"Defend Our Kids TX" Launches Hotline to Report Drag Shows, Immediately Flooded by Trolls

Sara Gonzales, host on The Blaze, established Defend Our Kids TX because of her intense ignorance. [Photo Credit: Facebook/Sara Gonzales]

The Republican Party, always in need of a boogie-man to manipulate their base with, has zeroed in on drag queens in recent months. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) went as far as spending tax payer dollars on an investigation into a Christmas drag show in Fort Lauderdale, but even the base is taking action with right-wing protestors showing up at a variety of drag performances across the country.

The newest contributor to the moral panic methodology is Sara Gonzales, host of The News on The Blaze network, and the establishment of her newest project, Defend our Kids TX, which is the group responsible for the recently-launched hotline and website where users can report drag performances in their area.

Counter-protesters form a barricade outside of a transgender storytelling event in Denton on Nov. 19 as Sara Gonzales of Defend Our Kids Texas chants, “There are only two genders." [Photo Credit: Shelby Tauber/The Texas Tribune]

As you might've guessed, it was quickly flooded with tips from trolls, but Matt took the opportunity to make a solid point.

Matt, or @mattxiv on Twitter, posted on December 16th, "Conservatives in Texas have created an alert system to warn people about upcoming drag shows. They want to 'protect kids'," and adding, with perfect sass, "For no reason at all, here are 10 Texas churches where pastors have been charged with child abuse this year." He attached a screenshot of the submission form from the Defend Our Kids TX website, along with an image listing the 10 churches he had mentioned.

The Political Plug has validated an arrest corresponding to each of the churches listed.

For example, there's Timothy Jeltema, 28, who worked at the Champion Forrest Baptist Church in Montgomery County who was arrested after soliciting sexually-explicit images from underage girls on Snapchat and Instagram, before attempting to meet up with them for sexual intercourse.

Then there's the associate pastor at Rollingbrook Fellowship in Baytown, Lawrence Hopkins. Lawrence was arrested as part of a multi-agency operation that sought to arrest those who had been “actively seeking to sexually exploit children via the internet in Montgomery County.”

And we'd be remiss to not mention Pastor Brian Pounds, 45, at the First Assembly of God in Vernon, Texas who was arrested at a local motel with a 15-year-old girl that he had drugged and raped, following months of grooming.

Unfortunately, t's not difficult to find stories like these, even in your own backyard. Often swept under the rug as a result of the pressures and guilt within conservative Christian culture. But it's odd that Republicans are aggressively adamant that those within the LGBTQ+ community--particularly drag queens at the moment--are grooming and sexualizing children yet fail to mention the confirmed and validated arrests and convictions of the pedophiles in their own communities.

Also, it should be noted that we could not find any record of a drag queen being convicted for grooming children.

To see the sexual offenders that are in your area, visit meganslaw.com.