The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast - August 30, 2022


158. Opposing Views： Is Drag Appropriate for Kids？ ｜ John Casey & Bryan Slaton


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 15 minutes

Words per minute

156.62

Word count

11,887

Sentence count

604


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 there are people who are afraid of men dressing up like women and acting crazy and um you know
00:00:07.200 that's look not here to judge anybody if like i said if a parent doesn't want their children around
00:00:13.200 it then they don't need to be there they can make the decision it's very simple um at the same at
00:00:19.920 the same time if a parent wants to go to with their child to a drag reading hour they should
00:00:24.880 be able to do that and they should be able to have fun and they shouldn't have to be protested
00:00:29.360 And they shouldn't have to be interrupted by proud boys.
00:00:32.280 The drag queen exists from a sexual nature.
00:00:37.440 That's what the drag queen is for.
00:00:39.240 They only take basically two qualities of a woman.
00:00:42.140 And they don't focus on intelligence.
00:00:44.860 They don't focus on work ethic.
00:00:46.240 They don't focus on anything.
00:00:47.980 Nurturing, they don't focus on just the sexual and the materialistic side.
00:00:53.720 And so why would we want to teach kids that's what a woman is?
00:00:59.360 Why would we want to do that? And besides that, what would be the benefit to having a female stripper sit down and read to the kids?
00:01:14.420 Welcome to my podcast. I'm Michaela Peterson. This is the Michaela Peterson podcast.
00:01:19.200 And this is an opposing views episode on drag story time and drag shows.
00:01:24.620 Posing Views is a series where I speak with individuals on opposite sides of a contentious issue,
00:01:30.040 and this issue is definitely contentious.
00:01:32.480 It was very interesting.
00:01:34.000 On one side, I had John Casey, a widely published writer for The Advocate,
00:01:38.660 a LGBTQ, the largest LGBTQ magazine in the U.S.
00:01:43.580 On the other side of this debate, I had Brian Slayton,
00:01:47.920 a former youth minister and current state representative of Texas.
00:01:51.320 In the last few months, you guys have probably seen, there have been a number of viral videos showing parents bringing children to drag shows.
00:01:58.460 A lot of people, and parents especially, have been upset by that.
00:02:02.760 A lot of people have supported it.
00:02:04.700 Drag shows in bars, drag story time in libraries, drag story time at the Toronto Zoo.
00:02:12.060 In this episode, we discussed those videos, the history of drag in the U.S.
00:02:17.280 Drag isn't something new.
00:02:18.620 The difference between drag shows and other drag events like Drag Queen Storytime, grooming, why drag is an issue now, age requirements for attending drag shows, and a lot more.
00:02:31.120 A special thanks to John Casey for coming on this episode.
00:02:34.620 He's on the left, and given my more right-leaning audience, I do appreciate getting left-wing people on here to hear their opinions about political issues because we do need to continue hearing both sides.
00:02:44.640 so please remember to be kind to the participants so I can get more people to agree to come on
00:02:51.240 and discuss these issues and I can keep doing opposing views thank you so much for listening
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00:04:28.240 John Casey, welcome to my podcast.
00:04:30.740 Well, thank you for having me.
00:04:32.120 Nice to be here.
00:04:33.720 Great.
00:04:34.080 Yeah, thank you very much for coming on.
00:04:35.780 Before we get started, can you give me a brief background about who you are and what it is you do?
00:04:41.620 Sure. Well, I've been in public relations most of my life, still am, to a certain extent.
00:04:49.100 But I worked on Capitol Hill at the beginning of my career for about seven years.
00:04:53.340 Moved to New York and worked for a couple of international PR agencies and then ran media relations for Sears and Kmart, Toys R Us and Macy's.
00:05:03.080 And then I worked for three years with the United Nations on climate change to the run-up to the Paris Accords.
00:05:11.300 Simultaneously, I worked for Mike Bloomberg when he was UN Climate Envoy.
00:05:16.500 And then I've been in digital for the last few years during PR for some digital companies.
00:05:24.740 So and then on the side, I do two columns per week for The Advocate where I touch on societal, political, entertainment and topical news issues that affect the LGBTQ community.
00:05:37.760 So I have an opportunity to speak with, you know, all of the leaders and all of the great voices in the LGBTQ community.
00:05:46.980 And it's been an awesome way to get to know people and to be able to cover who's affected, you know, serious issues, political issues.
00:06:01.300 Spoke, you know, to most of the members of Congress.
00:06:05.180 I spoke to Ellen when she left her show.
00:06:08.080 She only spoke to me and one other reporter.
00:06:11.920 I spoke to Shirley MacLaine yesterday, so I have a great column coming up about her.
00:06:17.360 So it's just, you know, I get to take the column in different ways.
00:06:21.840 And I've written about drag queens, so I feel like that I've been able to touch on
00:06:29.600 most of the issues that affect the community.
00:06:32.520 Okay, perfect.
00:06:33.280 Well, I invited you on to get your perspective on drag queen, drag queen shows, and the most
00:06:41.420 recent kind of media frenzy that's involved having kids attend drag queen shows.
00:06:46.340 So that was maybe two months ago that that kind of blew up online.
00:06:52.520 Yeah, well, they're not attending drag queen shows.
00:06:55.260 They're going to drag drag queen reading hours.
00:06:58.200 So there's a big difference there.
00:06:59.900 I don't know if you've ever been to a drag queen show, but it's a little rival and it's entertainment.
00:07:09.020 And when I take, when friends come into New York City to see me, straight friends, we go to what's called drag brunch.
00:07:17.420 It's a real popular thing in New York and they're so much fun.
00:07:22.000 And even in Miami, the Palace Bar, which is on Ocean Drive, they have drag happy hour, which is enormously popular.
00:07:32.860 You can't go anywhere near that place.
00:07:35.740 The sidewalks are full, the traffic is stopped.
00:07:38.420 So drag shows are one thing.
00:07:42.080 Then you have drag reading hours, which libraries do, mostly public libraries, do for kids.
00:07:48.600 And it's just a way for kids to be engaged in a book through someone who is an entertainer.
00:07:56.240 Okay.
00:07:57.180 Do you think that the idea of exposing kids to drag queens is too sexual for people at a certain age?
00:08:06.300 Well, it's not sexual.
00:08:09.080 First of all, I think the biggest reason people have probably misconceptions about drag queens is because they haven't met them.
00:08:18.300 or they haven't seen them.
00:08:20.500 Drag queens are entertainers.
00:08:22.520 And when they are in a setting of a library reading a book,
00:08:25.880 they're there to have fun with kids, just like anybody else would.
00:08:29.880 Except there they are dressed in, you know, very flamboyant costumes.
00:08:35.300 So they're not imparting any sexual identity
00:08:43.180 or talking about themselves or talking about what they do.
00:08:47.880 They're there just to read a story and help the kids along with the story and make sure the kids have fun.
00:08:55.100 It's not threatening in the least.
00:08:58.320 Certainly, you would never take a child to a drag brunch, for example.
00:09:03.560 That's out of a question.
00:09:05.980 Or a drag show.
00:09:07.500 But with a drag happy hour, or I'm sorry, with a drag reading hour, it's innocent.
00:09:14.500 It's just fun.
00:09:16.460 So I think it was about two months ago, the event that had people all up in arms,
00:09:24.520 I believe that was an actual drag show that it was called Drag Your Kids to Pride.
00:09:30.580 Did you see the clips of that show going on online?
00:09:34.080 Yeah, but there again, I think that it's up to the parents.
00:09:38.960 That is solely a parent's responsibility to decide whether they want to take their child to that or not.
