The family of 11-year-old drag performer “Desmond Is Amazing” (aka. Desmond Napoles) has come under attack after conservative sites spread fake news about Napoles’ parents pimping out their kid to gay pedophiles.
Last December, Napoles performed three drag numbers at 3 Dollar Bill, a Brooklyn queer-performance space that serves alcohol and allows minors accompanied by adults. Napoles’ father sat in the audience while his mother accompanied him to the dressing room and stage, the only areas where Desmond was allowed.
Since his performance, anti-LGBTQ conservative sites like Breitbart and The American Conservative have claimed that Napoles’ performance is the “sexual exploitation of a child” and “a prelude to pederastic sex.”
Related: Christian woman terrifies kids when she crashes children’s story time to yell anti-gay slurs
His family and the club have also received death threats after the anonymous posting board 4chan doxed their addresses. Napoles’ mother claims that trolls have filed 100 accusations of child abuse against her family with Administrations of Child Services (ACS).
While dealing with these claims, Napoles’ mother has put on hold the development of a site for young drag performers that would help them connect, support one another and provide helpful professional advice.
Napoles’ mother has since written a defense of her son’s performances.
In it, she wrote, “Articles have been coming out claiming that my son danced half naked and stripped in a sleazy gay bar for grown men who threw dollars at him and is being exploited and forced to perform. THIS IS NOTHING MORE THAN BLATANT HOMOPHOBIA and display of the grossly outdated belief that gay men are pedophiles.”
She continued, “No one forces him to perform, performing is what he loves to do and has always loved to do…. His costumes are less revealing than a dancer’s or cheerleader’s uniform, and are always age-appropriate. While he dances, he does not move in a sexual manner.”
“I know a lot of drag fans/drag queens do not want to see kids in what they consider an adult form of entertainment or venue, but drag is changing and becoming more widespread and popular with people of all ages, genders, identities, races, abilities, and disabilities. Instead of tearing drag kids down, why not mentor them? They are the future of drag,” she concluded.
Napoles has appeared in “The Bacon Shake,” the music video of Jinkx Monsoon, the season five winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race. He also received the Marsha P. Johnson Award during New York City Pride 2018.
In December 2017, conservative trolls flooded Desmond’s Facebook pages with hateful comments, calling Desmond “slow,” “ugly,” an “abomination,” saying that “he looks like he has AIDS” and adding they hope that someone would burn him to death.
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Polaro
The hate is terrible. I feel uncomfortable with this kid’s act, but I only wish him well.
stuffedpuppy
What I find terrifying here is not the fact that an eleven-year-old is doing drag (who clearly idolizes Lady GaGa) but all the HATE coming from the “christians”. How can all these psychos who think about nothing else than Satan, the Rapture and seeing nothing other than ‘pure evil’ in their everyday lives seek to traumatize a kid and his parents? I’d much rather see a kid doing a drag show than practicing football or “lessons in cerebral concussions”. But hey, that’s the moronic con. mindset of 2019…encouraged by Breitbart. No, no crazies or pedophiles there.
strap2900
Real Christians, sending death threats to an 11 yr old child. What would Jeebus do????
Kangol
People may not remember but a few weeks ago a right-winger posted about this on another Queerty article, and I asked where they’d found out about this story, since an internet search only showed it popping up on right-wing websites, anti-gay sites, and the like. Of course the person never answered, and I figured it was a nutcase who happened upon Queerty, but the reality is, this kind of hateful false news is constantly being spread against LGBTQ people, and sometimes it results in situations like this, where this kid’s life and family are now in danger. A related issue is the fixation that the right-wingers have with pedophilia; they seem to project it onto everything, with extremist conspiracies like Pizzagate and QAnon, or trans people in bathrooms. Strangely, they are silent when you have a case like the one in which a woman accused Trump, in the company of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted pedophile, of raping her when she was 14; she allegedly had a witness who was willing to come forward before she was silenced. Why are they silent about people like Epstein and his pals and clientele, but keep projecting pedophilic fantasies onto LGBTQ people?
Yooper
No different than “Toddlers and Tiaras”. Rabid stage moms and overly made-up and primped children. “No one forces him to perform…” yada yada yada
ShowMeGuy
How is it that conservatives always act as if they sit around all day just dreaming about child molestation.
djmcgamester
I don’t think I would be comfortable allowing my child to do a drag performance at the age of a 11. I looked into it and the whole thing looks creepy. I also wouldn’t want a child to be in one of those creepily uncomfortable child beauty pageants. They want to do drag or beauty pageants as an adult? Go for it.
Now, I know this is contrary to popular opinions these days, but I would be unlikely to allow a child of mine to do any sort of transitioning to another sex until reaching adulthood. I’m not convinced a minor is capable of making good decisions about this stuff. To be clear, I would have no problem if said child transitioned as an adult.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Nowhere does anyone state Desmond is transitioning. He is an extremely talented Gay kid who like to perform drag….
[email protected]
am kinda uncomfortable with the young boy being in a bar..now i know he is supervised n in a different area…just not the choice that wud make. THAT said the kid needs to be protected by the people issuing death threats ect. had enough of children in danger in general. so desmond if you ever come to nebraska…am big n scary lookin and have friends that are also..glad to help bodyguard you.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Karma please rear your rightous head and descend upon these sub human, vile, abhorrent, smcubags who in the “name of Christianity” spew hatred upon an 11 year old child…..
There has to be a very dark corner of Hell reserved for filth like these creatures ..
Desmond, You keep doing what your are doing you are an extremely talented incredibly amazing kid!