More of the media is embracing the LGBTQ movement’s beliefs as though they’re representative of a majority of society’s. HuffPost, in a tweet celebrating the end of “Pride Month,” featured Desmond is Amazing, a 10-year-old boy dressed in drag. It’s one thing to highlight unusual phenomena, but it’s quite another to press a rare, abnormal, and in fact, harmful scenario, and pass it off as normal, hopeful avenue for the future.
As Pride month comes to a close, Desmond Is Amazing, the ten-year-old drag kid from New York, is proof that the future is queer. ? pic.twitter.com/6rLhs9qlIz
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) June 29, 2018
A local news station featured Desmond as well.
#HappyPride! This rainbow makeover with @desmond_amazing is fabulous. #pride https://t.co/0jhd3ceTsX
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) June 24, 2018
Despite what any major media outlet says, a 10-year-old who likes drag is neither normal nor healthy.
In what moral universe is it acceptable to encourage a 10 yr old boy to dress like an adult male mimicking a sexualized adult female, use that as a ticket to fame and then claim it as virtue? https://t.co/vmEoG9hXjt
— Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) July 2, 2018
In the HuffPost clip, Desmond says his parents introduced him to drag at two years old, when he saw his first episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Desmond wears feminine clothing, dresses in heels, lipstick, and eye shadow, and attends fashion walks and other LGBTQ advocacy events. He says he came “out of the closet” at three.
Taking selfies and hanging with @Peppermint247 , @miz_cracker and @sasha_velour while waiting to go on the @MACcosmetics float at the @NYCPride March
.#nycpride #pride #pride2018#peppermint #mizcracker #sashavelour #dragrace #rpdr#maccosmetics #drag #dragkid #desmondisamazing pic.twitter.com/LQAf3qMOnj— Desmond is Amazing (@desmond_amazing) June 30, 2018
Rather than question how any of this is possible, makes sense, or appears healthy, outlets simply embrace the message Desmond and his parents project. In interviews, Desmond has explained, “My mom says, ‘Be yourself always, no matter what anyone says.'” Good advice. But do 10-year-olds have the capacity to purchase makeup, heels, and dresses? Perhaps now Desmond does, but that certainly would not have been the case when he was even younger, meaning someone perpetuated this mindset by providing purposeful help. Desmond’s parents have taught him that he is an LGBTQ “advocate,” a word young children wouldn’t even know, let alone embrace.
Desmond has told another interviewer that his parents didn’t think it sounded like a good idea to force a child to do something they didn’t want to do. That’s nonsense. Parents can and should do this all the time. My children would likely eat Little Debbie Cakes and watch movies all day long without intervention. School, chores, homework, reading — those are all things kids would often rather not do. Do we indulge that fantasy? Heck, kids would rather run out in the middle of the street, go eight days without bathing, and eat Pop Rocks all day long — do we indulge them in that too? There are no perfect parents, myself included, but the fine line between boundaries and freedom is one that every parent must navigate with their children.
Desmond says he knew he was gay early in life. I have a four-, six-, eight-, and 10-year-old, and I can assure you none of my children, before the age of seven, showed an interest in their own genitalia, let alone wanted to know how said body parts might function sexually. Gender dysphoria is most certainly real, and it’s even normal for children to be so unaware of their specific gender, they will try on opposite gender’s clothing. My son did this at two and three-years-old because he has sisters with all kinds of dress-up princess outfits. I suppose I could have encouraged it by buying more girls clothing and putting them on him, but I did not think that would be a healthy expression of his God-given boyish nature. Instead, I laughed, told him those clothes were for girls and if he wanted to play make believe or dress-up, we would purchase fantastical clothing for boys, which we did.
I’m sure the LGBTQ community, including Desmond’s parents, might scoff at me and say I squashed a child’s potential “self-expression,” rather than encouraged healthy play. It’s worth remembering that the president of the American College of Pediatricians said in multiple interviews last year that encouraging the transgender lifestyle is harmful to kids. Likewise, I can’t imagine encouraging a child to embrace a gay lifestyle as a “drag child” from age three on is any less damaging. At age 10, Desmond is hardly on the cusp of puberty — what then?
A recent Gallup poll says 3 percent of the U.S. population identifies as LGBTQ, but more interestingly, the public believes almost 25 percent of the U.S. population identifies as LGBTQ. They do so because the media hypes stories like Desmond’s to the point where the rest of America believes it’s healthy, common, and even enviable.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