00:09:44.420 it's not up to me to tell a parent when it's age appropriate for them to see something like that
00:09:52.240 so that is totally a parental judgment and and if they want to take their kids and and and take
00:10:02.300 them to a pride event or pride drag show thing again that is that is a parent's call and parents
00:10:10.160 have every right to be able to make the decision on that. How do you feel about the recent
00:10:16.280 legislature that's trying to be advanced that puts kind of drag shows into the same category as
00:10:23.700 strip shows and says, no, parents can't take their kids there. They can go once they're 18 or 21.
00:10:31.020 Well, it's all political. I think through this, particularly through this midterm
00:10:35.700 election, the LGBTQ community has really been singled out and used for political purposes.
00:10:45.200 So you have that one. You have Don't Say Gay in Florida. And primarily, there's a lot wrong with
00:10:56.540 that. But the biggest issue is that parents don't want their kids subjected to talking about sexual
00:11:03.760 identity in kindergarten and grade school. Well, that's not happening. So that was one thing with
00:11:11.940 single out. Now, all of these states are trying to replicate what Ron DeSantis said, which they
00:11:16.860 can't really do. And then as a matter of fact, there are other states that do have the don't
00:11:21.720 say gay laws on the book. Then you have what's going on with trans youth and politicians using
00:11:27.940 trans youth as a political wedge issue. You even have not just trans youth, but transgender people
00:11:37.120 too. There's been a lot of what you just referenced, these bills, which are not addressing any
00:11:46.100 problem. There is not a problem of parents swarming into drag shows with their children in
00:11:55.000 toe. That doesn't happen. And most bars aren't going to let kids in. If it's a pride event,
00:12:02.100 again, it's out in the public. It's up to the parent. Same thing with a drag reading hour.
00:12:09.240 The parents are comfortable with it. They don't have to send their kids. So the bills that are
00:12:14.480 popped up are for problems that are non-existent. And they're just being used as political wedge
00:12:20.560 issues. Hmm. Interesting. Um, do you think, so one of the concerns that's on the more conservative
00:12:28.120 or Republican side is that, um, say, say the number of trans youth in the last 15 years has
00:12:37.920 increased dramatically. And they believe that that's because there's an ideology being pushed
00:12:43.280 in public schools. And so part of the kind of pushback against this is, oh, I don't want you
00:12:48.380 to teach my kids this ideology because they're concerned they'll be pushed into an ideology.
00:12:56.100 So how do you feel about that?
00:12:57.860 Well, it's not an ideology. You're born gay. And you're born, whether you are a child,
00:13:07.460 a teenager who feels that they are a boy or a girl, it's inherent in you. Yes, it's been on
00:13:15.460 been on the rise and there's been many arguments and discussion points of what why that has been
00:13:22.000 and i think chief among them and having talked to trans youth is that there's um people uh kids
00:13:30.260 are more open today and and there there are um role models for for these kids somebody like
00:13:38.420 Elliot Page, who is brave enough to be able to come forward and admit the fact that they feel
00:13:48.980 that they are a man. And then you can see what's going on on the right. I mean, just yesterday,
00:13:55.800 Marjorie Taylor Greene, dead-named Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine. I know her.
00:14:02.700 I've talked to her, but this is an incredible person, incredibly, she's incredibly smart.
00:14:09.580 So again, all of these things I feel like are trying to get people frightened, get people
00:14:18.720 scared, the fact that transgender people are around, and you know, that's not the case.
00:14:25.440 Nobody's pushing an ideology.
00:14:27.800 People just want to be who they are.
00:14:30.380 okay let me see um do you think that there's um this is another argument i've heard this is another
00:14:39.340 argument i've heard the dangers say say one side is wrong there's the side that says this is an
00:14:45.180 ideology and then there's a side that says people are born this way and we should be open to that
00:14:49.620 so that we're not prejudiced against people we're not hateful right those are badly worded those are
00:14:54.560 kind of the two sides. If the conservative side is wrong, then people are, I would say, ostracized
00:15:02.560 until they're about 18 and can transition over, right? And if the liberal side is wrong and
00:15:11.600 kids are more susceptible to these ideas, what happens if you get kids who transition
00:15:17.800 surgically or with medication and can't transition back.
00:15:22.820 Okay. So those are rare cases. Very, very rare. I think we just need to take a step back. You're
00:15:31.840 talking about conservative and the liberal side, but why don't you ask a conservative parent
00:15:36.200 who has a child who wants to transition because they know, they believe, and the parents have
00:15:45.060 study the issue. They talk to doctors. They talk to psychologists. It's not as if, Michaela, that
00:15:51.120 a child comes to their parent and says, I'm a girl and I want to be a boy. And then somebody
00:15:57.640 just flips a switch in the back of their head. There is a process to go through, a very long
00:16:04.040 and very strenuous process to make sure that the child is in the right place to do something like
00:16:13.120 that you know oftentimes not oftentimes but it does happen that the doctors won't agree to it
00:16:18.900 because they do feel like so there are guardrails set up for if you want to call it the conservative
00:16:25.280 side of people making what they consider to be this drastic switch but there's the guardrails
00:16:32.360 are set up specifically to protect the child and again it goes all the way back to the parents
00:16:38.680 decision and how they want to handle this. And I've spoken to so many parents who have
00:16:45.020 transgender kids that want to transition. And, you know, the biggest issue for them is they see
00:16:51.880 when the child, for example, somebody I just spoke to who was a boy, when the child is dressing like
00:17:00.320 a girl and doing girl things, how happy that child is. Parents know that. You know, there's
00:17:08.040 also the thing that mothers always know when their son is gay. It falls back on that too.
00:17:13.800 Parents have a general idea if their child might not be comfortable in the identity that they were
00:17:24.420 born with. And so all of that, yes, there's arguments back and forth, back and forth,
00:17:29.380 but I think it's very important for, and they do seek them out, is for the parents of these youth
00:17:36.380 who are dealing with it to talk about, to read their stories, to reach out to them.
00:17:43.260 They're not liberal or conservative.
00:17:45.780 They're just parents, and they want to do what's best for their kids.
00:17:51.500 Do you know, could you give a brief description of what a drag show is
00:17:56.120 for anyone who doesn't know and when they started?
00:17:59.840 Oh, okay.
00:18:00.580 Well, you know, drag has been around forever,
00:18:04.440 um and it's been um and i'll just stick to the u.s it's a lot of history in in europe but in the u.s
00:18:13.360 i'm sure you don't know what vaudeville is most most younger people don't but vaudeville was
00:18:20.460 really the um the entertainment venue for lack of a better term back at the turn of the century
00:18:27.740 And they were traveling shows where they did song and dance and told really bad jokes.
00:18:34.360 But most of the performers were men and they dressed like women.
00:18:40.240 And they did songs and they did dances and people came out to see them.
00:18:46.320 And so that was the early, early type of what would we consider to be drag.
00:18:52.380 A lot of them were called transvestites, which, you know, is not a word that means anything today.
00:19:00.440 But back then, that's what they were called.
00:19:03.180 And then you can go through.
00:19:04.860 I mean, my own personal knowledge on this is that, you know, somebody like Milton Berle.
00:19:12.720 You say, who is Milton Berle?
00:19:14.040 Well, back in the late 40s and early 50s, he was television's biggest star.
00:19:18.860 He was also one of the most famous comedians in the world.
00:19:22.380 He spent most of his career, he dressed like a woman.
00:19:26.240 And of course, it was for fun.
00:19:27.740 It was making jokes.
00:19:29.580 But he probably was the most famous drag queen in Hollywood for a long time.
