Lake County Gazette

State Rep. Daniel Didech (D-Buffalo Grove) is being criticized for sponsoring a drag show with children in the audience.

I was proud to sponsor a table at this weekend's BG Pride ‘Coming Out Day’ banquet. The hateful bullies tried to shut this event down... but they failed miserably! The sold-out crowd was full of love, acceptance, and celebration. I will always be an ALLY to the LGBTQ community!” Didech said on Facebook.

The event was featured by Libs of TikTok for appealing to children as young as age 5. 

At the event, those as young as 5 years old were encouraged to “come out” and announce their sexuality.

The event was held consistent with National Coming Out Day on Oct. 7 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Doubletree by Hilton in Mundelein.

Some critics have said categorically that introducing impressionable children to any material of a sexual nature unless they are old enough to understand it, much less so in the public forum provided by the library.

“Kid-friendly drag show is right up there with kid-friendly strip club, kid-friendly porn and kid-friendly cigarette — it’s self-evident that all of this is harmful to children unless you’ve been brainwashed to believe that kids should be sexualized,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, told McHenry Times.

Didech voted in favor of SB818, the recently approved comprehensive sex education law in Illinois, which has led to demands that kids comprehend gender identity as early as second grade.

GOP rival Charles Roeske, a native of Chicago, is Didech's opponent. In 2010, Roeske graduated with a bachelor's degree from Ashley University while serving in the United States Army.  He has worked as an information technology specialist in the past.