From a recent election report:
Former friends and colleagues of Ms. Lake described her as a liberal and a Buddhist who had a close circle of gay friends before she entered politics. But as she ran for office, she refashioned herself as a Christian conservative, among other things by assailing drag performers as bad influences on children.
Say what you want about Nancy Reagan, she never assailed drag performers.
Not seeing the Life of Brian connection. But it’s been a while since I saw the movie.
Adede:
I don’t remember exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote this post, but I guess it was the offbeat mix of religion, politics, and drag performers—all of which were prominently featured in Life of Brian. The “a liberal and a Buddhist” bit is already almost worth the price of admission.
In England, the Christmas Pantomime, squarely aimed at kids, traditionally has a man in drag playing the leading lady, and vice-versa for the leading male role. Any politician who tried to claim that this was a corrupting influence on the children would be rightly laughed at.
Robin:
To be fair, I think the politicians who make that claim in the U.S. are laughed at too.
Drag has been around for a very long time. Remember Milton Berle? RuPaul?
They did not seek out children for a sexualized performance. This is the change most people object to.
When you describe reading Amelia Bedelia as a “sexualized performance”, that sounds like a problem on your end.
I don’t believe I did describe reading Amelia Bedelia at all.
How about this family friendly parade? Unfortunately not an isolated happening.
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1665785768646791171
Monty Python did cover this. Classic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgp9MPLEAqA