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Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert was called out after claiming churches are a safer place for young children than drag bars, wading into the recent conservative uproar about drag queens performing for kids.
Boebert made clear her feelings on the matter in a post to her Twitter account.
\u201cTake your children to CHURCH, not drag bars.\u201d— Lauren Boebert (@Lauren Boebert) 1654528136
Boebert's remark came after Bryan Slaton, a Texas state Republican Representative, complained about a Dallas gay bar that hosted a family-friendly drag brunch for young children and vowed to introduce legislation to stop what he called the “disturbing trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with sexualizing young children."
But it was Boebert's suggestion that churches are safer for children that raised the ire of the online community.
In 2004, a report commissioned by the Roman Catholic Church found that more than 4,000 United States Roman Catholic priests had faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years. In France, the figures were much higher, with more than 216,000 cases uncovered.
The resultant scandal confirmed much of what activists inside and outside the Catholic Church had been saying for many years and the investigation on the part of the Boston Globe's reporters was dramatized in 2015's Spotlight, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Global anger toward these findings has been so great that Pope Francis held an unprecedented Roman Catholic Church summit to address pedophilia within the church and condemned clergy guilty of abuse as "tools of Satan."
These facts informed the criticism directed at Boebert, whose detractors were also quick to note that her own husband was once arrested for exposing himself to a minor.
\u201cYes because children have been historically safe at churches\u201d— B.W. Carlin (@B.W. Carlin) 1654647449
\u201cPretty sure they're less likely to be molested at the drag bar\u201d— Nikolaj\ud83c\udf66\ud83e\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Nikolaj\ud83c\udf66\ud83e\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1654650894
\u201cYour husband did jail time for exposing himself to minors. Kids are safer in drag bars than in a church or around you and your husband.\u201d— Keith (@Keith) 1654634058
\u201cIs that where your husband learned to show teenagers his genitals???\u201d— C (@C) 1654638089
\u201coh yeah because there has NEVER been a case of child sexual abuse in a church. that would be ludicrous\u201d— casey (@casey) 1654642361
\u201cah yes, the church! definitely not the place that is famously known for child abuse\n\n(let's just ignore the statistic that over the last 70 years - 330,000 children were abused by the french catholic church alone)\u201d— fraser \ud83e\udda6 (@fraser \ud83e\udda6) 1654614411
\u201cone of those places is filled with pedophiles who indoctrinate children and the other is a drag bar\u201d— Ana \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83d\udc15 (@Ana \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83d\udc15) 1654629924
\u201cwhy is Lauren Boebert so \u201cconcerned\u201d about drag shows when she can\u2019t even take her children to the bowling alley because her husband is a pedophile that exposed himself to teenage girls?\u201d— Jerrica (@Jerrica) 1654633221
\u201cThey are quite literally safer in drag bars\u201d— Mommy funker \u2661 \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (@Mommy funker \u2661 \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f) 1654629298
Boebert's remarks came shortly after Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio took to Twitter to gloat after shaming an Air Force base into canceling its drag queen story hour.
Rubio said it was "good" the Air Force had canceled the event, which would have featured a drag queen reading stories to young children, after he wrote a letter to them expressing his outrage.
Drag queen story hours have received considerable pusback nationwide from conservatives who have alleged that they are an opportunity to "indoctrinate" children into the LGBTQ+ community rather than an opportunity to impart values of inclusivity and acceptance.
"Violent threats" recently prompted one North Carolina town to cancel a scheduled drag queen story hour during Pride Month festivities.