by Reagan Reese and Megan Brock
A Chicago children’s hospital agreed to pay one of its employees to give a drag performance at a public school event for students, according to documents obtained through a public records request by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago paid Chicago Public Schools (CPS) $500 to cover the cost of a drag performance by one of their health educators at a school resource fair, according to documents obtained by the DCNF. The funds covered a drag performance by Jose Dominguez Magdaleno at the school district’s May “Galaxy Summit.” The summit featured art, workshops and performances in an effort to create “affirming spaces to celebrate and learn about the diversity of [the] CPS community.”
On April 15, Magdaleno, an intake specialist at CPS and health educator at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, contacted Dawn Ravine, the hospital’s sexuality education program coordinator, and Thalía Chicojay, the hospital’s health communication specialist, regarding the event, an email obtained by the DCNF shows. Magdaleno noted that because of the “amount of interest” in the summit, the school district and hospital may need to limit invitations to organizations who “work directly with LGBTQ+ youth, [transgender and nonconforming] youth of color and other marginalized groups.”
Magdaleno told the hospital officials that vendors are allowed to pass condoms out to students, and that the school district was working on making Naloxone, a medication used to treat overdoses such as fentanyl, available to attendees, the April email shows.
Ravine notified CPS’ sexual health specialist that the hospital would be paying Magdaleno for his “Drag Performance Joy!,” emails from late April and early May show. To sponsor the performance, the hospital agreed to pay the school district $500 to cover the cost of the performance as well as $500 to Magdaleno for the performance.
Magdaleno calls himself a “drag artist” as well as an “educator [and] arts education administrator” who tells “stories through drag,” according to several social media profiles.
“We are sponsoring Jose’s performance at the Galaxy Summit [CPS’ gay straight alliance] summit], we will be invoicing CPS for $500 to cover the cost, send invoice to Derrick Little, then we will pay Jose as a vendor $500,” Ravine wrote in the April 25 email. “We want to make sure we can pay him (separate from his education work). Zeke can you send Jose a w9 to fill out and any other info about what you need. Zeke can you also send an invoice to Derrick at CPS CCed her for $500 for summit performance on 5/20/23.”
The “Galaxy Summit” offered several workshops to fifth through 12th-grade students, covering “topics from mental health to social justice to drag,” according to a registration form reviewed by the DCNF. Students had the opportunity to attend workshops titled “intersectionality and black identity,” “generational sharing with LGBTQ+ elders” and “jails and (in)justice.”
Other workshops included “drag history” and “design your own identity flag,” the registration form showed. Students were asked to get signed permission from a guardian before attending the “Galaxy Summit.”
CPS is excited to be hosting the 2023 Galaxy Summit, an all-day event that celebrates and affirms the diversity of the CPS community. Join us for performances, workshops, and more. Register by Monday, April 17th! https://t.co/tVJDQQFRAq pic.twitter.com/V8tXO2GJQE
— CPS – Chicago Public Schools (@ChiPubSchools) April 12, 2023
Lurie Chicago Children’s Hospital recently came under fire for a series of videos it created and promoted that featured adults discussing transgenderism and sexual orientation with children. In September 2022, it was discovered that the hospital was teaming up with local school districts to promote sex toys and gender-affirming items within the classroom.
In June, the DCNF revealed that the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has been charging school districts up to $1,500 for a workshop for educators on “inclusive sexual health ed practices” that promotes the National Sexuality Education Standards (NSES), a sexual health curriculum for K-12 students. The hospital’s presentation for schools suggests that fifth graders learn about different sexual orientations and that eighth graders learn about anal and oral sex.
Of all 649 schools within CPS, 55 do not have a single student meeting grade level expectations in math or reading during the 2021-2022 school year. In 930 schools within Illinois, just one out of every ten students are meeting math grade-level expectations.
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Reagan Reese and Megan Brock are reporters at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Lurie Children’s Hospital” by hakkun. CC BY-SA 3.0.
