Parents who took little children to a Dallas gay bar’s obscene drag show “lost their minds a long time ago,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw said Sunday in a series of tweets.
The “Drag the Kids to Pride” show at the Mr. Misster bar was billed as a “family-friendly” version of the bar’s regular “Champagne Drag Brunch.” During Saturday’s event, drag performers pranced with children as young as seven in front of a neon sign that read, “It’s not gonna lick itself.”
“This is really deranged,” the Texas Republican and former Navy SEAL tweeted. “It’s also proof that when you’re too open-minded, your brain falls out. Clearly these parents lost their minds a long time ago.”
This is really deranged. It’s also proof that when you’re too open-minded, your brain falls out.
Clearly these parents lost their minds a long time ago. https://t.co/ZBTGMkYqqc
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) June 6, 2022
Several parents and attendees who wore T-shirts supporting Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke for governor defended taking children to the event in an interview with Aldo Buttazzoni, a correspondent for the YouTube channel “Fleccas Talks.” Crenshaw weighed in to reject claims that exposing children to the spectacle was teaching them tolerance.
“Let me ask you: When parents want to introduce their kids to straight sex, they don’t take them to a strip club or burlesque show, do they?” Crenshaw asked in one of several tweets on the subject. “Is this hyper-sexual drag show supposed to accurately represent the gay community?
“Is this really supposed to build “tolerance?” I can’t imagine most gay couples I know would ever condone kids going to these shows, just as most straight couples wouldn’t bring their kid to a burlesque show,” he continued.
“This is not only deranged, but also gives millions of decent gay couples a bad name,” Crenshaw concluded.
A group called “Protect Texas Kids” protested outside the bar and said it had hoped to scuttle the event as soon as it heard about it.
“The mission was to raise awareness that an event like this, a drag show for children, was happening right in Dallas,” the organization said in a statement. “We also hoped that if we raised awareness, the event might be canceled or modified so that children couldn’t be present.”
After the event, the bar released a statement claiming it was raising money for a local LGBTQ+ youth organization and accused protesters of being “transphobic.”
“We are more than happy to open our doors to celebrate Pride in a family friendly, safe environment, separate from our normal operations of 2 p.m. – 2 a.m. on Saturdays because we believe that everyone should have a space to be able to celebrate who they are,” the statement read.