Marjorie Taylor Greene Attacks Drag Queens During Congressional Subcommittee Hearing on Defunding Public Media; California Congressman Fires Back
The House Subcommittee on Delivering Government Transparency and Efficiency, chaired by Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, held a hearing on March 26 titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable.” The session focused on efforts to strip federal funding from public media outlets.
During the hearing, Greene, an outspoken anti-2SLGBTQIA+ activist who has called for the elimination of Pride Month and refuses to recognize more than two genders, used her platform to attack drag performers, despite no evidence supporting her claims.
Science, however, tells a very different story. Medical and psychological research affirms that gender exists on a spectrum, not as a rigid male-female binary. Major organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support gender diversity and gender-affirming care.
Within the first five minutes of the hearing, Greene held up a poster of drag performer Lil Miss Hot Mess and described the artist—and other drag queens—as “child predators” and “monsters.” She offered no proof to support these inflammatory claims.
Democratic members of the subcommittee clapped back, including Jasmine Crockett and Ro Khanna, but the most notable was Representative Robert Garcia (CA-42). He began by criticizing Greene, saying, “Instead of holding a serious hearing, Ms. Greene wants to attack NPR and PBS.”
He then launched into a satirical comment, holding up a poster of Elmo and asking the PBS president if she considers Elmo a dangerous, communist character for promoting a socialist plot. “He is indoctrinating our kids that sharing is caring!” he exclaimed.
Garcia took his irony a step further, asking if PBS—by way of Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie—promotes an “extreme liberal agenda.” When his staff pulled up a poster of the two characters, he joked, “These two guys live together, they are friends, they support each other… and perhaps that’s triggering to Ms. Greene.”
“Are Bert and Ernie part of an extreme homosexual agenda?” he continued, underscoring the absurdity of the hearing.
“I’m obviously using some humor here,” Garcia said, “but the fact that we are sitting here today talking about defunding public television is actually not funny. At a time when we can’t agree on basic facts—and while the free press is under attack—we need public media like PBS and NPR more than ever. A large majority of Americans say they trust PBS. And that’s exactly why extremists are trying to tear it down.”
Republican lawmakers claimed that PBS aired content of Drag Story Hour featuring Lil Miss Hot Mess, however, Paula Kerger the PBS President stated that the show in question never aired on PBS but instead was posted on their website by mistake.
It is unclear why Rep. Greene chose to single out Lil Miss Hot Mess if the content in question never aired, or whether the drag performer even knew her image would be used as a prop for anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
According to her website, Lil Miss Hot Mess is a professor with a PhD from New York University and a Masters of Fine Arts from UC Santa Cruz. She has never been accused or charged with any form of child abuse, making Greene’s claims wholly unsubstantiated.
So why target her? Possibly because Lil Miss Hot Mess has been an outspoken advocate for Drag Queen Story Hour, a program that invites children to experience stories and self-expression in inclusive spaces. In a HuffPost article, she wrote:
“Drag Queen Story Hour is so powerful—not because it ‘indoctrinates’ children (as if!), but because drag offers a sense of freedom and possibility in a world that restricts who we can be.
That said, as much as drag offers a platform for children to learn to be their boldest, brightest, and most beautiful selves, Drag Queen Story Hour also offers me an opportunity to learn from the children.
Their genuine capacity for kindness, their incessant questioning of ‘why,’ and their propensity to find play in the most mundane settings also remind me that as much as I think I know, honey, I still have plenty to learn, too.”
Lil Miss Hot Mess is also the author of multiple children’s books, including Make Your Own Rainbow: A Drag Queen’s Guide to Color, which is described as a celebratory and empowering exploration of a kaleidoscope of colors beyond the rainbow.
