Prominent Democrats have recently championed “drag queen story hours” for kids, but the public is far from convinced, according to a new poll.
SO WHAT
Most parents want a say in what’s appropriate for their kids.
THE NUMBERS
The Golden/TIPP poll released Wednesday found that 47% of respondents said they disapprove of drag queen story hour for minor children in public libraries.
Forty-two percent said they approved of the program, which started in libraries but has branched out to elementary schools and bookstores.
- A full 59% of respondents said they disapproved of drag queen story hour for minor children in schools.
- During the events, which are geared towards children age three to eleven, “storytellers” dressed in drag read books to young audiences.
- “DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models,” reads a description on the official Drag Queen Story Hour website.
“In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where everyone can be their authentic selves!”
OTHER NUMBERS
The debate over drag queen story hour fits into a broader national culture war over progressive sex-ed for children, where public polling has suggested most Americans have relatively traditional views on how to teach kids about the birds and the bees.
- A survey released in April by Public Opinion Strategies found that people support the language of Florida’s controversial “don’t say gay” law more than 2 to 1, 61 percent to 26 percent.
- According to another April poll by YouGov and Yahoo News, nearly half of Americans support the law’s primary aim of banning schools from teaching sexuality and gender identity to kids between kindergarten and third grade, compared to just 27% who are opposed.
- Even Florida Democratic primary voters support the law 52-36, according to a March poll.
A 2021 poll conducted by Parents Defending Education found 75% of American voters oppose schools teaching there is no such thing as biological sex, and are against teaching that people should choose whatever gender they prefer for themselves.
OUT OF TOUCH?
Public opinion be damned, Democratic politicians have gone out of their way in recent months to signal their support for pro-LGBT school policies and programs, like drag queen story hour.
- New York City Mayor Eric Adams said last month that drag queens play an invaluable role in educating the city’s children.
- “Drag storytellers, and the libraries and schools that support them, are advancing a love of diversity, personal expression and literacy that is core to what our city embraces,” he said.
- One day earlier, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel declared in a speech that every school should have a drag queen, saying the gender-bending performers “make everything better.”
THE KICKER
The administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of the Republican lawmakers spearheading the backlash against progressive sex-ed, filed a complaint Tuesday against a Miami bar that hosted a sexually charged drag show where minors were present.