00:19:36.320 And then came along Flip Wilson in the late 60s.
00:19:40.520 And he had a television show and he created a character named Geraldine.
00:19:44.760 And so Geraldine was dragged, again, do you know about that one?
00:19:49.360 Yeah, yeah.
00:19:50.000 I think I've seen that.
00:19:51.480 I'm familiar with vaudeville too.
00:19:53.340 Oh, yeah, I'm sure you are
00:19:54.700 because you're a very intelligent person.
00:19:56.960 Thank you.
00:19:57.960 I'm not just saying that.
00:20:00.060 So, yeah, so then, you know,
00:20:02.820 Martin Lawrence has done it.
00:20:04.560 Jamie Foxx has done it.
00:20:06.020 Look at Medea, the success of Medea.
00:20:10.140 I mean, he's in drag.
00:20:12.100 And then I don't know if you saw First Ladies on Showtime,
00:20:15.420 but, you know, Eleanor Roosevelt went into a gay bar
00:20:18.480 and there were drag shows.
00:20:20.160 People were dressing like Eleanor Roosevelt, and they dressed like Bette Davis and Karma Miranda.
00:20:27.000 So all of this has been around.
00:20:29.860 And then look at television, like Bosom Buddies.
00:20:33.140 That was an Emmy award-winning show.
00:20:35.400 And Tootsie, which won the Oscar.
00:20:37.720 Dustin Hoffman was in drag.
00:20:40.660 Nutty Professor.
00:20:42.460 Kinky Boots.
00:20:43.660 A terrific performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Flawless, where he played a drag queen.
00:20:51.220 So it's, and Some Like It Hot with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
00:20:56.760 You know, that was back in the early 60s.
00:20:59.300 So the drag of men, entertainers dressing as women has been around for a long time.
00:21:08.920 And so if you want, back to your now question about a drag show. So, you know, drag shows mostly are performers who come out and lip sync and dance the songs. Some of them sing for real. They usually intersperse their performance with jokes. They rip on the audience. It's fun. It's hilarious.
00:21:33.400 you know it's adult entertainment it's adult entertainment because it's done in bars or
00:21:40.420 you know restaurants where it's no holds bars it's terrific so that would be a drag show and
00:21:48.620 then like I explained there's a drag brunch where you go into very popular in New York so many
00:21:55.400 places now do drag brunch but you go in and you got a half an hour and a half of bottomless
00:22:01.360 mimosas and drag performers come and they dance and sing and you feel like you're in a club and
00:22:07.940 it's really it's really a great way to spend uh early uh afternoons on saturday and sundays
00:22:16.120 um so those are drag shows and then i i told you about the one in miami at the palace which is
00:22:23.240 the it's a it's epic i mean you can't walk around anywhere near the palace when they do
00:22:31.040 their drag happy hour and the drag performers run out on the street and their lip-syncing songs are
00:22:36.580 dancing with the crowd it's really you know it's not gay people it's predominantly straight people
00:22:42.360 who stop and watch this so drag has been um and then one final thing I guess um RuPaul Drag Race
00:22:50.940 I mean that show is is uh you know Emmy nominated it's um it's one of the trendiest shows out there
00:22:59.220 And a lot of the performers on there have gone on and done other things.
00:23:03.180 For example, I think it was American Idol.
00:23:07.240 One of them performed on American Idol.
00:23:09.600 So drag queens are everywhere.
00:23:14.220 Drag shows are everywhere.
00:23:16.100 Most everywhere.
00:23:17.740 And they're lots of fun.
00:23:20.280 They're entertainers.
00:23:22.200 First and foremost, drag queens are entertainers.
00:23:26.520 um i went to a drag show when i was in new york um i think i was uh i was definitely i was probably
00:23:34.540 15 i think and it was oh yeah i'm not sure how i snuck in there but it was like it was mostly i
00:23:42.100 think most of the people in there in the place i went to were bachelorettes so bachelorettes
00:23:48.800 like bachelorette parties yeah i from what i remember i think it was mostly bachelorette parties
00:23:53.960 yes that happens too there's a lot of bachelor that's a really a popular thing for um
00:24:00.840 for batch bachelorette parties is to go to a drag show um it it's so much fun it really is and
00:24:09.520 there's no um there's there's no political statement being made about oh we should all
00:24:17.220 be able to dress in in drag or and it's fun they're entertainers they're just there to make
00:24:23.700 the crowd laugh to make the crowd happy that that's all they want to do so do you think that
00:24:29.680 this event that happened a couple of months ago that kind of went viral particularly i think in
00:24:34.600 conservative realms do you think that was more with with kids going to a drag show do you think
00:24:41.040 that was more of an isolated incident yes exactly and i'm wondering why um we're not talking about
00:24:49.460 the Proud Boys, which are going around interrupting drag reading hours in libraries.
00:24:57.400 And see, this is the issue. I always say, well, you know, I saw all the commotion about that.
00:25:03.600 It's more of a one-off. You are correct. But why are they talking about Proud Boys going into these
00:25:11.320 drag reading hours and disrupting them? That's worse for the kids. I mean, they're seeing
00:25:17.840 out-and-out racists come into their little happy reading hour and disrupting with hateful language
00:25:27.700 and hateful speech. And these reading hours are being targeted by Proud Boys, which in turn
00:25:35.680 are making some of the libraries having to cancel them because they fear that these people will
00:25:43.420 interrupt them and that's really that's sickening um that that you know the same people who are
00:25:52.140 are going out there condemning jews and black people are are trying to um are trying to call
00:25:58.940 out in in the most horrific ways drag queens in front of children it's really um it's really
00:26:07.720 appalling and i think it just shows the the the danger in trying um to use uh somebody like a
00:26:18.300 drag queen as a political wedge issue because what that does is stir up hate and when the hate is
00:26:24.520 stirred up then these um these fascist groups these racist groups follow and and that's the
00:26:32.180 tragedy of the whole thing I think it's it's gone too far when when something like that happens
00:26:38.180 um what do you think about um okay I'm not super familiar with this issue but I'm gonna so I might
00:26:46.440 get some things wrong but um apparently there was a bill I think introduced in California
00:26:52.500 that made learning about drag queens and drag shows mandatory in school did you hear about this
00:27:00.220 that was introduced yeah but again uh you know it's hard to take something like that serious
00:27:08.640 um nobody going back to what i keep saying this being a drag queen is not a political issue
00:27:16.980 and nobody wants to force people to think about drag queens and so um to me this is just trying
00:27:26.460 to match the hate on the other side by putting up another bill that makes the whole thing a wash.
00:27:36.900 I just, you know, nobody, the governor of California is not going to sign a bill,
00:27:41.780 well, it won't be passed, that makes it mandatory to learn about drag shows.
00:27:46.280 I mean, that's ludicrous.
