Roger-Luc Chayer (Image : CNN)
Jon Stewart Confronts Senator Nathan Dahm on Drag Queen Shows for Children
In an extremely interesting exchange broadcast on CNN yesterday, January 7, 2026, host Jon Stewart, best known for hosting The Daily Show, interviewed Senator Nathan Dahm, a conservative Republican from the state of Oklahoma, about drag queen shows offered to children.
Stewart asked the senator why he opposed these events and wanted to ban these drag queen storytime readings for children. The senator replied that his position was based on the safety of children.
Stewart then asked if the senator knew the leading causes of death among children in the United States, clearly pointing out that drag queen shows were not among them. The senator agreed.
Stewart continued: “So, what are the leading causes of death for children in the United States?” And Stewart himself energetically answered: guns, even more than cancer or car accidents. He added, “What you’re telling me is that you are willing to curb the freedom of expression of drag queens to supposedly protect children from these ‘monstrosities,’ but when children actually die, you don’t care at all and do nothing to prevent those deaths. That, sir, is hypocrisy.”
A Debate Raising Questions About Understanding Gender Identities
This interesting exchange certainly raised many questions among the American public, who are well aware of Jon Stewart’s social activism on various causes. However, it seems important to once again clarify the distinctions between drag queens, cross-dressers, and transgender people—distinctions that the vast majority of conservatives, or people poorly or insufficiently educated on these matters, do not understand.
What Is a Drag Queen?
A drag queen is a person, most often a cisgender man, who voluntarily and occasionally adopts an exaggerated feminine gender expression in an artistic, performative, or festive context. Drag is primarily a form of entertainment based on play, caricature, and staging, whether through lip-sync singing, humor, dance, comedy, or public hosting.
It is neither a sexual orientation nor a gender identity. A drag queen can be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or otherwise, just as they can be cisgender or transgender. The drag character is a role, an artistic creation distinct from the daily life of the person who portrays it.
Historically, drag is rooted in a long theatrical tradition where gender roles were played and subverted, and it has taken particular importance in LGBTQ+ cultures as a space for expression, social satire, and sometimes political activism. The goal is not to “become a woman,” but to play with feminine codes, often deliberately exaggerated, to entertain, provoke thought, or challenge perceptions.
Practicing the art of drag is a form of burlesque theater unrelated to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. Is that understood? There is no danger to children except making them laugh through caricatured characters, which is precisely what is observed in classrooms where these programs are offered.
These sessions also address difficult topics such as loneliness, parental divorce, violence, or racism in a lighthearted, humorous context so the message passes more easily. Presented as a show or an interaction with an artist, they often become a form of group therapy in which children participate by speaking and asking questions to the drag queen. Nothing more.
And let’s not forget, most drag queens are artists who hold membership cards with the Union des Artistes (in Quebec), pay their dues, receive payment, and pay taxes on their income!
What Is a Cross-Dresser?
A cross-dresser is a person who wears clothing traditionally associated with another gender than their own, most often for personal, cultural, aesthetic, or practical reasons. This may be occasional or regular, in private or public settings, without necessarily involving artistic performance.
Cross-dressing is neither a sexual orientation nor a gender identity. A cross-dresser can be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or otherwise and can be perfectly comfortable with their birth gender. Unlike drag, cross-dressing is not necessarily theatrical, caricatured, or intended for an audience.
Today, the term is sometimes seen as outdated or pejorative depending on the context and cultures and is increasingly replaced by terms like “person who cross-dresses” or “cross-dresser,” which are considered more neutral.
Once again, and this must be emphasized, cross-dressers are not perverse pedophiles hunting children. It is a personal expression that pertains to private life and has no connection to criminal or abusive behavior.
What Is a Trans Person?
A trans person, or transgender person, is someone whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex assigned to them at birth. In other words, it is a person who identifies as a man, a woman, both, neither, or otherwise, independently of social expectations linked to their body at birth.
Being trans has nothing to do with dressing up, performing, or playing a role. It is an intimate and profound reality of personal identity. A trans person may choose, or not, to undergo social, administrative, or medical transition, but these steps do not define their identity. One can be trans without surgery, hormones, or visible transformation.
Again, it is neither a sexual orientation nor a sexual practice. A trans person can be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or otherwise, like anyone else. Being trans is not a show, not a provocation, and certainly not a threat to children: it is simply a way of existing and recognizing oneself in society.
A Better Understanding to Move Forward
When the world understands these distinctions, we can say humanity will have taken a step forward toward greater intelligence.
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