TikTok lawyer lists sex offenders to make important point about drag queens
Author: Amelia Hansford
A lawyer is using her TikTok to expose the pedophiles arrested in US each week and, surprise surprise, despite what some right-wing pundits and politicians would have you believe, none of them are drag queens.
For the past few weeks, attorney Kristen Prata Browde, of Browde Law, has been using her social media account to outline the weekly list of people arrested in the US on charges of child sexual abuse.
The series of videos are an effort by the New York lawyer, who is outspoken in her support of LGBTQ+ people, to prove that drag queens are not a threat to children.
So far, her videos have summarised charges against 30 religious figures, one school official and three politicians. But not a single drag queen.
Her most recent clip was posted on Monday (13 March) and outlines nine youth pastors, one Catholic Church official and one school librarian.
Speaking to PinkNews, she explained that the idea came to her after a speech by the former president of the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus Stephen Gaskill.
“He started reading names of priests and pastors who had been arrested and I said, ‘Wait a minute, let’s start seeing where this came from,’” she explained.
“He gave me the source of his data and I started going through that data, and I thought, ‘Let’s just look at the last week.’”
What she found was that, across the week starting on the 21 February, there had been 17 total arrests that had made the news – none of which were drag queens.
“There are lots of cases that fly below the radar, but you can bet that if a trans person or drag queen – or a policeman or pastor – is involved, that’s an elevated thing.
“I spent decades in the news business and I know what gets reported and what doesn’t. So a case about us would be reported.”
She also mentions the legal battle against Republican Idaho lawmaker, Aaron von Ehlinger, who was found guilty of raping a former intern.
The anonymous intern was 19 when she reported that the former House representative raped her in his apartment in 2021.
Von Ehlinger, who denied the charge, was jailed for 20 years in August 2022. He will have to serve a minimum of eight years. He was cleared of a second charge of forcible penetration by use of a foreign object.
After once again proving that no drag queens have been responsible for child sexual abuse charges over the past week, Browde emphasised that it had been almost a month of making videos and no drag queens have harmed children, despite accusations by right-wing pundits.
She said that, because the data is incredibly valuable in proving that drag queens are not a threat to children, she is planning to go for as long as she can.
“I’d like to keep it going for a year and see what a year’s worth of data looks like,” she said.
“I’m not naive – there are people in our community and in every community who commit these kinds of crimes.
“But my thinking, and what I’ve seen so far, is that the proportions are so out of whack that it is the same people who are complaining about us who are committing these crimes.”
Kristen Browde addresses the level of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the US
Anti-drag rhetoric has dramatically increased over the past few years due to a rise in misinformation regarding drag performers.
The term “groomer” is often used as a slur against drag artists due to misinformed claims that age-appropriate drag shows for kids are somehow harmful to children.
In reality, the vitriol against drag derives from an underlying homophobic sentiment that sees LGBTQ+ people as inherently sexual.
“The accusations that have been flying around that trans people are molesters and that drag queens are this and that – I live in that community and I know it not to be true,” she added.
Despite her valiant efforts to protect the freedoms that drag artists deserve, Browde herself is not a fan of drag, but sees its worth as a legitimate art form.
“Frankly, I’m not a fan of drag,” Browde explained.
“It’s not the kind of entertainment that I go for, but I appreciate that it’s entertainment – it’s an expression.”
“It’s certainly not a threat, and like any other community that is under attack, they deserve appropriate representation. The representation they’re getting in places like Florida, Tennessee and Texas is just absurd.”
Browde noted a specific bill proposed in Florida which, if enacted, could allow parents “kidnap” a child from across state lines if there is a belief that the child is getting gender-affirming care.
“I can’t imagine that states are going to permit their children to be kidnapped by vigilantes who want to take them to Florida.
“It doesn’t even have to be a case where there is actual care [being administered].
“That’s the most absured legislation and I’m going around to legislators in other states and saying that you have to protect your citizens.”
Actual Story on Pink News
Author: Amelia Hansford
