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| With the help of a doctored picture (first picture), the far right continues its inane lie that drag queens are 'grooming' children. |
Yet again in their need to demonize drag queens, far right conservatives have shown how low they are willing to stoop.
According to the Associated Press:
CLAIM: A drag performer flashed their genitals to children while reading aloud in a Minnesota library.AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The performer in this 2019 photograph was wearing several layers of nude tights, said Hennepin County Library Communications Manager Joshua Yetman. “There wasn’t any exposure to children,” Yetman said.THE FACTS: As hateful and misleading rhetoric aimed at the LGBTQ community has escalated in recent months on social media, Drag Queen Story Hour events hosted by libraries or bookstores have become a frequent target. This week, some social media users are resurrecting a 2019 photo of such an event in a Minneapolis suburb and reposting it with false claims it shows the performer exposing their genitals to children. The image captures the performer, who is wearing a short dress while seated in front of students, reaching to the side for a book. In some versions of the post, a black box labeled “CENSORED” has been added to the space between the performer’s legs.“This is literally a sex crime,” reads a June 10 tweet that was shared some 10,000 times. “Adult flashes his penis to young children at library’s drag queen story hour,” another tweet read. However, unedited versions of the image show that the performer was wearing opaque nude tights that covered their genitals, a fact that Yetman confirmed to the AP in a phone interview Monday. “The performer was wearing tan or nude-colored tights, several layers of tights,” Yetman said.“They did not expose themselves to the children.” Yetman said the photo was captured in October 2019 during a drag queen story hour program at Ridgedale Library in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka. The image circulated online with the same false claims shortly after the program happened, and the library system debunked them at the time.
This isn't the first time the far right has run distorted pictures in order to demonize LGBTQ people.
There was the following in 2010 during an attack on Progressive Insurance because of that company's pro-LGBTQ policies:
Doctored picture
Actual picture
Then there was this 2014 monstrosity below which you read all about here.
Doctored picture
Actual Picture
It's the thing to remember and keep in perspective while beating back smears against drag queens.. The targets may have changed from gay men to trans men and women to drag queens, but the propaganda techniques never do. Nor do the lies.
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