An 11-year-old drag queen who will perform this weekend at an Oregon bar that routinely hosts LGBTQ parties is drawing criticism and accusations of child abuse.
Vanellope Craving, an 11-year-old drag performer (MacPherson Dupont), whose mother Sunshine Ray MacPherson is also a drag performer, will be featured at the event on October 23 at Old Nick’s Pub in Eugene, Oregon.
Vanellope will not be making her first performance at the bar.
Online users have criticized Vanellope’s parents for allowing drag to become her hobby and termed the program “child abuse.” Some people have even questioned the absence of Child Protective Services.
However, the pub has stepped up its support of the young singer and accused individuals who were critical of the performance of “sexualizing a youngster in makeup.”
Negative comments on the page advertising the performance have already started to disappear from the institution, which bills itself as Eugene’s finest Victorian Gothic British Pub.
The bar said on a post with numerous images of Vanellope with glittery eyeshadow, black lipstick, thick artificial eyelashes, and bejeweled costume, “It’s quite disturbing how many of you are sexualizing a kid in cosmetics.”
The speaker said, “It all comes down to inherent sexism.”
Journalist Andy Ngo discussed the show’s specifics on Twitter. Users responded to the post with anxiety and vilification of the occasion and the kid drag queen’s parents.
‘Child abuse!’ Dorothy Milton wrote.
Another person said, “Unconscionable – this cannot be allowed.”
Erik Minor said, “Pedophilia is alive and strong in Oregon,” while another user added, “The event was depraved grooming.”
Governor Ron DeSantis’ communications strategist Christina Pushaw responded, “Omg this is so beyond weird.”
Additionally, it seems from public Venmo transactions that other adults have paid or tipped Vanellope for prior performances.
One reader observed that attending kid drag events makes him completely less supportive of the LGBTQ community as a whole and less intrigued by the concept of being an ally.
I’m not trying to be nasty or “phobic” (whatever that means nowadays), Dylan Kyle said, but this whole effort to brainwash youngsters is making me not want to be an ally. I get that there is a distinction between LGBT people and “the movement,” but it’s just not a good image.
One worried user commented, “Evil… The parents of this kid deserve in jail.”
Who and where the child’s father is are unknown. According to Sunshine Ray MacPherson’s Facebook page, she is divorced.
Sunshine said in response to the restaurant’s post that she would stand up for her kid against individuals who criticize the excessively dramatic hair, makeup, and musical performances that her daughter is rumored to like.
The commenter MacPherson wrote on the post, “The [sic] are going to have to come through ME, her MOTHER, and a horde [sic] of Queens and LBGTQ+ [sic] Community she is FIERCELY protected!!!!”
It seems that Sunshine has had a variety of jobs within the drag community.
She previously won the title of Ms. Gay Oregon at the Imperial Sovereign Rose Court of Oregon, according to her Facebook page. She also holds the title of Star Empress in the Williamette Empire’s Imperial Sovereign Court.
One Twitter user reportedly responded to the pub’s mitigation strategies by writing, “My favorite part is the planned gaslighting reaction they have prepared,” as well as constantly calling it “strange” to sexualize a pre-pubescent youngster who was disguised as an adult female performer.