By: Ellen Cans
New York City taxpayers and parents didn’t know this but they have been funding drag queen shows for school students as young as three years old.
As reported by the NY Post, last month alone, Drag Story Hour NYC, a nonprofit with inappropriate cross-dressed performers, raked in $46,000 from city contracts for shows at public schools, street festivals, and libraries, as per city records. The outrageous gender-bending shows have been taking place without the consent or knowledge of the parents. This group alone is booked for 49 drag programs in 34 public elementary, middle, and high schools throughout all five boroughs, since January, as per its website. The group, which changed its name this year from Drag Queen Story Hour NYC, has earned a total of $207,000 in taxpayer cash since 2018. The sum includes $50,000 from the state of NY through its Council on the Arts, along with $157,000 from the city’s Departments of Education, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Community Development, and even the Department of Transportation, as per city data.
“I can’t believe this. I am shocked,” said public school mom and state Assembly candidate Helen Qiu, whose 11-year-old son attends a Manhattan middle school. “I would be furious if he was exposed without my consent. This is not part of the curriculum.”
Most of the funds were earmarked by city council members from their discretionary budgets. What’s more, this fiscal year, there was $80,000 allocated for the group– more than tripling the $25,000 that was set aside in 2020. “I am considering pulling funding to any school in my district that is implementing Drag Queen Story Hour,” said City Council member Vickie Paladino (R-Queens). “We are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the pockets of hardworking New York taxpayers … to fund a program teaching little children about their gender fluidity? Not. On. My. Watch.”
For some reason, drag queen story hours for children have been featured at public library branches throughout the NYC since 2017. There are upcoming events planned at Manhattan’s Epiphany Library and the Woodside Public Library in Queens, and others. Now the performances are creeping their way into school classrooms. The shows feature cross-dressed performers who typically read aloud from a list of books that teach acceptance and inclusion, such as classics including “Where the Wild Things Are” and “The Rainbow Fish”, as well as some more overtly open newer books including, “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish.”
Parents in other states are also protesting the aggressive efforts to expose children to transgenderism. Dr. Elana Fishbein, founder and president of the conservative group ‘No Left Turn in Education’, criticized the city’s in-school drag shows as “a flagrant disregard for the real needs of the students.” Fishbein said, “Exposing children to drag queens in school is none other than an abuse of authority for the purpose of sexualizing children.”
The DOE did not respond directly to questions about parental notification, but defended the programming calling it “life saving.” “Last year, 50 transgender or gender-nonconforming people were killed in the United States due to their identity,” spokeswoman Suzan Sumer said. “We believe our schools play a critical role in helping young people learn about and respect people who may be different from them.”