A star-studded telethon was held Sunday night featuring drag-promoting celebrities like Charlize Theron aiming to collect money and sympathizers while not even pretending that they weren’t targeting kids.
For an admission fee of $20, viewers were treated to an evening of live-streamed virtue signaling Sunday as entertainers including actors, comedians and musicians joined drag queens in taking a stance against legislation aimed at protecting minors. Amid appearances from Amy Schumer, Melissa McCarthy, and David Cross at the “Drag Isn’t Dangerous” event, Theron addressed viewers with a conflated message.
“It’s really, in all seriousness, there’s so many things that are hurting and really killing our kids, and we all know what I’m talking about right now. And it ain’t no drag queen, because if you’ve ever seen a drag queen lip sync for her life it only makes you happier; it only makes you love more; it makes you a better person,” the Academy Award-winning actress said.
**WARNING: Language**
NEW 📸 | @CharlizeAfrica ‘s message on #DragIsntDangerous telethon fundraiser to support drag performers amidst recent anti-LGBTQ legislation. 😍🌈
— best of charlize theron (@badpostcharlize) May 8, 2023
Ahead of the event that also featured Leslie Jones, Marcia Gay Harden and Adam Lambert, Jesse Eisenberg released a statement that decried how “the recent demonization of drag culture has been greatly upsetting and completely shocking,” as he touted, “I have had the pleasure of getting to know many drag performer, including one of my idols, the incomparable Trixie Mattel, over the past several years.”
Sarah Silverman was also among those participating and Rolling Stone reported her saying, “The nerve of these disingenuous politicians is unfathomable. The number one killer of children is guns and these NRA pawns deflect it with a completely fabricated problem that puts the drag community in danger. The hypocrisy is astounding.”
The hilarioius @SarahKSilverman will be joining us at tomorrow's #dragisntdangerous telethon. Get your tickets to join us at https://t.co/4Sg3UJtpVX pic.twitter.com/hlQLznNkGF
— Drag Isn't Dangerous (@dragisntdanger) May 7, 2023
Another notable participant in the event that had gift bags provided in part by Red Bull and was sponsored by, among others, the ACLU and Warner Music Group’s Alternative Distribution Alliance, was the star of Disney’s “Frozen,” Idina Menzel.
Despite efforts to gloss over the darker aspects of so-called drag culture and to demonize legislative efforts that would shield children from it, the website for the event had no qualms about addressing their grievances.
“According to the ACLU, there are currently 467 bills in the United States legislature targeting the LGBTQIA+ community. Many seek to ban drag on public property, as well as in any location where individuals under the age of 18 could be present,” it stated.
Then it took aim at laws focused on ending genital mutilation and chemical castration of children that was framed as “medically necessary care,” and said, “A significantly more dangerous series of bills are the ones seeking to ban age appropriate, medically necessary care to transgender youth under the age of 18.”
Reactions to the event cut through the cheery optics right to the dangerous ramifications of promoting deviant content to children. As one person wrote, “Coming from an industry that is now perverse in the mass manufacturing of vivid grotesque bloody violence on film. An industry that demeans women by inserting a scene to show an actresses breasts whenever possible. I don’t need these people to tell me right from wrong.”
Coming from an industry that is now perverse in the mass manufacturing of vivid grotesque bloody violence on film. An industry that demeans women by inserting a scene to show an actresses breasts whenever possible. I don’t need these people to tell me right from wrong.
— StefiBeats (@StefiBeats) May 8, 2023
Sexualising children is dangerous though so let’s stop with the deceitful word play.
— Brandon News Network (@rekishi_repeats) May 8, 2023
Hollyweird having a telethon to keep grown men in drag the right to perform in front of your kids and sneak into women’s bathrooms. Be no different than having a telethon to promote female strippers. It’s all very sick and abhorrent.
— Qynton. (@Qynton) May 6, 2023
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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