Health insurance provider Kaiser Permanente is promoting Drag Queen Story Hour in its new ad preaching tolerance and inclusiveness.
The voiceover in the ad, titled “To Them We Say,” begins by stating, “There are those who will say that you are too …”
The ad continues with images of individuals who are unjustly referred to as “too fat,” “too old,” “too limited,” etc.
Sandwiched in between the affirming images of these individuals is one of a drag queen – a man dressed provocatively in women’s clothing – reading to young children who are shown laughing during the event. The voiceover continues with the characterization of those who oppose drag queens as saying they are “too much.”
The ad ends with the voiceover declaring, “… to them we say, ‘too bad.’ At Kaiser Permanente, we believe everybody deserves the right to thrive.”
MRC NewsBusters explained:
[T]hose who see problems with a sexualized man dressed as a woman reading to children are once again criticized as just disliking people who are different or “too much.” A drag queen reading to children is the same as an elderly woman who dresses her best or a male healthcare worker showing a softer side, in a new commercial by health insurance provider Kaiser Permanente.
In August, the insurer, which operates in eight states, including Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and the District of Columbia, boasted on its website that the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the education arm of the LGBT activist organization, has recognized the company for the tenth consecutive year as an “LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Leader.
“This honor recognizes our longstanding commitment to LGBTQ person-centered care and achieving equitable health outcomes for our LGBTQ members, patients, and families,” Ronald L. Copeland, MD, FACS, chief equity, inclusion, and diversity officer said in a statement. “We must continue to ensure that everywhere we deliver care, all patients feel welcome and are treated with empathy, dignity, and respect.”
The American Library Association (ALA) encourages Drag Queen Story Hour events and is supporting those libraries experiencing “pushback” from their communities.
The organization states:
ALA, through its actions and those of its members, is instrumental in creating a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive society. This includes a commitment to combating marginalization and underrepresentation within the communities served by libraries through increased understanding of the effects of historical exclusion.
The website of the Drag Queen Story Hour, an event targeting toddlers and young children, specifically states the purpose of the events is to provide children with “glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”
The controversial drag queen events have stirred tensions in many cities throughout the country, such as Chula Vista, California, where an LGBT-activist city official said groups protesting the event were people who hold “white supremacist beliefs.”
In the wake of the official’s statement, the South Bay Pentecostal Church was vandalized after its pastor openly criticized the Drag Queen Story Hour in the Chula Vista library.
Concerns about safety at the drag queen events made headlines recently when Houston MassResistance discovered drag queen Alberto Garza, who uses the name Tatiana Mala-Nina when reading to young children, had been convicted in 2008 of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old boy.
The Houston library system had failed to perform a background check on Garza or any of the other drag queens appearing in its programs.
Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon, also faced backlash when it was found the library system had quietly removed from social media photos of the Drag Queen Story Hour that took place at one of its libraries during which young children were lying on top of the drag queens and fondling their false breasts.
The Minnesota Hennepin County Library in Richfield recently hired drag queen Russ King, an adult entertainer, to read to young children. According to a report by Alpha News, King wore “a very short skirt and very high heels, and when he bent over, or his legs spread apart, he revealed his underwear to a dozen toddlers who sat before him.”
The headline of the Minnesota Sun’s article about King’s story hour read, “Drag Queen Who Routinely Poses Half Nude Performed for Children in Richfield.”