Earlier this month, VICE celebrated a 6-year-old boy named Asa, who has been groomed into becoming a drag performer known as “Lulu LovelyTwirls.” Asa began performing at the age of four after his parents, Aaron and Jennifer, took him to a Pride event, where they claim he got the idea of becoming a drag queen. Jennifer, Asa’s mother, attributes Asa’s love of drag to his love of dance and that “the real conversation about drag started the first time he went to Pride with us.” Aaron, Asa’s father, didn’t see anything wrong with bringing their son to a pride festival despite Asa being four years old, because he “thought it would be a good way to bring our kids and let them see the diversity of the world around us.” Asa soon became obsessed with drag. He started referring to himself as a drag queen and started doing monthly performances. Asa has become a star in the industry, with not only his parents celebrating his performances, but has also led to one of the hairstylists claiming that Asa could become the next RuPaul. The boys’ mother claims that “he was born to do this,” and that this is “genuine.”
“He said to me one day, ‘I’m going to go put on my dress and I am going to sing and you are going to video me and put me on Facebook. Everybody can give me likes.’ And I said, ‘okay,’” Asa’s mother claims. Asa’s father told VICE that he still considers his family to be “traditional” but “we have a child that’s interested in something that’s maybe not as traditional.” VICE loved the story of a 4-year-old becoming a drag queen so much that they did an entire video on Asa’s rise to fame, and followed Asa around as he showed them his barbie doll house and pride flags that he has displayed in his room.
Child Protective Services being called on the family wasn’t even enough to get them to question what they are doing to their son. After the investigation, the parents doubled down and then started openly talking about their 6 year old son doing drag. Asa and his parents testified earlier this year after a bill was proposed by Nebraska state Senator Dave Murmin, that seeks to ban anyone under the age of 19 from attending drag shows and making it a Class I misdemeanor for those over the age of 19 that knowingly brings an individual under the age of 19 to a drag show. The bill bans anyone under the age of 21 from attending if the establishment does serve alcohol. Business or nonprofit owners who host drag shows could also face a misdemeanor charge if someone underage attends the show and the establishment would face fines of $10,000 for each violation.
Trans extremist Erin Reed, our biggest fan, made a viral dishonest tiktok video scaremongering about a similar bill and condemned it partly because Gays Against Groomers is cited on page 14. The courts took a quote from our website, which said that most gay adults disagree with pushing drag events onto children. They specified that this was a case of grown adults dancing provocatively for minors. Gays Against Groomers was referenced in order to reinforce the fact that cross-dressing for children has nothing to do with "gay or lesbian rights,” and "transvestism is not indicative of being gay or lesbian.” It even cites multiple examples of gender non-conforming people and differentiates between gay rights and grown adults putting on inappropriate shows with minors. These bills have nothing to do with being gay and everything to do with protecting children from these horrid drag events. Shame on you, Vice.
Drag is not for kids. And it is not controversial to say so.
REFERENCES
ABC News 8. (2023, January 13). Nebraska State Senator proposes banning minors from attending drag shows. https://www.klkntv.com/nebraska-state-senator-proposes-banning-minors-from-attending-drag-shows/
Erin Reed. (2023, September 22). Texas Anti-Abortion Judge Suggests Drag Is "Sexualized," Allows Ban. Erin In The Morning. https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/texas-anti-abortion-judge-suggests
Nebraska Senate. (2023). Legislative Bill 371. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/108/PDF/Intro/LB371.pdf
Townhall. (2023, November 10). Left-Wing outlet celebrates 6-year-old ‘drag queen’.
YouTube. (2023). Why Is This 6-Year Old Doing Drag? | Child’s Play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJiVfo1ufX0