00:27:48.940 On the same end, what's going on is making them,
00:27:53.100 some bills are out there to try to make them illegal same thing I mean these are two way
00:28:00.560 extremes it's not about drag queens it's about entertaining children and giving them a new way
00:28:09.260 of learning and of having fun and engaging and engaging in a story okay let me see what else I
00:28:19.020 have here that we haven't covered. Um, do you think there's room for, I guess, nuance in the
00:28:30.020 debate so that drag shows are fine? You can say, cause there are very conservative people in
00:28:36.020 America. You can say, you know what? Drag has been around forever. It's entertainment. Drag
00:28:41.040 shows are fine. However, we can bar it from children and put it in the same category as
00:28:48.120 more adult entertainment and that's reasonable. Do you think that's something that both sides
00:28:54.540 could agree on? Well, drag shows or drag reading hours are not adult entertainment. So there's a
00:29:02.860 huge difference there. And I've talked to drag queens who do drag reading hours. They go into
00:29:10.460 their drag show where they have all their fun and ripping on the crowd and, you know, being
00:29:16.980 you know being crazy and then they have where they read to children it's not a when the when
00:29:24.480 the drag queen is reading in front of children it's not adult entertainment and so that's a
00:29:31.220 it's a huge huge misnomer they're not in the library being rivaled and dancing around they're
00:29:41.020 they're reading a story to kids and they're making it fun for them. So, so you talk about
00:29:46.700 the nuance, you know, at the end of the day, it's up to the parent, but the parent is not comfortable
00:29:51.660 sending a child to a dry breathing out, then don't do it. Um, but, but, but don't go and try
00:29:59.480 to, you know, make, maybe this sounds a little harsh and brash, but keep your nose in your own
00:30:06.000 business there are parents who think it's great go in there and they and they sit with the kids
00:30:11.220 they're dropping the kids off and then leaving them there alone with a drag queen you know that's
00:30:17.160 what the what the these parents who are against it want you to think that somehow this drag queen
00:30:24.280 is brainwashing these kids about being a drag queen that that's not it at all the parents
00:30:32.280 Like the drag queen makes it just as fun for the parents reading the book.
00:30:35.980 You know, they have, it's interactive.
00:30:38.880 So, but if you're strongly against it and you don't want your kids to be there, then don't send them there.
00:30:47.000 That's your decision.
00:30:48.460 Nobody's going to tell you you have to do it.
00:30:50.860 Just do it.
00:30:52.100 That's your decision.
00:30:52.940 Keep them at home.
00:30:53.480 But let the people who would love to have their children experience lots of fun and entertainment with the drag queen, then let them do it.
00:31:00.760 it's a parent's decision okay okay um do you think i guess last question that kind of goes
00:31:09.320 in that direction do you think that um the idea of having drag queen story time is because of
00:31:17.320 what a drag queen represents is kind of hypersexual just by itself whether or not they're doing the
00:31:24.020 show, is it not kind of hypersexual for kids? No, it's not. I mean, kids aren't, you know,
00:31:33.500 when I wrote a column about this initially, I talked to my friend David Berkta, who
00:31:39.620 married Neil Patrick Harris, and they have two kids. And, you know, they were,
00:31:46.460 their kids are terrific kids, just terrific kids. But, you know, David talked about
00:31:52.140 the fact that they're fine with letting their kids be with drag queens so long as they're not
00:31:59.920 rude or raunchy. And, you know, the kids got a different exposure to it because their dad,
00:32:05.580 Neil Patrick Harris, starred in Kinky Boots. So they took them to Kinky Boots and, you know,
00:32:11.520 they explained to the kids that drag is a celebration of life. It's about embracing
00:32:16.040 differences. And that's what it is. And so they saw their dad in it and then they thought it was
00:32:21.280 fun. You know, they weren't telling the kids, you know, they weren't making it sexual. They were
00:32:29.980 making the fact of what honest to God is. It's just entertainment. And I think that's really
00:32:36.220 important is that it's not sexualized in any way unless the parent makes it sexualized. Now,
00:32:44.060 Now, going back to that, David and Neil produced a drag film for HBO called Wigs.
00:32:51.160 And that's about drag shows.
00:32:53.900 It's about drag queens.
00:32:55.160 But they don't want their kids to see that.
00:32:57.220 That's not for kids.
00:32:58.500 It's for adults.
00:32:59.880 So, yes, they'll take them to a drag reading hour.
00:33:02.480 They'll take their dad.
00:33:03.760 They'll take them to watch their dad be in kinky boots.
00:33:07.340 But they didn't let the kids watch Wigs because Wigs is not for children.
00:33:14.060 Okay. So do you think it's possible that the more conservative media is just hyper fixating on certain examples? And that's blowing, making things look skewed?
00:33:28.680 Yes, I totally agree with you on that.
00:33:31.500 That's what it is.
00:33:32.380 It's a political issue.
00:33:35.400 You said it.
00:33:36.840 There are people who are afraid of men dressing up like women and acting crazy.
00:33:42.640 And, you know, look, I'm not here to judge anybody.
00:33:47.220 Like I said, if a parent doesn't want their children around it, then they don't need to be there.
00:33:51.920 They can make the decision.
00:33:53.080 It's very simple.
00:33:53.840 at the same time
00:33:57.480 if a parent wants to go with their child
00:34:00.160 to a drag reading hour
00:34:01.320 they should be able to do that
00:34:02.660 and they should be able to have fun
00:34:03.740 and they shouldn't have to be protested
00:34:05.860 and they shouldn't have to be interrupted by Proud Boys
00:34:08.620 it's something that's specifically done for kids
00:34:12.720 it's not some wild, raunchy show
00:34:18.160 it's a simple, nice way for kids to have a good time
00:34:22.340 it just so happened that the drag queen okay um let me see what else do i have to cover that
00:34:30.160 covered quite a bit and thank you again for coming on oh sure i'm glad i could talk about this i feel
00:34:37.160 like um yeah i think you had some really good questions so i appreciate that thanks uh let me
00:34:43.640 see there was one more thing i wanted to ask let me see if i can remember it sure okay yeah oh one
00:34:50.680 of so one of the things you hear in more conservative circles quite frequently is that
00:34:54.980 these um drag reading hours are grooming children how do you feel about that assertion oh that is
00:35:05.200 it's awful let me let me be really frank with you i was groomed by a priest okay and abused by a
00:35:14.880 priest. So I know what grooming is. And when you're trying to put that label on somebody,
00:35:24.500 that's almost like calling them a murderer. And that is wrong. And every facet of anything you
00:35:33.320 can even bring that up, that is wrong. They are not grooming the children. My God, the parents
00:35:39.480 are there and they're watching these with kids they're not grooming the kids and for anyone
00:35:45.800 to use that word flippantly and particularly to a drag queen who's just reading a book is is wrong
00:35:54.960 it's very very very dangerous and um it's downright evil if you when you have been groomed
00:36:04.040 you know how horrible that is and when somebody goes out and throws the word grooming or
00:36:09.160 pedophile and it is a it's wrong and a dangerous and all of that needs to stop and i'm worried that
00:36:17.840 it isn't stopping i see marjorie taylor green on on twitter using those words it's um it's
00:36:25.860 and it's horribly offensive to somebody who has been groomed okay thank you for sharing that
00:36:31.920 Okay. Okay. One, one more, just looking at my list. I'm like, maybe one more. Um, is
00:36:39.960 there any type of argument within the LGTP, sorry, LGBTQ community? Is there any argument
00:36:46.240 about, um, whether or not drag reading time is appropriate for kids?
00:36:51.360 Oh, I'm sure there is. I mean, we're not like one, um, monolithic way of thinking. So,
00:36:59.480 So most certainly there's, you know, they don't even have to be conservative.
00:37:04.460 I mean, it's a parent's choice, whether you're liberal, conservative, communist, whatever you are, independent, it's your choice.
00:37:14.720 And some people don't feel comfortable with their kids with a drag queen reading hour.
00:37:21.480 That's fine. That's your decision.
00:37:23.420 And yeah, so within the LGBT community, I'm sure that there are parents, you know, two moms or two dads who say, you know, that's not for my kids.
00:37:33.560 And that's fine, just like it would be for a straight parent.
00:37:36.520 That's fine if you feel that way.
00:37:38.620 But don't go labeling these people wrongly by calling them a groomer or pedophile.
