Democrat Bob Casey, the senior U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, has supported an LGBT center in Philadelphia with a track record of promoting openly communist events and hosting child drag shows. Casey has even pushed to give the center federal funding.
As Fox News reports, Casey this year urged additional funding for the Philadelphia-based William Way LGBT Community Center. Specifically, he asked for a $1 million earmark in the FY 2024 appropriations bill for the nonprofit that, per its website, seeks to “transform and rebuild our existing community center into a more expansive, inclusive, colorful, and unabashedly queer space for all LGBTQIA+ individuals to gather, celebrate, learn, and find life-giving support.”
The center has been the recipient of major municipal funds, with Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney awarding William Way $2 million in the city’s FY 2024 operating budget.
Casey was joined in his support for the organization by Sen. John Fetterman and Rep. Brendan Boyle.
“For nearly half a century, the William Way Community Center has connected Philadelphia’s LGBTQ+ community to resources ranging from nutrition to housing to mental health and more,” Casey told Pennsylvania Gay News. “I am advocating for federal funding for the Center so it can grow and continue to provide lifesaving services to the community.”
Two months before Casey requested funding for William Way in April, the organization hosted “Regeneration: A Global Eco Drag Show.”
The nonprofit has not shied away from involving children in its drag events. As recorded in a Pennsylvania Gay News article, William Way hosted a youth drag show in 2016:
Feather fans begin to cover a table. Dozens of curling irons, combs, make–up mirrors and brushes emerge on another, along with make-up and glitter in every color, and a Hello Kitty box. A bearded man in studded leather platform boots approaches and begins to apply make-up to the face of a little boy.
This is Esai, and he is 11 years old. According to his mother, Dre, he has been sneaking her heels into his bedroom since he was much younger. Dre is a drag performer herself, having produced another drag show by the name of “Fierce” — the only queer burlesque festival in the world. She also produced the first non-gender binary talent show for kids, “Twinkle.”
“Burlesque is the art of the strip tease,” she explains, “and drag is the opposite because you’re putting on a different gender.”
Esai’s birthmother, who is transgender, is now his father.
… Many of the adults present, aiding with make-up and setting up chairs, are burlesque performers.
“Burlesque is fancy strippers singing a comedy story,” explains Lascivious Jane, the faux drag queen who donated the costumes. “But yes, we do go down to a G–string normally.”
The article also mentions two other children, ages 12 and 8, who were involved in the drag show with “their own drag personas.”
William Way also overtly promotes communism, supporting the Young Communist League of Philadelphia, which, per its website, is “dedicated to the revolutionary cause of the working class of our country and the transformation of the United States through mass democratic struggle into a socialist society.”
In one example of William Way’s support for the communist group, the nonprofit last month on Facebook shared several events hosted by the Young Communist League of Philadelphia in protest against the conference of the conservative group Moms for Liberty held in the city.
So as to leave no doubt about where its allegiance lies, the Philadelphia Young Communist League has been public about its “deep friendship” with China, going so far as to write in a tweet in July of 2021: “The Communist Party USA is the officially recognized communist party by the socialist world. We have a deep friendship with Vietnam and China in particular. So join the party to show your solidarity!”
In short, a sitting United States senator, who has already declared to be seeking another term of office in the upcoming 2024 election, has pushed to give federal funding to an organization that not only encourages the sexual grooming of children, but indirectly gives a pat on the head to regimes that have the blood of American servicemen on their hands.
A number of states have adopted or are pursuing legislation to crack down on drag shows involving minors.
In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a ban on drag shows held where children are present or may be nearby. However, the ban was blocked by a federal court in June, and U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell on Wednesday rebuked Florida’s attempt to lift the injunction, meaning drag shows are still permitted as the lawsuit over the legislation is hashed out.
In his original order last month, Presnell said the state’s argument “rings hollow when accompanied by the knowledge that Florida state law, presently and independently of the instant statutory scheme, permits any minor to attend an R-rated film at a movie theater if accompanied by a parent or guardian.”
