Months after an Iowa high school hosted a drag event featuring multiple performers who encouraged students to explore their gender identities, one mother — wearing the same outfit as one of the performers — blasted school board members over their alleged failure to address parental concerns.
As revealed by a previous report from The Daily Wire and videos captured by Libs of TikTok, the Gay Straight Alliance club at Ankeny High School invited drag queen performers in May for their end-of-year meeting without obtaining permission from administrators. One of the drag queens donned a one-shouldered black leotard and long black boots before performing a provocative dance for students.
Kimberly Reicks, the founder of parental rights group Iowa Mama Bears, noted during public comments at a Monday school board meeting that officials have neglected to provide the results of their investigation. Halfway through her remarks, the mother of seven removed her sweatpants and jacket to reveal the same outfit that the drag queen had been wearing.
Kimberly Reicks lectures school board on drag queen show (Image provided to The Daily Wire by Kimberly Reicks)
“Does this outfit make you turn your head? Does this outfit seem appropriate for anybody here to see?” she asked the school board. “This is what the man dressed like in front of our kids. So if this makes your head spin — if this pisses you off in any way, shape, or form — it should. Because I’m embarrassed to stand here in the outfit that I am in today, but I have a point to prove — that this outfit should not be ever accepted in our schools anywhere.”
Reicks said during an interview with The Daily Wire that her outfit, which intentionally violated school dress code policies, was meant to provoke school board members toward action.
“It has been over 131 days since I made our school board first aware of this event,” she explained. “We are now 32 days into the new school year and we still have no answers on what the outcome of the investigation was. Nor do we have any new policies to ensure things like this do not happen again.”
Reicks, who said that Ankeny Community School District is “notorious” for dismissing parental concerns, added that she and other parents desire assurances that their children are provided a “safe and secure environment” at school.
“I will do whatever measures I have to, to make sure events like this are addressed and resolved,” she continued. “Even if that means wearing the exact same outfit as the 21-year-old drag queen performer to prove my point.”
Renewed controversy over the May event comes amid scrutiny of hospitals that provide “gender transition” services to children via hormone treatments and surgery. Studies indicate that as many as 90% of young people who claim a transgender identity, but are not encouraged to socially or medically transition, will no longer call themselves transgender in adulthood.
Footage of the Ankeny High School drag queen event seen earlier this year by The Daily Wire showed that the drag queens had discussed gender identity at length with students. “When I felt like I couldn’t express myself in school, or I felt like I had to look like this at school … I could be whoever I wanted to be,” one performer recounted. “And I started to think, ‘What is gender?’ And I realized that no matter what pronouns you use, you are who you are … I know on the inside that I am who I am.”
The Daily Wire requested comment from Ankeny Community School District; this article will be updated with any response.
