Ohio children's museum cancels 'queer prom' after flier with vulgar drag performer names goes viral
An Ohio children’s museum has canceled a “queer prom” event for children as young as 12 years old after a flier for the event showing drag performers with vulgar stage names went viral.
The 2024 “Queer Prom” event, organized by LGBT advocacy group Love On A Mission (LOAM), was initially scheduled to be held Feb. 10 at the Buckeye Imagination Museum in Mansfield, Ohio, located roughly 50 miles southwest of Cleveland.
Titled “A Star Is Born,” the original flier for the event featured a trio of drag performers under the word “Entertainment,” including a woman with facial hair named “Miles N. Sider,” and “Anita B. Boned,” a man whose profile shows him wearing cosmetics and a wig.
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The event listing included dinner, dancing, and a “safe place for all [LGBT] youth and their allies” and welcomed anyone between the ages of 12 and 18.
On Feb.2, just over a week before the prom, the Buckeye Imagination Museum released a statement on Facebook that read: “Thank you for the concern regarding the recent scheduled rental event. As information about the event has been shared with us, the museum has concluded that we are no longer the facility who will host this event.
“At this time we are also taking steps to further ensure the appropriateness of future events at our museum.”
It’s not clear what information was shared about the event which prompted the museum’s decision. The Christian Post reached out for comment Wednesday but did not receive a response. This story will be updated if a response is received.
In response to the museum’s announcement, LOAM released a statement of its own, saying the prom event was intended to be a “safe setting” for LGBT-identifed youth.
The statement read in part: “Unfortunately, there are too many places and people that create unsafe and harmful settings for these young people to express themselves. LOAM wants to provide the opportunity for them to have the same experiences as other youths in a safe setting. This prom was to be one of those events.”
After citing purported suicide statistics provided by The Trevor Project, an advocacy group that produces research briefs that correlate religious beliefs with higher rates of suicide among LGBT-identified people, LOAM said a “small group of individuals” was to blame for the event’s cancellation.
“We continue to be saddened that a small group of loud individuals can disrupt an event,” the statement read. “We are working with our young people and their families to address the needs of young people, and a small group of unsupportive individuals have made this very challenging as we approach the event date.”
The statement also acknowledged the three drag performers featured on the initial event flier were informed of the audience’s age and were “each asked to do one performance geared toward young people,” adding, “While they also engage with adults in other venues, they were aware of their audience.”
Founded in 2015 by activist Deena Hamilton, LOAM hosted a viewing on Jan. 4 of the documentary “1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture” as part of the group’s Pride At Home meeting.
Held in partnership with Grace Episcopal Church in Mansfield, the event listing promised to “uncover the origins of the rabid homophobia of the conservative Church.”
The flier, which read, “Brace yourself for a divine revelation!,” pointed to what it called “holy typos” in the Bible, which the 2022 film, directed by a self-identified “lesbian Christian,” claims is proof a “mistranslation” of the Bible is to blame for Christians believing that homosexuality is a sin.
LOAM’s Facebook page also features several images of drag performers interacting with children, including one image of drag performer “Jasmyn LaBasha” with an underage student — both in drag — in what appears to be a classroom or school setting.
Another image shows a drag performer hugging two small children at an event in Aug. 2023.
The U.S. has seen a wave of legislation across the nation in recent months aimed at stopping drag and other sexualized performances in front of underaged audiences.
In June, a Trump-appointed federal judge struck down Tennessee's law banning drag shows and "adult cabaret entertainment" for children as unconstitutional as state officials maintain that the law remains in effect in all but one of the state's counties.
Just a month earlier, children as young as 8 were dressed in drag at a Los Angeles drag convention, which featured over 180 drag performers, along with dance performances, wig and sewing workshops and, yes, even the popular children’s TV characters.