00:37:43.020 Don't be protesting them.
00:37:45.560 You know, don't try to marginalize them.
00:37:49.260 That's the wrong thing to do.
00:37:50.660 In the end, it hurts kids, because if kids think there's something wrong with that, then, you know, you're already bringing an element of discrimination.
00:38:00.340 You don't want to take your kids to that reading hour, then just don't bring it up.
00:38:04.580 That's it.
00:38:06.620 OK, is there anything else you want to cover that are quite any information you want out there that I haven't covered?
00:38:13.400 No, I think you hit some really good questions.
00:38:16.020 I appreciate that.
00:38:17.060 And, you know, I appreciate the fact that you're looking at it from the other side.
00:38:22.240 So I'm giving them the opportunity to be able to explain that a little bit more.
00:38:26.680 So people have more of an open mind and understand it more rather than just lashing out.
00:38:33.740 So and may I say one more thing, if you have the opportunity to meet a drag queen, go meet them because you're going to find that they're just a human being just like you and I.
00:38:43.800 I love it.
00:38:44.600 Okay. Well, thank you very much, John, for coming on. If people want to follow you online,
00:38:50.580 is there anywhere they can go? Yeah, I'm on Twitter. And then you can just push the advocate,
00:38:58.760 LGBTQ John Casey, and I have a link to all my columns on there.
00:39:04.120 Okay, great. Thank you very much again.
00:39:06.680 Well, thank you. It was really nice to meet you. Okay. Have fun in Florida.
00:39:10.780 I am.
00:39:11.880 Okay. Bye now.
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00:41:08.500 and be nice. Brian Slayton, welcome to my podcast. Thank you for having me and I'm happy to be here.
00:41:18.100 So before we get started, can you give a brief background about who you are and what it is you
00:41:22.620 do? Okay. So my name is Brian Slayton. I will start with this. A wonderful wife and two lovely
00:41:30.700 kids at home. She's almost six months old and the little boy that is four years old. Before that,
00:41:37.740 my background, I was in the ministry. I was a youth and family minister and then wound up,
00:41:43.560 I got my bachelor's and master's there and went back to school, got my accounting degree
00:41:47.240 and got interested and involved with politics. And then now I'm a state representative.
00:41:53.200 I have not even completed my first term, but I found myself fighting on culture issues that I just believe are the right stance to take.
00:42:05.180 Okay, great.
00:42:06.800 Well, we're discussing drag shows in this episode because those have been all over the news, and the country is split on their opinion about whether or not these are good for people.
00:42:18.980 So I'm going to run through a couple of questions and see how you feel about this.
00:42:24.420 First of all, do you know, can you explain what drag shows are and where they started?
00:42:30.860 Yeah, I mean, they started, you know, in the gay community, right?
00:42:36.380 Men dressing up as women.
00:42:38.140 And it's a characterization of a woman just in the sexual nature and materialistic.
00:42:44.140 You know, big hair, makeup, big dress, and then the sexual side.
00:42:49.440 And, you know, it's probably been part of the very long time now as far as when it officially started.
00:42:55.960 You know, I don't know. I'm guessing from things I've read around 100 years ago.
00:42:59.780 But here's the problem is drag shows have gone on.
00:43:03.780 They have always probably been around in some form or fashion.
00:43:07.700 but now what we're seeing is this uh drag shows have been normalized in our culture we're seeing
00:43:15.580 more and more on television and commercials and your kids can see them on television and commercials
00:43:20.800 and now what we're uh this issue at hand here is drag shows in front of children and uh you take
00:43:29.640 something that was you know in the past was secretive and they weren't proud of it wasn't
00:43:35.080 out in the open. And now not only is it normalized in society, but now it's being even forced to
00:43:43.560 where they want you to accept grown men dancing in their underwear in front of children and then
00:43:49.180 putting dollar bills in the grown men's underwear. And that's where we've come. And it's not what it
00:43:57.420 once was. It was just something that gay men did and behind closed doors. But now it's being pushed
00:44:02.960 down onto our children. And, um, okay. So do you think children should be attending drag shows?
00:44:12.480 Well, not at all. I mean, we don't have, we don't let children in Texas attend a strip clubs
00:44:18.980 with a stripper. I mean that we have laws to protect children already from adults who
00:44:25.080 to intend bad things for them or to sexualize them. And so this is nothing but sexualizing
00:44:32.500 the child. And it shouldn't be a foreign idea to us, right? I mean, you look at human trafficking
00:44:39.340 and the problem that is, well, that's a large contingent of that is adults wanting to have
00:44:44.380 sex with children. And then now with the drag in front of children, they're, let's say, taking just
00:44:49.420 the sexual qualities of a woman, putting those on display in front of children, and one of those
00:44:54.600 children to touch them and interact with them. And, you know, we want kids to maintain their
00:45:00.820 innocence. We want kids to know right and wrong and know when they're safe and know when they're
00:45:08.840 in jeopardy. And what we have happening with the drag queens is we're teaching them that it's okay
00:45:14.480 to be around a man dancing this way in his underwear and it's okay for you to touch him,
00:45:18.580 Right. But then two months later, another man has them alone and is doing the same thing.
00:45:25.400 We want that kid concerned. We want that kid saying, no, no, this shouldn't be happening.
00:45:29.940 I need to tell some. But we're literally trying to teach these kids that it's normal and OK to have adults treat you this way.
00:45:38.620 And it's inappropriate for their behavior and it's unethical to sexualize children.
00:45:44.620 That is true. Do you think that there's any chance that people who do these drag shows think that they're just trying to, I guess, get children used to the idea of the LGBTQ community so that they're less prejudiced when they grow up?
00:46:05.240 Oh, sure. It's it's all of that. It's trying to let the kids, I guess, be accepting. And they think as the kids get older, they'll be more accepting. And and but it's it's more than just that.
