'This is entertainment': All-ages drag show at 'safe space' in Colorado club draws protest

A Colorado Springs, Colorado, nightclub faced protest over its inclusion of child performers as drag artists during an all-ages drag show. The general manager said that no children were being exploited, but protesters argued children were being sexualized.

La Burla Bee, which positions itself as a cabaret, hosted an all-ages drag performance that drew criticism and protests from community members.

A protester named DeeDee Obrecht, who didn't claim affiliation with any group, said the event was sexualizing children by exposing them to adult entertainment.

"I think adults can do whatever they want, they're consenting, but I think children themselves need to go ahead [and] be taken care of and be away from this kind of stuff," Obrecht said. "I have no problems with LGBTQ people," she continued. "What I have a problem with is taking children and making them sexualized and sexualizing children."

General manager Romeo Cage told KOAA News 5 that no one was "forcing or exploiting" the children at the event.

"This is their art form. They want a safe space, A stage where they can perform. Where they can perform for their family, their friends, for anybody who wants to come," Cage claimed.

"This is entertainment," he went on. "We have had children actors, children singers throughout history, there's nothing different about this. It just so happens to be drag, and people for some reason think that it has to do with sexuality, and it does not."

The club's owner, a burlesque dancer who goes by the moniker "Bunny Bee," told the local outlet that the club has hosted monthly all-ages drag brunches for the past year.

The club recently listed a "Drag Variety Show," hosted by a drag queen using the name "Connie Lingus," while also boasting a "topless stand-up" comedy show titled "Tits & Giggles," along with an evening dedicated to "immortal Vampiric desire."

The bar was meant to include homosexual themes from its inception, according to the owner, who told the Gazette that she chose the building because it used to be a gay bar.

"We wanted to create a safe space, an inclusive space, for people to come in and experience what Colorado Springs has to offer," said Bee Radd at the time, business partner and husband of the owner.

Protesters brought specific signs that read "children are not sex toys," "gender clinics are sterilizing our youth," and "Who is Keira Bell?"

The latter appeared to reference a woman who detransitioned after beginning gender reassignment at the age of 15. Bell sued UK’s Gender Identity Development Service, according to the Other Cheek, after she was allegedly prescribed puberty blockers at 16.

A group of volunteers calling themselves the Parasol Patrol also attended the protest, with the purpose of holding rainbow-colored umbrellas to literally shield patrons from having to see opposing opinions.

Organizer Dana Rasmussen claimed the protests were a form of "hatred" and said all humans "deserve to live in peace."

The owner of La Burla Bee also claimed the protests were motivated by anti-LGBTQ hate.

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