Pictured above: an advertisement created by the Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ/The Landing Spot for their annual Youth Drag show
A few weeks back the WUP team jumped into the dialogue surrounding the ‘Sound of Freedom’ movie.
It’s been a weird discussion.
Most folks are still not really concerned about the fact that somehow Americans are able to purchase kids from other countries for sex. We found that amazing. We found that disturbing.
The US is a very wealthy country.
Anyone who has used Amazon Prime to purchase their next ‘Empower Your Style. Create Change.’ product using same-day delivery service knows that with a click and a credit card you can get anything you want delivered to you, today.
Knowing that most Americans have a ‘click now, deliver today lifestyle’, the WUP staff was shocked when some folks in the public challenged the Sound of Freedom’s premise that Americans could order a 4-foot-5 inch brown eyed, brown haired 7-year old boy for sexual dalliances and have the kid delivered. Tim Ballard’s career, his track record of arrests and convictions, is proof enough that child sex trafficking to Americans is going on – right now.
Many folks have argued that Ballard adds drama, burnishing and luster to his stories. Perhaps some (all) of the Sound of Freedom movie is Ballard ‘adding drama’. Does it really matter?
Ballard went to another country and found kids- some of whom were to be exported to the U.S. for sex, and did a raid with local law enforcement, to save them. As best we can tell, from the limited research WUP was able to do, no kids were injured during any of Ballard’s efforts. He did not just run down to a ‘banana republic’ with some guns and start shooting up the place.
Why debate how much emotion (marketing) is added to the story?
Kids were saved from a life of sex trafficking and bad guys were arrested, convicted and went to jail. These facts are not disputed. Why would we not just say ‘yea team’ and provide this type of law enforcement more support? (and demand that the Epstein client list is released)
A comment that has been attributed to Ballard is that Child Trafficking is a topic that is too ugly to talk about. Perhaps he is right.
At WUP, we have seen other topics fall into that category- like youth drag shows.
(Church advertisement for the youth drag shared below)
Recently, Project Veritas broke a story concerning youth drag shows in Placer County.
The Youth Drag show Project Veritas covered is the work of the Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ. This local church created a mission program called The Landing Spot. The Landing Spot has relationships with 10 Placer County High schools. (West Park High, Lincoln High, Roseville High, Del Oro, Placer High, Oakmont, Adelante High, Phoenix High School, Granite Bay, Woodcreek) The Landing Spot used their relationships with these 10 high schools to recruit boys to dance for the Landing Spot’s annual youth drag show. Note: In 2023 the Landing Spot’s Youth Drag show was in its third year.
The WUP staff would like to share that these “Placer County” drag shows, covered by the media a few months ago, are different from the ones covered by the national media. The ones that occurred in Placer County, over the last three years, are different because they have high school boys dance, in sexy clothing, on stage for a live audience– for tips.
(Church ad selling tickets to the Youth Drag show – reminding the audience to ‘bring cash’ for tips below.)
The Church’s goal for the drag show was to provide high school boys a fundraising opportunity to raise money to go to the Church’s summer camp. The high school boys did this by collecting tips as they danced on a stage, in front of an audience, in sexy outfits.
Church’s advertisements for the event highlighted that the boy dancers would learn about love by dancing on stage in front of a live audience comprised of local community members. (One of the Church’s youth drag show ad’s is provided at the top of this article)
When Project Veritas broke the story, local papers and media attacked Project Veritas, the parents that protested the idea, and the school districts that decided to take a pause in working with the Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ, the Landing Spot- and their Youth Drag show.
Ms. Carol Feineman, an editor with Gold Country media chastised school leaders for breaking their relationship with The Landing Spot and for accepting hate speech about the event. You can read her thoughts here:
We need The Landing Spot but not Project Veritas
WUP is concerned:
That none of the media shared that the Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ’s youth drag show effort registered high school boys, using access they developed to high schools to counsel LGBTQ kids.
That none of the media shared that the Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ’s youth drag show’s registration form did not require parental notification for a high school boy to go to an off campus ‘dance’ – where the boys would dance in sexy clothes on stage for tips.
That none of the media shared that the Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ’s youth drag show objectifies these high school boys for money.
WUP obtained copies of the event’s adverting – which we have shared within this article. The Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ’s youth drag show’s registration form can be reviewed at the end of this article.
The WUP staff wants to share that we are pro-kid and we know all/most kids need help. We understand that LGBTQ kids need help- and WUP staff is not in favor of anything other than helping ALL kids.
We just don’t think that, as one of the ads for the event suggested, ‘love’ can be ‘let in’ by dancing on stage, in a sexy costume, for money. Dancing sexily, on stage, for money, only lets in sexual objectification.
If you feel that the Placer County paper of record, the Gold Country Media Group, provided slanted coverage of these issues, WUP would ask you to reach out to their management team and in a polite, peaceful, but firm way – tell them they did not provide decent coverage of this issue. Our website is interactive and you (should) be able to just click on their phone number and leave them a message or send them an email. If you send an email please consider sending a copy of the email to us at wakeupplacer@gmail.com.
Gold Country Media Group Contacts’ info below:
John Love, Publisher – General Manager
Phone: 916-774-7939
Email: johnl@goldcountrymedia.com
And
Bill Poindexter, Editor
Phone: 530-852-0256
By Thomas Hogan
Read Original Article on WakeUpPlacer.com
