Child drag queens

Apparently, there are still a few people left who did not get the memo about wrongthink. After Twitter dredged up an interview Mario Lopez did with conservative personality Candace Owens in June, he was promptly schooled: it is 2019, after all, and no longer acceptable to ask questions about transgender doctrine. In response to Owens’s comments about the ‘weird trend’ wherein celebrities believe their kids have the ‘mental authority’ to ‘pick their gender’, Lopez agreed, saying he was ‘blown away, too.’ The actor and host of Extra added that he thought it was ‘dangerous as a parent’ to accept a three-year-old’s announcement that they are the opposite sex as concrete fact.

Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire charged with sex trafficking minors, was found injured in his Manhattan jail cell on Thursday. Either Epstein did this to himself or – far from his private jets and mansions – he encountered the honor of thieves. It’s understandable to not feel any sympathy for a wealthy and powerful man who exploited and abused children in the most disgusting of ways. However, it’s worth considering whether characters like Epstein have become scapegoats for something in which we are all complicit. Over 10 years ago, Epstein was charged with the sexual abuse of underage girls, but managed to use his money and influence to wiggle out of a long sentence and keep off the sex offender’s list.

This week, a few right-wing hit pieces have emerged regarding the ‘controversy’ surrounding Desmond is Amazing, an 11-year-old drag kid, due to his appearance in a video with Michael Alig, who Desmond cites as an ‘inspiration’. For those who are unaware, Michael Alig is a Club Kids founder who served 17 years in prison for beating his drug dealer to death, dissolving the body in acid for over a week, dismembering the corpse, and then finally dumping it in the Hudson River. Now, how many of us can honestly say we’ve never done anything like that?

‘Desmond is Amazing’ claims Huffpost Queer Voices, is an ‘inspiring drag kid’ who proves that ‘the future is queer.’ Desmond Napoles is a 12-year-old boy who says that he was inspired to start dressing in drag when he watched RuPaul’s Drag Race with his mom when he was two years old. Since 2014, Desmond has been performing at drag events and Gay Pride marches in costumes and make-up. Many think that Desmond is an inspiration; proof that one can dress and speak however one prefers. Desmond has collaborated with fashion brands like Gypsy Sport and appeared at events like the New York Fashion Week.