College Republicans at Clemson University have released a scathing letter condemning a campus drag show which took place on April 9, as part of the university’s campus Pride Week programming.
It was the college’s ninth annual drag show.
The letter slams the show as being “chock-full of sexual degeneracy that spits in the face of the Christian population that currently attends Clemson,” and full of “sexual perversion.”
“Many of the event’s participants promote transgenderism and other deviant forms of sexual licentiousness,” the statement reads. “The Overton window has been pushed so far left that these people are viewed as cultural icons, but in reality, they are nothing but iconoclasts. Drag and transgenderism promotes sexual perversion and the degradation of the moral principles which have set this country apart from the rest of the world.”
“It is clear that the normalization of this type of behavior is the goal of many student organizations and university officials alike,” the statement continues, adding that Clemson’s vice president of student affairs Chris Miller had been “recorded receiving a lap dance from one of the drag performers.”
For most, Drag performance is an art form made mainstream due to the support from the LGBTQ community. Drag Queens have historically been gay men dressed as female impersonators or transwomen exaggerating their appearance. However, cisgender women, transmen, and non-binary people have participated in the shows over recent years.
Still, hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ+ community — particularly transgender women of color — remain incredibly high.
Miller used Clemson’s student paper, The Tiger, to issue a statement in response to the letter.
“I encourage us all to be thoughtful in our interactions with each other that could be deemed hateful and disrespectful to one’s particular viewpoint,” Miller said in the statement. “Although we may not agree with individual viewpoints or choices, let’s be civil with each other.”