00:46:19.480 you take NAMBLA, North American Association of Man-Boy Love or Man-Boy Love Association,
00:46:29.940 NAMBLA. They've been around for 25, 30 years or more, actually. But as the LGBTQ movement,
00:46:35.700 it hadn't always been known as that, but whenever they've tried to advance things,
00:46:40.560 whether it's same-sex marriage, whether it's whatever they've tried to advance,
00:46:45.000 NAMBLA has always been a part of their movement. And they've been wanting to normalize
00:46:49.440 adult men relationship with adult boys. That's their goal. That's why they exist. And they're
00:46:55.340 a part of these movements. And during those times, you had people in the gay community going,
00:47:00.820 no, no, no, we want to advance this, but we don't want anything to do with people that are taking
00:47:06.700 advantage of children. They always really tried to distance themselves from Nambla. But here we are
00:47:11.980 now in our culture, in our society. And we don't see an active push to distance themselves from
00:47:20.340 NAMBLA. And in fact, they're, you know, criticize me and others because we don't want children
00:47:25.420 to be exposed to adults that are doing all this sexual stuff. But yeah, they want them to be
00:47:32.900 accepted. And they also want them to participate. And then I would say even the end goal is they're
00:47:40.020 wanting these children to then go and do gender modification surgeries. I don't think they're
00:47:46.360 content with accepting. I believe over the past 20 years, 25 years, if we've seen their movement
00:47:53.100 progress, by and large, society's been accepting. The church has been accepting. They've, like I
00:47:59.640 say, they're normalized. Good luck finding a sitcom that doesn't have an LGBTQ character and
00:48:05.480 all this right so we've been accepting but they keep pushing and then uh you know that that's the
00:48:14.480 goal they're they're not just wanting to accept they're wanting us to engage in fact we had this
00:48:20.280 happen on the house floor when we were discussing boys participating in girls college sport or no
00:48:26.760 high school sports and we had members of the democrat party that were upset with me and others
00:48:34.060 because we were using the words male and female during this conversation they wanted us to use
00:48:40.740 cis male and cis female and so it wasn't agree to disagree it wasn't uh you know this is what
00:48:48.980 we believe we want you to accept and we'll move on no they wanted us to change our vocabulary
00:48:54.640 to match theirs and uh so there i mean you can say it's acceptance but i believe that's just
00:49:01.960 the foot in the door of the movement and what they're trying to do. They're trying to normalize
00:49:08.320 every bit of it. Now, not all of them are, you know, not all, every person in the LGBTQ
00:49:13.680 community is trying to normalize adult-child relationships, but there's a contingent in there
00:49:20.780 that is. And right now, I'm not seeing people distance themselves. And also, where do you draw
00:49:26.540 that line, right? I'm saying kids shouldn't be around drag queens and, you know, in a drag show
00:49:32.220 and all that. Well, if they say it's okay, well, where do you draw that line? If a man can dance
00:49:38.100 in women's underwear, kids put dollar bills in their underwear, then when is it wrong for an
00:49:43.340 adult to do sexual things with a child? And they don't answer the question. Do you think there's
00:49:50.020 any type of consensus in the LGBTQ community about whether or not children should be allowed
00:49:56.280 to attend drag shows do you think this is just one small portion of it or do you think this is
00:50:00.940 kind of an overarching theme well i don't know how big it is but i know it's not all i mean
00:50:06.340 whenever i put out this idea the bill idea we got calls from people in the homosexual community had
00:50:14.080 a guy call hey i'm a homosexual from dallas i just want you to know i agree with you children
00:50:20.260 shouldn't be around drag queens i mean they're not unified on this because as i've said there
00:50:27.580 are people in the homosexual community that's always tried to distance themselves from the
00:50:32.600 pedophiles the nambler but right now not many are doing it we got people you know calling and
00:50:38.160 telling us they support us but they know if they come out publicly on social media they're going
00:50:43.480 to get absolutely blown up by their own side, by their own, you know, their own group because
00:50:49.920 they want all or nothing. And so, but they're not unified. What would you say to people who
00:50:57.520 say that the, the idea that the LGBTQ community has a tendency towards pedophilia, that's just
00:51:05.900 right-wing propaganda? Well, like I said, not all, right? But there are some. I mean,
00:51:13.900 the existence of NAMR, North American Man-Boy Love Association, you can read on their website.
00:51:19.880 They've had for a long time. They want to normalize relationships with children. They've
00:51:25.180 been a part of every movement the gay or LGBTQ movement has had. They're there. And through
00:51:32.920 history and recent history they people distance themselves from them but they're still there
00:51:38.020 and so um like I say it is not all but here's here's my point Michaela so let's pretend and
00:51:47.460 just say no one right no one in drag is a pedophile let's just pretend that's the reality
00:51:53.700 well what they're teaching children and how they're grooming children uh and and how to
00:52:01.160 the children is supposed to respond to the way these adults are dancing and interacting with
00:52:06.680 them. It is not appropriate for the child. If the child was in front of a female stripper,
00:52:13.620 it's not appropriate. As I mentioned, human trafficking, you got men trying to have
00:52:18.120 children and just straight up pedophiles. That's all wrong. I mean, that is absolutely all wrong.
00:52:25.360 And the idea of a drag queen dancing this way in front of a child and, you know, the depiction and characterization of a woman you would think would offend the left.
00:52:37.040 Right. They only take basically two qualities of a woman and they're saying, hey, kid, look, this is what a woman is and you need to accept this and celebrate this.
00:52:46.060 And it's not a great characterization, not a full depiction of what a woman is.
00:52:52.460 And the thing is, they're leading these kids to a doorstep, right?
00:52:58.900 They're leading these kids to things that are bad.
00:53:01.500 These kids may not have the red flags up if adults are trying bad things with them.
00:53:06.400 So, like I say, let's pretend that they don't have any pedophiles.
00:53:10.860 The problem is, is they're grooming, they're helping these kids lower their guard towards somebody who really does want to harm them.
00:53:22.800 So I don't see how that's a good thing just in that aspect, what they're leading kids down a path towards.
00:53:31.460 Okay, so that's drag shows.
00:53:33.620 What about the drag queen story time that you've heard?
00:53:37.980 I know that in Toronto, that was, I think they put it on at the zoo, right?
00:53:42.520 So what about those events?
00:53:44.100 I think it's inappropriate for children.
00:53:46.520 The drag queen exists from a sexual nature.
00:53:51.680 That's what the drag queen is for.
00:53:53.480 They only take basically two qualities of a woman.
00:53:56.480 And they don't focus on intelligence.
00:53:59.080 They don't focus on work ethic.
00:54:00.480 They don't focus on anything, nurturing.
00:54:02.540 They don't focus on just the sexual and the materialistic side.
00:54:07.980 And so why would we want to teach kids that's what a woman is? Why would we want to do that? And besides that, what would be the benefit to having a female stripper sit down and read to the kids?
00:54:22.240 that her her job she makes money tripping why does that somehow make her better at reading books or
00:54:31.560 the kids learn more she's in a sexually oriented oriented business the drag queen is it's sexually
00:54:37.340 oriented has no place around children so i see how it's appropriate so you promised to file
00:54:47.840 legislation to protect children from drag shows. Can you give us a bit of a description about what
00:54:52.780 that bill's about? Yeah, well, to be honest with you, we don't know if it's going to be one bill
00:54:57.560 or four bills. I mean, we're just trying to figure out where and how to do it in Texas
00:55:01.520 to stop this from happening. As I've mentioned, we have it in Texas law where, you know, kids can't
00:55:08.260 go to sexually oriented businesses. They can't go in liquor stores. They can't go in bars.
00:55:12.640 they can't buy cigarettes etc there's a lot of protections for kids so we want to add right now
00:55:19.800 if kids were to have a a stripper dance in front of them it would be a crime strippers in texas have
00:55:25.700 to have some type of license and because they're sexually oriented in their business so i'm simply
00:55:33.460 wanting to just add the drag queen shows into what we already have in law which is classifying
00:55:41.620 sexually oriented businesses and keeping children from being around them. So I don't know if that's
00:55:48.420 going to be some type of, you know, getting a license or just saying, hey, kids, you know,
00:55:53.040 can't participate. We don't know. We're still working on it. But the goal is, is, is to stop
00:56:00.240 this. Apparently, the way the law is written, a man can dance in his underwear in front of kids
00:56:06.660 and have them stuff dollar bills in their underwear.
00:56:09.200 I mean, that's apparently legal in Texas.
00:56:12.400 And we need to stop that, just as we've done it with women
00:56:15.900 that would try to dance in front of.
00:56:18.820 Or I guess men wearing men's underwear.
00:56:20.860 I guess the loophole might be that a man's wearing women's underwear, I guess.
00:56:24.040 I don't know why, but we had no sheriffs, no law enforcement
00:56:27.580 trying to stop this at any point in time.
00:56:32.300 Okay.
00:56:32.820 Okay. And is that because specifically drag shows aren't classified as a strip show?
00:56:37.100 They just were never written in maybe because this was never an issue before.
