Mom's TikTok Review of a Drag Brunch Shows Where the Real Danger Lies

Hate and bigotry apparently don't just trickle down, they can rise up as well. Tianna Bastien, a mom and TikTok-er under the handle @thecuratedlobe, lives just outside of Toronto. She recently shared with Parents that the ongoing escalation of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation and the anti-gay climate rising in the states have had the impact of empowering bigoted voices and are increasing hateful anti-gay sentiments and rhetoric in Canada.

Bastien's newest TikTok features her children and a friend attending the Drag and Brunch show at CommunityResto. "I decided that the voiceover that I was going to do for the video was going to take a sarcastic tone to highlight how ridiculous people who are against drag queens are actually sounding."

Tatianna had called ahead to the restaurant, confirming that the show was kid-friendly. She brought her two daughters to the event, illuminating the importance of "taking them to places where they can explore people's differences in a safe way and learn that differences are okay and not something to be afraid of, but rather to embrace."

The video shows the queens putting sparkles on the smiling girls' faces as the attending children prepared for a silly dance competition to the notoriously dangerous "Baby Shark" song.

This month, Tennessee became the first state in the U.S. to sign into law a drag ban, SB 3. The relatively narrow law aiming to ban "male or female impersonator" performances when minors are present, is set to go into effect on April 1 of this year. Stella Yarbrough, ACLU of Tennessee legal director, clarified that the law itself does not make it illegal to perform in drag. "The law bans obscene performances, and drag performances are not inherently obscene."

The ACLU intends to fight this law, and in a statement Yarbrough noted, "We are concerned that government officials could easily abuse this law to censor people based on their own subjective viewpoints of what they deem appropriate, chilling protected free speech and sending a message to LGBTQ Tennesseans that they are not welcome in our state."

Indeed that certainly is the message LGBTQIA+ Tennesseans are receiving from their elected officials. The drag ban is a clear-cut attempt to disconnect the queer community from its own history by criminalizing both gender expression and drag performance.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee additionally signed SB 1 into law this month, categorically banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth in the state. The law blocks the evidence-based medical care that is supported by every major medical association, by cutting off all access to puberty blockers and hormone therapies for transgender youth. The law also allows for civil penalties should any healthcare professional provide such care. The ongoing anti-trans legislation in Tennessee is effectively seeking to push transgender people out of public life.

Gov. Lee has come under fire for his drag hypocrisy, as a 1977 yearbook photo of him in drag recently was shared online.

Bastien shared that her group's experience of the Drag and Brunch show was of just how awesome, inclusive, and fun it was. The little girl's only question coming out of it was "when can we go to another one?" There are currently 20 bills up for consideration in U.S. state legislatures targeting drag performances, bills serving to police anything that is outside of the status quo. For many in the United States, the child's question may be unclear in the coming months.