Ana Navarro, a political commentator and co-host of “The View,” recently compared drag queens to firearms to make a call for gun control.
Footage posted on social media showed Navarro taking the mic at a renowned gay bar — the Palace Bar in Miami Beach, Florida — during a “drag brunch” on Sunday, Jan. 15.
“Listen, I live in Florida, and I hate that drag queens are being made a political issue and a wedge issue and a manufactured made-up cultural issue,” Navarro said, according to the footage.
“Because I’ll tell you what, no drag queen ever killed a little kid,” she continued. “You know what kills little kids? Guns kill little kids. And so if you care about children and their safety, go after guns and leave the f-cking drag queens alone.”
Her comment was met with an eruption of applause and cheering from the audience.
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Drag performances have been a growing political issue in recent years amid broader debates about gender and identity.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has made multiple rounds of national headlines by targeting drag shows, alleging that they can be harmful to minors. The gender-bending performances have long been embraced in the LGBT community.
Navarro, a member of the Republican Party, has said she is “on the right side of history” for her support of “LGBTQ rights.”
Some lawmakers have also been calling for stricter gun control measures, largely to stop mass shootings in the country. President Joe Biden has called multiple times for a federal ban on assault weapons, and in June signed into law expanded red-flag laws and background checks.
The legislation had passed through Congress exactly one month after 19 students and two teachers were killed by a shooter at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The Palace Bar, established in 1988, hosts “fabulous nightly drag shows and drag brunches” and is “known as THE gay bar in South Beach to see and be seen at,” according to its website.