00:56:41.720 That's right. I mean, yeah, it was never an issue. It was never thought of, Hey,
00:56:46.020 let's do this in front of children and it will be okay. It will be accepted. You know,
00:56:50.580 it was never thought that until now we're, like I say, the, the, the drag queen is a part of our
00:56:58.280 of society and culture and in our shows and commercials. I mean, everywhere. And so now it's
00:57:03.900 just they're just pushing the envelope more to more and more of what they want. They don't want
00:57:08.840 to just accept it in society. They want it in our face. I mean, in fact, right after I said I was
00:57:13.960 going to file this piece of legislation, there was an elected official in California said they
00:57:20.520 wanted to make drag queens mandatory curriculum in the schools. They want more than just
00:57:28.060 you know, observing a drag queen show. They wanted mandatory participation in school.
00:57:35.260 Hmm. What do you think parents are thinking when they bring children to these events?
00:57:42.020 That's a good question. So the way I described this, because I was a youth and family minister
00:57:47.140 and what I see parents, you know, they want their kid to get through high school, be 18 years old,
00:57:57.060 going to college and they don't want them to have a physical scar, an emotional scar, a psychological
00:58:02.780 scar. I mean, they don't, right? Parents want to protect their kids from everything. They don't
00:58:08.440 want their kid to even have a broken heart, right? They don't want a girlfriend or boyfriend to break
00:58:14.040 up with. And of course, we look at our society where they all have to have trophies, right?
00:58:19.600 Everyone wins. They don't know what it's like to lose. And so, you know, one thing I've asked
00:58:24.980 to help explain this is imagine I show up to your city, any city, and I want to get a permit to do
00:58:33.380 some type of parade, bike ride. And the bike ride is called the good old days bike ride. Only
00:58:38.620 children can participate and they're not allowed to wear a helmet, elbow pads, or knee pads.
00:58:44.000 Do you think that city is going to give me a permit? Definitely not. No, they are not.
00:58:50.780 but you take any of the LGBTQ movement and you're going to get pushback that the gender
00:58:58.300 modification of children, right? It's irreversible. They're okay with it, but they don't want the kid
00:59:04.600 to ride on a bike without their knee pads, elbow pads, helmet. And then you got the drag queen,
00:59:10.300 which is a characterization of a woman, highly sexualized. And we don't want our children to be
00:59:17.640 exposed to pedophiles. We don't want our child to be exposed to anything sexual. We don't want
00:59:22.780 our children doing anything other than enjoying their childhood. But they want this sexualization
00:59:30.240 to be put on them. And like I've mentioned, I don't understand why even the left wants to take
00:59:38.660 the depiction of a woman that a drag queen displays and show that to their kid and say,
00:59:45.200 this is what a woman is. I don't see how they want that. So back to parents, you know, why would a
00:59:53.000 parent find it so important for their child to be around this? And some of it comes down to this
01:00:01.660 is some parents try to live through their children. I think a lot of things that happen,
01:00:09.220 you have parents that have their own insecurities. Maybe they weren't as popular as they wanted to
01:00:14.200 be in high school maybe they didn't have the boyfriend or girlfriend they wanted um who knows
01:00:20.540 what it could be and those parents take their children they try to live through their their
01:00:26.000 children and in some cases you could have parents that are trying to push this on their child so
01:00:31.600 that when they go to brunch they can brag to their friends that their child is lgbtq or their child
01:00:38.260 is accepting of drag queens and they feel like somehow that's, you know, a one up on everybody
01:00:45.460 as people talking about maybe a new car, a new house or a new job. And they're like, oh, yeah,
01:00:49.500 well, you know, they use it as a bragging right because it's about their insecurities.
01:00:55.020 So that would be one possibility. The other thing, I think there's some parents who just
01:01:02.140 don't understand how dangerous it is to sexualize a child, whether it's towards the LGBTQ,
01:01:08.260 or sexualize them towards a heterosexual pedophile, right? I mean, it's both wrong and bad
01:01:16.660 on that child. And so why they do it, I don't fully know the answer. I haven't also heard
01:01:24.380 parents say, you know, how dare you say I can't take my child to a drag queen? And also, if I
01:01:30.680 want to take my kid in a strip club, y'all better repeal that law so we can do that too. So they're
01:01:36.260 only doing it for one thing and it's in the drag queen they're not trying to do it anywhere else
01:01:41.640 they don't want the freedom and quote liberty to do it in any other situation so i think it has
01:01:47.580 more to do with their ideology they they support the lgbtq movement they want to advance it
01:01:53.640 everywhere they can um and and so that that's that's what's driving this and and yeah it's a
01:02:02.900 yeah that's all i can say is there's probably a lot of reasons but it has mostly to do with
01:02:09.720 their own insecurities and they're just ideology you know their ideology is sensitive to the lgbtq
01:02:17.520 movement okay um so in your opinion should drag shows be banned altogether or should they just
01:02:26.720 be limited to 18 or 21 what do you think would be reasonable for the future so my bill simply said
01:02:34.040 keep drag shows away from children what i'm trying to work on i'm not trying to end drag shows all
01:02:40.460 today um i mean do they need to exist well that's another you know as far as the drag shows and
01:02:48.680 everything and in our society hey somebody somebody can have that conversation i just see
01:02:54.480 the need to protect children is all I'm doing now what age do we put that at 18 or 21 I mean
01:03:02.780 that's up to debate really because when a child turns 18 they could go you know well actually
01:03:10.200 just now in Texas we changed the law to where it's 20 you have to be 21 years old to work in
01:03:15.280 strip club so I guess now as of last September I guess it would probably be more appropriate to
01:03:23.600 move it to 21 to treat them all treat all that um sexually oriented business the same um but you
01:03:32.800 know at 18 the kids could go you know do all the cosmetic surgery for the gender modification they
01:03:38.180 could you know dance they they could put on a dress they could go wherever they want you know
01:03:41.940 they're they're adults but in texas we we do now have a law saying 21 so i mean right now i guess
01:03:48.600 everything would lean towards 21 but open to discussion um what what can a parent do if they
01:03:56.640 don't want uh their kid to see drag or or be exposed to kind of this ideology you're going
01:04:03.520 to see it everywhere you see it in commercials um uh depends on where you are apparently like say
01:04:11.000 from what we've learned if if you attend school in california you may want to consider pulling
01:04:15.920 your kid out of school there in California, because there's a guy there that wants to make
01:04:19.560 it mandatory curriculum. You're just going to have to, one, just don't drive them there
01:04:26.780 if there's a show. But the problem is, like I say, it's been a part of the plan, part of the
01:04:34.720 process to normalize this. As we see it more and more in TV, you have to worry about the books your
01:04:39.940 kids are reading. I live east of Dallas in East Texas. We have all those books, all the porn books
01:04:48.120 around all the school districts in my district. It's not an urban problem. It's not a California
01:04:53.200 problem. It's everywhere. So parents are just going to have to be on guard. If you want to
01:04:58.460 protect your kid, help them maintain their innocence and just enjoy their childhood, grow up,
01:05:04.780 be ready to be a good productive adult you're going to have to protect them bottom line protect
01:05:10.960 them and you're going to have to look at everything minimize online minimize or cut out social media
01:05:16.480 things like that what kind of books are you talking about so uh we found books in libraries
01:05:24.580 and rule um all over texas but in my district that um some of the books depict adult child sex
01:05:31.780 adult child you know oral sex even you know lgbtq i mean all sexualization of children even
01:05:39.380 you know child child sex i mean it's just totally inappropriate um you know it's it's books that if
01:05:45.860 if you or i took somewhere else and showed a kid we'd probably go to jail but the schools have them
01:05:54.280 in their library and kids could be reading these checking these out and once again it's it's all
01:05:59.740 on the same nerve. I mean, you got the books that are basically porn. You got drag queens
01:06:06.300 wanting to perform in front of the children. And then you got the gender modification of children.
