Addressing Bigotry – Warrensburg, Missouri City Council Meeting – May 8, 2023 – part 4

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Bigotry, bigots, City Council, drag show, LGBTQIA+, missouri, Pride Festival, Warrensburg

A group billing themselves as Johnson County Citizens for the Protection of Children is still up in arms about the Warrensburg Pride Festival scheduled for June 3, 2023. There will be drag shows on the program. You know, fancy costumes, theatrical makeup, show tunes. This is nothing new. There were Pride Festivals in Warrensburg in 2021 and 2022.

These right wingnut busybodies had organized on-line to present a petition to the Warrensburg City Council during the public comment portion of the City Council’s evening meeting on April 24th to limit or cancel the Pride Festival. A loosely organized group of LGBTQIA+ allies organized on-line to speak in support of the Pride Festival.

The pearl clutching busybodies returned to last night’s City Council to demand an ordinance banning drag shows in Warrensburg, this time with photos on posterboard. In the period between the two council meetings the producers of the Pride Festival had already changed the festival format to 18 years of age and older due to reported threats against the festival and the venue. A similar group of LGBTQIA+ allies attended and signed in to speak in support of the Pride Festival and against a city ordinance.

So, I am a registered nurse, I graduated UCM and then, um, I have a medical degree from Japan. I’m a psychiatrist. And as a psychiatrist my concern is LGBTQ youth suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of youth. In 2019 19% of youth considered to attempt suicide. And 77% of them are LGBTQIA+ community. [….] In 2020, nationwide, 73% of LGBTQIA+ youth experienced discrimination, based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. And 45% considered suicide and 14% attempted suicide. In Missouri, its numbers are about the same.

So, it was noticed by U.S. government, long time ago, twenty years ago, the U.S. government had this program, plan, to reduce LGBTQIA+ youth suicide with, you know, decrease the number of people committing suicide. So, many researchers are done research and they found a risk factor is stigmatizing, stigmatizing is for who they are. And the youth feel isolation, feeling of being a burden to people, and negative school, like bullying. And they also find there’s a positive protective factor which is support from school, family, community.

So, I’m a scientist. I know we like to divide things in groups. But humans […] inside, outside, doesn’t match, that don’t match. [,,,] They are born to be that way.

I have been to the Pride Festival, twice, two years, two years ago and last year. And the significant thing I, touched my heart, there was many young people wrapping themselves with the pride flag, holding their hands, they, their face were peaceful. Then I, I realized this is what they need. They need to feel they’re okay to exist. Most of this, I’ve been there, most of the performer, they’ve been through discrimination. They are not professionals, they have their day job, they do this part time. They’re trying to tell young people it’s okay to be who they are.

So, as we talk about the safety of children as a community we have to provide safe environment for the children to keep them. Thank you.

…We have, uh, gone to the drag shows, as she said. I didn’t see anything that would, uh, indicate a violation of any of the laws that were mentioned. We thought it was a friendly, uh, and, uh, supportive event, as my wife said. We’ve raised five kids. We feel that we can make decisions about what events our children should attend. Input from other people is not needed, and frankly, not welcome.

Last time I was here I mentioned that I thought there was an economic issue, with the economic health of Warrensburg. That if we discourage people from holding a variety of events that, uh, has a negative impact on Warrensburg. And since that time we’ve seen that the, uh, Pride Fest that was planned is now limited to adults. Guess what that means? That means there are people who would have been in Warrensburg, frequenting businesses, spending money that, that day, who will not be. If the sort of ordinance that’s being supported were to be passed that would mean, uh, in the future, uh, there will be people who otherwise might have come to Warrensburg who will not.

Not just for that particular event, but because they see Warrensburg as a place that is not welcoming to them.

So, my thought is, let’s be careful about the decisions we make where we try to legislate morality for other people because those decisions may well come back to bite us economically. Thank you for your attention.

When we moved here, almost two years ago, I thought I lived in Warrensburg [….] We are kind of here, hearing a lot of opinions about a lot of stuff, but I think the thing that strikes me most is that there are laws in this country for a reason to protect children. Children don’t process things well as youth. They have to grow and mature. And, until in this nation have been identified as roughly eighteen years of age, some twenty-one, depends on what it is, they are not allowed to make or partake in situations which you’ve heard about here tonight [….]

Except you’ll make the parenting decisions for someone else’s kids. Because?

Explain the differences among the 1st Amendment, the 2nd Amendment, and the 14th amendment. We’ll wait.

So, I work here in Warrensburg. I’m the mother of six and I’m very concerned about having kids in our community attend drag shows. It’s never appropriate for kids to attend these type of events. I understand the event in June is now an adults only event, but my continued concern is for next year. We will need the city council to stand up and make it clear where they stand. Protect our children. A munici, a municipal ordinance would accomplish this. I want to thank Missouri senator Rick Brattin [r]…

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“…It’s never appropriate for kids to attend these type of events…” You attended? If not, how would you know? But you still get to decide for everyone else? Because?

Rick Brattin (r) is the pre-eminent legal scholar and final arbiter of the law in the State of Missouri, said no one ever.

The NClusion drag queen venue is sexually explicit adult entertainment. I think we’d all agree about that. Adult entertainment should be for mature audiences only. Drag queens are female impersonators who’s venue can sexually exploit children with their indoctrination about adult sexuality and sexual orientation.

[….]

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“…I think we’d all agree about that…” Uh, no. You might have noticed other speakers two weeks ago and at this city council meeting, right?

Because they’re so credible?:

“Faux News channel, fascist groupies” – protest sign, circa 2003- 2004.

…I want to start off by reminding everyone here that our children are our future. They are our heritage. God states in his words that every child is a gift and every child is a reward.

We live in a society where our children are constantly being told they have to believe a particular way, otherwise they are wrong or perhaps they are a bad person or even a hater.

Some would argue that we here today, we might be haters, fearmongers, or the dreaded homophobics because we don’t bow down and agree to the senseless immoral, perverted, corrupt garbage that is being thrown around and forced on us.

We, in fact, we embrace the right to choose. We’re speaking on behalf of the children. We also embrace reality. Normal moral and ethical living. Living is right, living right is not rocket science, it’s common sense. And like the most of us in this room I think we’re strong in that part. [….]

We are here as a group of citizens. We are committed to standing for the voiceless, our children, the ones who don’t have a voice in these days.

We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, no matter what names, titles, or ridiculous ideologies others may speak against us or throw our direction. We are fully aware who we are through god who created us.

We are looking for solutions and so that’s where you all come in. We want safeguards put in place. We want accountability where there should be accountability. We want our children protected against EXPLOTATION.

We don’t come with a lot of feel good stories about our experiences with last year’s drag queen show. However, we did come with evidence that they are being exploited.

Photos of minor children at last year’s event were handed to you last, at the last meeting as well.

We want our children protected from an agenda that is hell bent on grooming our children. We want our children’s minds and their lives protected in these very vulnerable years.

[….]

We are committed to standing strong until this battle is won, until we see action from you on behalf our minors. We want to see an ordinance. We’re not going away, guys.

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“…We live in a society where our children are constantly being told they have to believe a particular way, otherwise they are wrong or perhaps they are a bad person or even a hater…” Wait, isn’t that an argument against organized religion?