What’s So Bad about Drag Queens?

Are you familiar with the Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSA)? It was founded by writer Michelle Tea with its stated purpose to "give kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models." The way it works is that drag queens (male performers who dress in women’s clothes and perform before an audience) serve as story readers for groups of children; typically at libraries, schools, and bookstores. This is not to be mistaken for cross-dressing. Cross dressing men generally attempt to actually pass as a woman. “Dragging,” on the other hand, involves an intentional performance, and generally has as its specific goal to undo the gender norms of traditional society by portraying the part of the opposite sex. There is generally no mistaking that drag queens are actually men. Their dress is usually VERY outrageous, and their performances tend to be quite vulgar. Additionally, many of these people are sexual deviants, and are into pedophilia.

When he/she came up with the DQSA idea, Tea did not like the fact that drag queens had a bad reputation. So he/she decided to create an event designed to provide some “positive” publicity for them – and at the same time help desensitize children to the drag queen lifestyle. In their DQSA events, drag queens provide story reading opportunities in order to entertain young children. It began as a small event in San Francisco, but now claims chapters throughout the U.S. and around the world.

My purpose in this blog, though, is probably different from what you might expect. The truth is, the drag queen phenomenon is but one small part of the much larger arena of sexual immorality. While drag queens are probably mostly associated with homosexuality, the truth is, not all are homosexuals. Beyond that, sexual immorality is not limited to the homosexual community. In fact, there is, no doubt, much more sexual immorality associated with heterosexuals than homosexuals. The real issue, though, is not a matter regarding any particular type of sexual immorality, but the fact that any and all sexual activity outside of the marriage relationship between one man and one woman is morally wrong and leads to all kinds of perversion, exploitation, and destroyed lives and relationships.

The biblical model consists of the marriage of one man and one woman for life. ANYTHING outside of that is considered immoral – whether it is adultery, fornication, polygamy, polyamory, homosexuality, prostitution, or any other kind of activity outside of the biblical model. But it is not just sex acts that are the problem. Sex can be misused in other ways, as well – such as the aforementioned cross dressing, drag queenery and pornography.

First, it is destructive to the person who willingly participates in it. As with any sinful act, it breaks fellowship with God for the individual. Beyond that, it involves others in sinful practice and affects their relationships as well  – both with God and with other people. Then, in many cases, it is exploitative – as is generally the case with prostitution and pornography. These things not only denigrate the human person who is made in the image of God, in many cases it actually causes damage to people’s lives.

Take the case of Brett Blomme. Bloome was a Milwaukee Wisconsin Children’s Court judge, and is married to another man. He and his partner have two adopted children. He has also served as president and CEO of the Cream City Foundation – a local LGBT organization that finances the DQSA in Milwaukee.

As it turns out, Bloome has now been arrested on seven counts of possession of child pornography. Seemingly, the seized materials include violent sexual abuse and rape of children as young as two years old. He has managed to destroy his own life, those of the people in his family, as well as those who were harmed in the creation of the pornographic images. You find the same kinds of dynamics with prostitution.

Perhaps one of the most distressing parts of this, though, is that sexual immorality has become so common in society that it has gained wide acceptability – even to a lot of self-identified Christians. Nancy Pearcey, a Christian apologist and writer who has studied how this is affecting the church, found that 58 percent of white evangelicals and 70 percent of black Protestants believe cohabiting is acceptable if a couple plans to marry.

The truth is, sex is not a dirty word, and human sexuality is a good gift of God that fits into His divine plan for mankind. It is only bad when is it conceived of and used in ways that are outside of the marriage relationship – places where it damages people physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. This is a subject that Christians need to quit tippy toeing around if they are serious about pointing people to a genuine relationship with God.

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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