01:06:11.540 It's all the same thing. They're all trying to sexualize the child and do so before they're an
01:06:17.940 adult. And I'll just say this real quick. I know you asked about the books. What I've asked people
01:06:25.280 have we been discussing this issue with children um with the gender modification i guess with that
01:06:32.400 one is you know the question i always like to ask or back when i was in the ministry uh i'd ask
01:06:37.900 people was what if you're wrong what if i'm wrong and so you know 10 years from now if we all look
01:06:44.980 back and decide that you know let's say you know my side was wrong that kids shouldn't be sexualized
01:06:52.340 shouldn't go through gender modification. If we're wrong, the worst case scenario is that child
01:06:57.980 has to wait till they're 18 to go through and do all that. Surgeries, go through, you know,
01:07:04.200 go be a drag queen, whatever. They'd have to wait till they're 18. The other side, what if they're
01:07:10.580 wrong? If they're wrong, there's no going back. If that child wound up getting gender modification
01:07:17.020 surgery, you don't reverse that. That child's life is forever on a different path. Never go back.
01:07:25.920 And the sexualization of children, I mean, there's a lot of things that once you get the child so
01:07:31.880 focused on sex and in their guard down, anything could happen. They could get caught up in human
01:07:37.080 trafficking. As a sex slave, they could become pregnant as a child. There's just so many things
01:07:44.340 can happen. And, um, if, if they're wrong and if, if I'm wrong, well, you just got to wait till
01:07:51.720 you're 18, which is what we want for kids with a lot of things. So, but these books, um, they just
01:07:59.140 are part of the same nerve, uh, of sexualizing our children. Why do you think this has made it
01:08:07.140 into the schools specifically? Like, why is it that part of society that seems to be pushing this?
01:08:14.340 That is a good question. Well, you know, as we as children develop and grow and you shape them into how they think, that's how they'll be, you know, as they get older.
01:08:30.700 I've always told parents that, and I've told teenagers this, that by the age of 12, 13, 14, if you haven't figured out how to be an honest person, that you're going to tell the truth, that you're going to be moral, those type of things, that's who you're going to be.
01:08:51.920 If by the time you're 14, more than likely. And so it's very important that as kids, as very young kids, that they you train them and you teach them how to live, how to think, how to be moral, how to be ethical, because then they will continue to do that.
01:09:11.940 So then there's people who, as we mentioned earlier, with acceptance, they think, hey, if we can get these children to believe it's OK for an adult to act this way with them.
01:09:23.520 Well, then as they get older, they'll accept all of them and it'll be a world to be a happy place.
01:09:29.580 But but that's what they would be doing is they'd be teaching children the sexual aspect and sexual nature.
01:09:40.260 and as that kid gets older that's going to be their focus and so um so it's kind of a it's a
01:09:47.220 fight for our a battle for our youth battle for the children because they're going to determine
01:09:53.940 what our society is and so um and so they think i guess they think that's that's where they want
01:10:03.220 to win the battle because if we raise children to be moral and ethical we raise children to know
01:10:08.360 right and wrong we raise children to know that adults should not do sexual things with children
01:10:13.200 they can't win that conversation with the 25 year old but if that at eight years old the child's
01:10:21.000 taught it's okay then that child's 25 i mean so that yeah i i guess in they're doing in school
01:10:28.480 because that they're trying to win the battle 10 years from now how do you think it's appropriate
01:10:36.280 to teach kids you know so so i i would assume from that angle they're saying what they're saying
01:10:44.400 anyway is we need to expose kids to these ideas so they grow up like you said and aren't bigoted
01:10:50.820 or aren't prejudiced um do you think there's an appropriate way to teach kids so that they don't
01:10:57.720 end up prejudiced that doesn't involve this kind of hyper sexualization sure it's from a christian
01:11:04.700 worldview. I mean, the Bible teaches us right and wrong. The Bible teaches us God's plan and that
01:11:12.820 he made male and female. Bible teaches us that. Also teaches us to be loving to others. And so
01:11:21.040 yeah, I mean, we've been doing it. And yes, there's been some bad actors, right? There's
01:11:29.620 been people do bad things but guess what we live in a fallen world people do evil things but that
01:11:35.260 doesn't mean that god is flawed doesn't mean that you know christianity is flawed because
01:11:41.120 one person you know however many make a bad decision so so we we teach kids how to treat
01:11:51.240 others we teach kids what god expects of us and who we are because that's a lot of this is
01:11:57.140 in the LGBTQ movement, they're teaching these children that, you know, they're not teaching
01:12:02.940 them God made you and made you perfect the way you are. They're saying, if you think that you're
01:12:08.760 something other, that somehow it was a mistake, let's fix that. And they're trying to go against
01:12:15.180 how God has made you. I mean, I saw this as a youth and family minister. I saw girls
01:12:20.420 in the youth group with blonde hair, wish they had dark hair. And girls with dark hair,
01:12:24.740 wish they had blonde hair and then curly hair and then straight hair. And we haven't taught kids
01:12:30.280 how to live with insecurities and how to be content with who you are. And so we have to
01:12:38.480 come at it with a biblical worldview, in my opinion. And that's the way we do it. It's worked
01:12:48.680 before. And I'll also say this. I worked at some rural country churches and there was always some
01:12:54.500 old men there, they would say, you know, uh, these kids out here in the country, you never had to
01:12:58.700 teach them a sex ed class in school. They figured it out from the animals, you know, I mean, they,
01:13:04.160 they, they saw what happened, they knew what happened and they were, they got, you know,
01:13:09.240 parents talked to them, but, um, but basically, you know, maybe, maybe the church isn't doing a
01:13:16.820 good job of, of, uh, of teaching. You know, I believe a lot of the problems we have in our
01:13:21.460 culture, all start with the lack of leadership we have in the pulpit in America.
01:13:29.580 I think a lot of people also that aren't brought up with a Christian background
01:13:36.840 kind of scoff at it and just look at it as another type of ideology. I think that's part
01:13:44.120 of the problem. You mentioned that the Bible teaches people to love one another.
01:13:51.460 And that seems like it might be a good place to start, right, for acceptances is don't be hateful.
01:13:59.440 That's pretty much that's like that seems like a pretty good lesson just to begin with that everybody could learn from.
01:14:05.900 Yeah, I'll tell you this. Growing up, my family, we worked in Miss Texas Package.
01:14:15.580 Most people wouldn't think that about me. I'm in the Hall of Fame Miss Texas organization.
01:14:19.540 And that's mainly because I was big enough to carry Fox. But we were around a homosexual community working in that. And like I say, I feel like I'm loving, accepting. I mean, like I say, I have lots of people I know that are gay. My thing is just keep it away from kids.
01:14:40.740 You know, leave kids alone. I don't care if you're heterosexual or homosexual or drag, leave kids alone. It's that simple. And but for some reason, it's it's treated as taboo if you want to protect kids from drag.
01:14:58.060 um when like i say the whole nature the concept of drag is sexualization and so anyway uh it's wild
01:15:09.780 that we're where we're at you know and and that just because you say you don't want kids to be
01:15:14.400 around drag shows they think you know you hate others no i don't um i just also believe god has
01:15:21.600 a standard how he wants us to live our life everybody's got to answer for their decisions
01:15:26.940 okay well that covers all the questions i had um if people want to learn more about you is there
01:15:34.480 any place they can go online sure yeah you can find me on facebook you can find me on twitter
01:15:39.960 uh brian for hd2 and then you can find me on my website at brian slayton.com
01:15:47.080 okay great thank you very much for taking part in this opposing views thank you michaela for having
01:15:53.500 me.