This makes me never want to visit Philadelphia again.
Comedian Tim Young recently shared a video that was posted on Visit Philadelphia’s YouTube page to encourage tourists to visit the city of brotherly love. I guess creators took that a little too literally when they used two drag queens reading to children in front of Independence Hall. “Brotherly love” by two “queens.” EW!
The video was posted just before pride month 2023, but has recently received backlash after its repost.
“Visit Philadelphia has launched a public service announcement (PSA) in partnership with CBS New York and CBS Philadelphia that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community, highlighting a drag queen story time in the birthplace of the nation,” the group said in its description of the video.
It featured drag queens Brittany Lynn and Morgan Wells reading “Giraffes Can’t Dance” to a bunch of little kids on the green out front of the nearly 300-year-old historic Independence Hall in Philadelphia. In that very building, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and signed.
Imagine if the signees were alive to witness such an atrocity just outside the window! They’d be mortified!
Lynn, who's real name is Ian Morrison, is proud of his involvement bringing hyper-sexualization to kids. His Instagram features numerous examples of his initiatives to intersect young people with drag, whether it's events at high schools, reading books to kids as young as infant age, or releasing a book about a lesbian and possibly transgender child.
Wells runs a drag closet where people can purchase drag queen costumes. He also regularly appears at events with Lynn.
Libs of TikTok re-shared Young’s post of the video and on X, and it now has more than 800,000 views. The queens read the book to the kiddos and then the phrase “In pursuit of a more perfect union” popped up on the screen. Then the words “kind” and “respectful” replaced “perfect” in the graphic just before the “Visit Philadelphia” logo popped up.
Official tourism video for Philadelphia shows a drag queen holding drag queen story hour for kids in front of Independence Hall. pic.twitter.com/NcWRQlgO3z
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 27, 2024
Replies on the post showed just how perturbed people were by the blatant grooming in such a historic area.
“Who the hell takes their child to see a man play dress up in woman face. To this day is still blows my mind,” podcaster Rob Coates tweeted.
“No matter how many of these stories I read, it still amazes me we're actually living in a time where public child abuse celebrations are a thing. Any parent that takes their child to see a drag queen read or dance for them should be locked up,” a different user commented.
One more wrote, “Philadelphia is officially promoting grooming of children. This is outrageous. The city should be denied federal funds for doing this. Instead, Biden and his administration will encourage this. It’s criminal.”
While Philly attempted to entice people to visit the city by using drag queens, it seems that the move did the exact opposite and now people are less likely to visit. Honestly, can’t say I blame them!
