COURIER L 10 IFE, JAN. 18–24, 2019 DT
Boy’s show
must go on
Young Bklyn drag queen forges ahead despite
outrage and threats over recent performance
AMAZING: Young Brooklynite Desmond Napoles
— seen here in full drag as Desmond
is Amazing — is not letting a bout of outrage
from some conservative and other critics
over a recent performance stop his passion
for performing, because he says his shows
bring many others sheer joy.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
$1,500
SAVINGS
BY COLIN MIXSON
The family of an 11-year-old Brooklyn
boy known internationally as one of the
city’s most talked about drag queens
continues to receive death threats, as
well as investigatory visits from city
social workers, weeks after writers for
conservative and pro-life websites ignited
a fi restorm over his recent performance
at a Williamsburg bar.
Mom Wendy Napoles said haters of
her son Desmond Napoles — who performs
in drag as Desmond is Amazing
— fi led more than 150 complaints with
the city’s Administration for Children’s
Services after his December
show at Meserole Street gay bar 3 Dollar
Bill, which went viral when critics
attacked the performance as exploitative
“pedophilia” because Desmond
wore a crop top while accepting cash
from the crowd.
Each of those complaints necessitates
its own 60-day investigation,
resulting in almost daily home visits
from agency inspectors — some of
whom arrive as late as 3 am, according
to Napoles.
“We’re prisoners in our own home,”
she said. “They’ll come anytime.”
The mom, who said she vets all of
the venues where Desmond performs
to ensure they’re safe and appropriate,
blasted her son’s critics as homophobes,
claiming it’s perfectly legal for
a child to perform at a bar if accompanied
by an adult.
“No clothes came off my child,” she
said. “I don’t understand how people
can believe he was stripping, there
was a lot of homophobia there.”
A Child Services spokeswoman
would not comment on any individual
case, but said the agency’s policy is to
consolidate duplicate complaints, all of
which are screened by a state register
that determines whether they merit an
investigation by local authorities.
But Desmond — whose mom said
is depositing all the money he makes
performing into a trust fund he can’t
Continued on page 12