ban minors from drag shows following viral video showing children as young as seven-years-old giving cash tips to a drag performers in Dallas on Saturday..Republican Bryan Slaton from Royse City tweeted: “I would never take my children to a drag show," adding “I will be filing legislation to address this new issue.”.Democrats are already arguing the move to legislate is a distraction from the issues facing the state..“The events of this past weekend were horrifying and show a disturbing trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with sexualizing young children," Slaton said in a release..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. Protecting our own children isn’t enough, and our responsibility as lawmakers extends to the sexualization that is happening across Texas.”.“I promised my voters that I would stand up for their values and fight to protect Texas kids. I was re-elected on that promise and I intend to keep it by authoring legislation to defend kids from being subjected to drag shows and other inappropriate events. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this important legislation.”.The cash tipping incident with the children in the video took place at the Dallas gay bar, Mr. Misster. The event was billed as a family-friendly late-morning drag brunch on Saturday. Parents and children cheer and dance with performers, videos from the event show..Slaton is reported as saying drag performers are “perverted adults [who] are obsessed with sexualizing young children.”.The Mr. Misster bar’s proprietors issued a statement Tuesday saying the event was to provide a safe space and to raise money for LGBTQ youth. The bar’s contact also said that protestors who were outside the venue at showtime were “yelling homophobic threats, transphobic remarks and vile accusations at these children and parents.”.Slaton called drag performances "inappropriate sexual content.” .“There are a few different ways we could approach banning this horrendous activity.”.In a retort, Dallas Rep. Jessica Gonzalez, the vice-chair of the LGBTQ+ caucus, said, “This is yet just another attack, another way to demonize a community that simply just wants to exist.”.Gonzalez said the announcement and attention given it by other state Republican politicians is designed to deflect attention from the energy sector challenges and the gun reform debate following the Uvalde school shooting..“We’ve got a lot of work here to do, and it’s unfortunate that some lawmakers are choosing to district people from the real issues at hand,” she said..“Conflating the two obviously shouldn’t be done, but I think it’s being done on purpose now to basically rile people’s emotions up,” he said. “There’s these distractions coming along that are pitting [the] working class against each other when we really should be solving other problems.”.“They don’t want people to tell them how to raise their kids, so they shouldn’t tell other people how to raise their kids,” said Gonzalez..RuPaul’s Drag Race superstar Alyssa Edwards stepped up on social media to react to the proposed bill. The artist chastised Slaton saying he should have his sights on more pressing issues..“My thoughts: 1) Our God is a God of Love. 2) Parents are a child’s 1st & most important teacher/role model. 3) Drag is an artform, which is subjective. 4) You, sir, have tweeted more about #drag than the loss at #Uvalde. Is this truly about children or politics?” Edwards tweeted..Slaton's release also stated he would continue "his fight" to have gender-affirming healthcare considered "child abuse" in the state.
