When Blaze Media's Sara Gonzales infiltrated Arlington Pride's "all-ages" Pride festival earlier this month, her team found, among other things, LGBTQ+ merchandise utilizing themes known to children and a booth, manned by a male in a rainbow "Papa Bear" shirt, featuring rainbow colors and a rainbow flag advertising "scouting for everyone."
Also on display were adult items, explicit apparel, exotic dancing, advertisements for free HIV testing, and more. People were seen wearing bondage apparel, and Gonzales reports that a five-year-old was brought up on stage to interact with a drag queen who asked the child if it was their "very first Pride."
Jonathan Covey, director of policy for Texas Values, says the children who were brought to the supposed "family-friendly" event were exposed to and even targeted by the explicitness.
"Sexually explicit performances, drag performances, pride festivals -- they only do one thing for children: they exploit and harm them before they're emotionally ready, and they let parents sacrifice the innocence of their own children to virtue signal how much tolerance and acceptance they, the parents, have," Covey submits. "That's it."
Taking kids to a drag event, he says, has become the new way for parents to try to prove to the world they are modern, sensitive people. But the children are the ones who pay the price.
"When you target children, especially with adult sexual performances, you sort of desensitize them to sexual activity … in general," Covey laments. "This is sort of a preparation for entry into the gender transition pipeline or the LGBTQ world in general, and I think this is intentional."
He explains that legally, these types of events must be accompanied by explanatory speech, which means they are not constitutionally protected expression. With that in mind, Texas Values has worked hard over the past couple of sessions to put protections in place for children.
"We're going to keep working on that," Covey pledges. "The message is leave the kids alone."
