Anti-Drag Laws Spreading Like Kudzu, So Here Are THIS WEEK'S Stories About Straight Christians Abusing Kids

We're going to need to do this more often.

And now back to your regularly scheduled War on Drag Queens.

Arkansas's state Senate has just overwhelmingly passed SB 43, a bill to ban drag shows by reclassifying them as "adult-oriented businesses" that therefore cannot be seen in public. The head of the ACLU in Arkansas is expressing concern that the language of this bill, as written, would make it so a trans person wouldn't be able to perform in any way — "karaoke, poetry reading, Church choir, school play, pride event" — without running afoul of the law.

The bill's sponsor, Republican state Senator Gary Stubblefield, says that is just a bunch of poppycock, as the bill requires a "drag performance" to be aimed at "the prurient interest." No, this would not ban Shakespeare, he says. At least one state senator who supported the bill said it probably would apply to gay pride parades, though. Now the bill goes to the state House, and then presumably to Sarah Huckabee Sanders's desk, so she can use the magical powers granted to her by the voters of Arkansas to take a giant shit on innocent trans people and drag queens.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, most recently known for his utter failure to get Pennsylvania interested in electing a fucking wackjob like him as its governor, has announced he plans to intro a bill banning all drag shows in public places or on public property, which would effectively ban them at pride events. A memo from Mastriano uses the phrases "adult-oriented business" and "the prurient interest," just like the Arkansas bill. This shouldn't surprise you, as bigoted state laws are often written by outside hate groups and copy/pasted all over state legislatures.

Also, Republican state lawmakers aren't particularly well-known for having their own ideas or being experts at reading or writing.

But if Republican conservative Christians are going to continue to escalate their eliminationist Nazi-style campaigns against LGBTQ+ Americans, and if they're going to keep saying they're doing it to protect children, then we will never stop pointing out that kids are in far more danger of being sexually abused/assaulted around conservative Christian pastors and youth group leaders than they are at drag events or by drag queens or LGBTQ+ people in general.

 JoeMyGod aggregates on a daily basis headlines from around the country about (mostly) white, heterosexual conservative Christian leaders who have been accused, tried, and/or convicted of raping and otherwise sexually abusing children.

So while any interested parties are free to go make a list of all the LGBTQ+ people who have been accused/tried/convicted of abusing kids, we'll use Joe's site to find all the headlines about conservative Christians abused of those and other sex crimes.  

These are just from the past week.

 Former Virginia pastor gets 20 years for child pornography 

 Ex-adviser to Monaco’s royal family sentenced to 3 years in Philly child porn case  (he's a Catholic priest)

 Tennessee Christian school principal indicted on 11 new child sex charges after 2022 arrest 

 Coquitlam church 'therapist' jailed for six years for historical sex crimes 

 Youth pastor, hospital director among 46 men arrested in North Texas sex trafficking cases 

 Former Catholic school teacher sentenced to 6 years behind bars for assaulting children 

 State College man convicted of chi  ld rape sentenced to at least 20 years in prison  (he was a pastor and a children's minister, and the victim was a year old)

 Chesterfield County CA says new info received in John Blanchard case, will bring in special prosecutor  (the megachurch pastor was previously charged with child sex solicitation)

 Former Flowood Youth Pastor Pleads Guilty To Child Exploitation Charges 

Today is January 25. Those stories take us back to January 18.

One week. Nine unique stories with a common theme, namely that conservative Christians are the people who assault and abuse children.

 We've cheated off of JoeMyGod's aggregation before, in response to a woman in Maury County, Tennessee, who shouted at a homophobic asshole county commissioner named Aaron Miller that "I've never been sexually assaulted at a drag show, but I have been at church. TWICE. The men told me it was MY fault." That week there were six stories.

Yeah, there's a problem in America, and there are certainly people children need to be protected from.

It ain't drag queens.

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