There's a hot new trend in some conservative circles: Demonizing drag performers.

There are at least 26 bills introduced in 14 states that seek to classify all drag performances as adult entertainment and zone and regulate them accordingly. According to The Washington Post, the Drag Queen Story Hour phenomenon is largely to blame for backlash against drag performances.

Drag Queen Story Hour is a nationwide movement where public library story hour is hosted by, you guessed it, drag queens. They read children's books. In fantastical costumes and makeup that can take hours to apply.

In fact, if you described it instead as Magic Fantasy Story Hour, "where volunteer readers arrive in elaborate costumes to make the storytelling more fabulous," this might not even be an issue.

I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure that if any of the content or behavior were the least bit offensive or off-color, today's helicopter parents would be the first to complain. Moreover, Drag Queen Story Hour isn't mandatory. If you don't like it, don't take your kids.

I will admit a bias. I enjoy drag shows for grown-ups. Ask me about the short-lived Cowboys La Cage, Nashville's first (and possibly last) drag nightclub. Dear reader, you have not lived until you have seen not one, not two, but three six-foot, 180-pound Reba McEntires take the stage at once.

And I will tell you that I was exposed to drag on a regular basis growing up as almost every year some gender-flexible kid dressed up like my mother for Halloween. She found it hilarious ("Darling! I love it!") and often gave the nervous/strutting young man some makeup and wardrobe tips. If you knew Dianne Hamilton, this will make perfect sense.

I have never seen a drag show that had humor that would earn more than an R rating or couldn't be shown on HBO. This is entertainment that doesn't belong with strip clubs or sex shops.

Drag is a classic comedy trope. Is the next litmus test for Republican candidates going to be whether they laughed at Some Like it Hot or Mrs. Doubtfire? Is Milton Berle now a pervert? Or is the line more subtle? Is it The Birdcage, which is about accepting gay people plus some drag scenes, that is the breaking point for conservative bona fides?

If the problem is just with drag, we have a problem with general ignorance in the party. If the problem is because most drag performers are gay men, it's ignorance and bigotry. Neither option will get more Republicans elected in 2024.

Anti-drag legislation is another example of laws that are solutions in search of a problem. For a party that claims to want small government, regulating drag performances seems pretty nitpicky and invasive.

I elect my legislators to manage state resources, pass a budget and solve real problems as far as the legislature's powers can be effective. Micromanaging drag performers is not in that list. Republicans need to get real about making their state and country better – increasing economic opportunity, rewarding individualism, reducing regulatory burdens, and ensuring public and global security.

Those are conservative values.

Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appears regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican, she lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run two head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com.