As Humpty Dumpty might say, reality has become whatever we say it is. Not to trivialize the gravity of the subject, but I made up a Monty Python-like skit to illustrate the problem of naming things wrongly – using the example of a cat. Later we shall see a far more serious, and all too real, instance of this problem. Here is the skit:
A woman approaches a city official and demands a dog license for her cat.
The official responds: “You have a cat. I can’t give a dog license to a cat.”
The woman objects, “Why not? This is discrimination! I want a dog license.”
The official: “Okay. Then get a dog.”
Woman: “But my cat doesn’t know it’s not a dog.”
Official: “Madame, that is not a problem for the city but for your veterinarian psychologist.”
Woman: “I would not need a veterinarian if only you would give me a dog license.”
Official: “If cats can become dogs, what would a dog license mean?”
Woman: “It would mean whatever you want it to mean – so long as no one gets hurt.”
Official “But what happens if your cat gets sick and you take it to a dog clinic?”
Woman: “As long as I have the dog license, they will have to treat my cat as a dog.”
Official: “Is that good for your cat? If you put a cat in a dog kennel, someone will get hurt – probably the cat.”
Woman: “Not if you make the dogs recognize the cat’s dog license.”
Official: “How are you going to do that?”
Woman: “Penalize the dog owner.”
Official: “What if your cat gets hurt anyway?”
Woman: “I’ll sue.”
Official: “On what grounds?”
Woman: “Violation of equal rights.”
This, of course, is silly, but no sillier than what’s being foisted on us today. Consider the following example – this time with dog denial – that proves reality is stranger than fiction. In 2021, the Dolley Madison branch of the Fairfax County Public Library in McLean, Virginia held one of a number of events for June Pride Month – “Drag StoryBook Hour”.
One of the drag queens had a stuffed dog.
The drag queen asked the children: “What kind of animal am I my holding under my arm?”
A little boy 3 to 4 years of age raised his hand and said: “It’s a dog.”
The drag queen responded: “Nooo, it’s not. It’s a cat.”
Getting upset, the little boy: “No. It’s a dog!”
Drag queen: “No, it’s a cat.”
Little boy: “No, my mommy told me it’s a dog.”
Drag queen: “Well, sometimes things aren’t always what they seem to be.”
An adult, to whom I later spoke, said out loud, “Please don’t confuse the children!”
The drag queen later reacted to a negative reply to a tweet about the event saying, “There are LGBTQIA+ children too. It’s important that they see they aren’t alone, there isn’t anything wrong with them, and it’s safe for other kids to be friends with them! If I had seen this kind of visibility as a kid my life would have been very different and much improved.”
To begin with, there aren’t any 4 to 5-year-old LGBTQIA+ children. So, they can’t very well see that “they aren’t alone” because there aren’t any to see in the first place – which also makes it very hard for other kids to be friends with them. As for the drag queen’s life having been “much improved” if only he had seen something similar as a young child, it’s questionable as to whether it would have enhanced his debating skills, at least not to the point at which he could’ve bested a 4 to 5-year-old.
As a Monty Python skit, the Drag Story Hour would be humorous, but it is far less amusing as a real incident during which little children are intimidated from naming things as they are. “This kind of visibility,” offered by the drag queen, only occludes vision and teaches the children that what they see is not what they get. Its intention is to blind them to reality, to what is.
Drag queens, along with those publicly living out various gender or same-sex fantasies, strive for high “visibility” for what isn’t there. It is in their interests to get others to acknowledge the presence of what isn’t there. It reinforces their unreality and makes them more secure. So, drag queen story hours are principally in the interest of drag queens themselves, regardless of the cost to others.
What happens to a society that allows this?
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