Video of drag queen dancing for preschooler is real

A rumor circulated online in October 2025 claimed that a widely shared video authentically showed a drag queen dancing in front of a preschooler while wearing revealing clothing.

The clip featured adults sitting and standing in a restaurant with mimosas, resembling a drag brunch-themed gathering. In the video, the purported drag queen — wearing shorts revealing part of her rear end — dances and crawls slowly on her hands and knees to a young girl wearing a dress, who is sitting in a chair that someone moved to face the performer. The drag queen then shakes her butt, gently hugs the child and gives her a kiss on the side of her head. The adults respond positively with smiles, clapping, phones recording and some cheering.

One Snopes reader emailed, "I want to know if the post going around on social media of a drag queen crawling towards a little girl is legit or AI." The email mentioned both Brittany M. Hughes, the managing editor of Media Research Center (MRC) organization's MRCTV, and the MRC Culture Facebook page. (For readers unfamiliar with Media Research Center, its website features an "About" page (archived) promising to fight back against "Big Tech companies that aim to suppress conservative voices.")

On Oct. 22, a user managing Hughes' popular Facebook page posted the video in a visibly low quality, concluding with her own commentary. The clip displayed the onscreen caption, "Scantily-clad drag queen performs for preschooler." The post's text caption also read, "A half-nude man dressed as a woman gyrated for a preschooler while grown adults laughed and clapped. How is this legal???" A user managing the MRC Culture Facebook page then reposted Hughes' post, receiving over 1 million views. At least one X user reposted the video, as well.

In short, to answer the reader's question, the video authentically showed a drag performer wearing revealing clothing while dancing in front of a young child. We did not locate any information to confirm the age of the child as aligning with that of a preschooler.

The video first appeared online in February 2020, back in a time when drag queens faced political backlash from conservative commentators and voters regarding "Drag Queen Story Hour" library events organized for children. Also, regarding the reader's mention of artificial-intelligence (AI), the clip originated years before the public availability of AI tools like OpenAI's newly released video generation model Sora 2.

Snopes contacted Media Research Center by email to ask about Hughes' post and the MRC Culture post, including inquiring about what led them to repost the years-old video, as well as requesting any further details about the clip. We will update this story if we receive further information.

A reverse-image search located a YouTube video (embedded above, earlier in this article) from The Daily Caller, a news outlet co-founded by political commentator and former Fox News TV host Tucker Carlson. That Feb. 28, 2020, version of the clip featured a slightly higher picture quality. The video displayed onscreen captions reading "Wait till the end" and "This sweet little girl asked her mom to get a better view." The clip also showed a TikTok watermark with a user's handle. A search for that user's account found the message, "Couldn't find this account."

Also on Feb. 28, 2020, The Daily Caller reported on its website it had confirmed the performer's name as Canadian drag queen Tynomi Banks, who identifies herself with the pronouns she/her. The reporting said the TikTok user who originally published the video wrote in the text caption, "The friendship we didn't know we needed, but now can't live without." The article did not feature any information about exactly when or where the video was recorded, only referencing the occasion as a drag brunch.

We also contacted Banks via her website, Facebook page and TikTok account to ask questions about the video, including when and where the drag brunch occurred, as well as inquiring for more information about the moment depicted.