A drag queen in Arizona has accused a Republican gubernatorial candidate of hypocrisy after she spoke out against children attending drag performances yet having the drag queen perform in front of her young daughter at her home.
Kari Lake, a Trump-backed Republican candidate for governor, retweeted a video earlier this month showing a drag queen performing in front of kids in Texas, writing: ‘This is grooming. This is child abuse. Maybe that’s acceptable in Dallas, Texas. But it will not be tolerated in a @KariLake-led Arizona.’
Then on Saturday, she tweeted her dismay with schools hosting drag shows writing: ‘They kicked God out of schools and welcomed the Drag Queens.
‘They took down our flag and replaced it with a rainbow. They seek to disarm Americans and militarize our enemies.
‘Let us bring back the basics: God, Guns and Glory.’
But soon after, Rick Stevens, one of the area’s best known drag artists who goes by the name Barbra Seville at theaters, bars and parties, says he has held parties at Lake’s home.
He posted photos to his social media of Lake posing with him and other drag performers – and similar pictures, dated 2012 and 2014, are posted to Lake’s social media. They were captioned: ‘Half of what I know about makeup, I learned from watching friends like @BarbraSeville.’
Stevens also told Arizona Central how Lake invited him to her central Phoenix home to perform as Marilyn Monroe at her birthday party about 10 to 12 years ago, and specifically remembers Lake’s then elementary school-aged daughter in the audience because she was wearing glasses at the time.
He said he sympathized with her because he hated wearing glasses as a child.
‘She’s friends with drag queens,’ Stevens said of Lake. ‘She’s had her kid in front of a drag queen. I’ve done drag in her home for her friends and family.
‘She’s not threatened by them,’ he added. ‘ She would come to shows constantly.
‘To make me the bogeyman for political gain, it was just too much.’
Still, Lake’s campaign denied that her daughter ever attended a drag show.
‘Richard’s accusations were full of lies,’ she said in a statement to Arizona Central.
‘The event in question was a party at someone else’s house and the performer was there as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. It wasn’t a drag show, and the issue we’re talking about isn’t adults attending drag shows either.
‘The issue is activists sexualizing young children, and that’s got to stop.’
Stevens claims Lake was a regular at drag shows back in the 1990s, when she was an anchor on FOX 10 News, and she and some of her coworkers would come to the 307 Lounge, a downtown Phoenix gay bar that hosted drag shows.
‘They would come down to the 307 Lounge, which was about a mile or two from the station, and they would hag out,’ Stevens said, adding: ‘She would come to the show pretty regularly. I wouldn’t say every week, but it wasn’t uncommon.’
Eventually, he said, they became friends, and he became her ‘go-to gay person’ for interviews on news stories related to LGBTQ issues.
‘Kari contacted me after my parents died,’ he told the Arizona Republic. ‘It meant the world to me, it really meant the world to me.
‘So to see her just throw me under the bus for a vote, that’s why I had to say something.’
‘I spoke up because her alarming rise to power under these new “views” are scary and can lead to real harm to me and other marginalized people,’ he added to Business Insider.
And in a Facebook post, Stevens – as Seville – wrote: ‘Kari was a friend of mine, and I stood by her when she turned to the right.
‘I reached out (and she responded repeatedly) when she took a public drubbing.’
But Stevens now says Lake is just pretending to be a warrior for the far right.
‘She supported Obama, and now I’m here to tell you that she supported drag queens, and had her kid in front of drag,’ he told Arizona Central.
‘So if I can do anything to expose the hypocrisy, and if I can do anything to keep someone like that a few votes away from power, I’m happy to do that.’
Meanwhile, Lake’s campaign continues to deny these allegations, telling the Arizona Republic that she ‘is pursuing legal action, and anyone that prints those lies should be prepared for a legal fight.’
The topic of drag queens performing in front of children has sparked debate in recent weeks, with conservatives claiming that well-intentioned family members and educators are exposing young children to improper content in the name of LGBTQ equality.
It all came to a climax earlier this month when video of children and their parents clapping and dancing to an Ariana Grande song as drag queens passed by at the Mr. Misster club in Cedar Springs, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, went viral.
The event was dubbed ‘Drag Your Kids to Pride,’ and it was billed as a ‘family friendly’ variation of the restaurant’s weekly drag brunches.
Following the video’s release, a group of males claiming to be members of the Proud Boys attacked a Drag Queen story time at a San Francisco library, hurling homophobic and transphobic threats.
Several of the guys barged into the library last week, brandishing assault weapon clothing and shouted insults at Panda Dulce as he read to children in preschool and kindergarten during the contentious event.
The mob disrupted the event, chanting ‘tranny’ and ‘pedophile,’ according to Kyle Chu, who acts as Panda Dulce and hosted the story hour on Instagram.
Michelle Tea, an activist and author, founded the nonprofit Drag Queen Story Hour in San Francisco in 2015. Since then, chapters have sprouted up all throughout the United States and the world. Other groups with drag readers have sprung up as well.
As part of Drag Queen Story Hour’s programming, drag queens read to children and their parents at libraries, bookstores, fairs, parks and other public spaces to celebrate reading ‘through the glamorous art of drag.’
According to the New York Post, officials in New York City have spent more than $200,000 on Drag Queen Story Hours since 2018, and only last month, the city paid $46,000 to send Drag Story Hour NYC to public schools, libraries, and street festivals.
According to the Washington Post, several parents claim the activities were scheduled without their permission, while city authorities have expressed their indignation.
The company claims to promote inclusivity, creativity, and self-acceptance in children by exposing them to drag queens reading books with similar themes.
‘Through fun and fabulous educational experiences, our programs celebrate gender diversity and all forms of difference to build empathy and give kids the confidence to express themselves however they feel comfortable,’ according to the website.
People dressed in bedazzled dresses, glittering wigs, and heavy eye shadow read to young children in classrooms, and even help the kids apply cosmetics themselves, according to images on the site.
According to public documents, the firm has collected $207,000 from taxpayers since 2018. The New York State Council on the Arts contributed $50,000, and the NYC Departments of Education, Youth and Community Development, Transportation, and Cultural Affairs contributed the remaining $157,000.
The funds were supplied by city council members, with $80,000 set aside for such activities in 2022 alone, more than three times the amount set aside in 2020.