Children sit in awe. They witness the story of A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo and the bunny’s journey to getting married to his bunny boyfriend. 

The storyteller creates worlds for the children through the many stories they have to tell, and children witness these stories before their very eyes.

This storyteller is an entertainer with a passion for theatre and a love for children and is none other than a man dressed as a woman.

Passed in the Senate on April 5, 2023, Senate Bill 12 (SB12) follows the stance of not allowing men dressed as women or women dressed as men to be viewed by children, specifically when being portrayed sexually. In addition to this bill is Senate Bill 1601 (SB1601), removing library funding if men dressed as women or women dressed as men read books to children.

We at the Dispatch believe these bills are a slippery slope in the wrong direction. They are specifically designed to impede drag and LGBTQ rights as well as politicize issues that don’t require to be seen through a political lens. Child development and safety is not political issue.

While the stated purpose of the bill is to protect children from sexual and prurient interest, these bills seem to focus more on drag/LGBTQ censorship than child development. 

It is completely indisputable that children shouldn’t be exposed to sexual and prurient interests; however, these bills leave an indecent amount of interpretation that makes members of the drag and LGBTQ communities vulnerable to being targeted and marginalized.

Specifically following SB1601, individuals dressed in drag are not allowed to read to children in a library setting with the threat of the libraries losing their public funding. This contradicts SB12 where the main issue is sexual and prurient interests, revealing that the main issue Senator Homophobe has is only that the performers are men dressed as women or women dressed as men. 

Calgary-based registered psychologist specializing in child and adolescent mental health, Ashleigh Yule, and psychotherapist, board-certified clinical sexologist, as well as founder/clinical director of The Center for Relationship and Sexual Health, Joe Kort both seem to agree on how damaging drag is to adolescent development.

Simply put, it’s not. Yule states children’s and adolescents’ views on sexuality are fluid, especially because they haven’t been exposed to gender norms, with drag specifically challenging gender norms in positive ways; allowing adolescents to express themselves regardless of old-fashioned gender norms.

In addition to this, Kort states that exposing anyone, including children, “people with a different sexual orientation or gender identity doesn’t influence their innate sexual orientation or gender identity.” 

He also includes how little people focus on how bigoted ideals as well as institutional harms, are much worse than the ridiculous fear that children can “be turned gay” due to LGBTQ+ exposure.

Yule adds that some drag shows include more “flirty” and sexual performances, which can result in risky sexual behavior later in life. 

However, there are also flirty and sexual performances where the performers conform to a traditional set of gender norms. 

In the same way, parents restrict their children from viewing these sexual and flirty performances, parents should restrict their children from viewing the same shows with drag and LGBTQ performers. 

Sexual orientation has nothing to do with how sexual a performance is. The parent must protect their child from exposure to harmful sexual and prurient acts, regardless of the performers’ sexual orientation.

There is only one real answer to these questions. Prejudice and homophobia. No one on either side of this bill wishes for children to be exposed to sexual and prurient acts. The Drag and LGBTQ+ community wishes to protect children as much as Sen. Hughes. 

A solution to these bills should be focusing on real issues that stunt child development. Specifically when looking at sexual and prurient interests, sites found on the Internet are the main accusers. 

We need to focus on how children are being exposed to sexual acts and not on how few speculate children get confused when facing the LGBTQ and drag communities.