Sex-laced bondage and transgender imagery in exhibits at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History are sexualizing and traumatizing kids, Republicans charged Tuesday, telling the museum’s director that she’s using her post to elevate “woke” ideology over American greatness.
GOP lawmakers confronted Anthea Hartig, the director, with some of those images during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, demanding to know why “images of sexual fetishes” were on display for schoolchildren to see.
“You strive to represent queer pedophiles, indoctrination, grooming of kids at an American History Museum, and it sounds like you’re proud of it,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, South Carolina Republican. “Your putting this kind of crap in front of kids sexualizes them and makes them more vulnerable to people that want to rape them or abuse them.”
Rep. Brandon Gill, Texas Republican, challenged Ms. Hartig over her museum’s promotion of a “toolkit” that labels objectivity as a tool of White supremacy.
He also asked her to explain an exhibit that said Micky Mouse was derived from “vestiges of longstanding traditions of blackface minstrelsy.”
“It has certain obvious racial overtones that have been well-documented,” Ms. Hartig said. “It’s not for me to determine what’s problematic, it’s for me to determine what’s accurate.”
But she tried to separate herself from the toolkit, saying it wasn’t one they developed but acknowledged it was “used as a reference” by her museum in 2019 and 2020.
The hearing is part of a broader Republican effort to rein in Ms. Hartig and the Smithsonian’s American history museum after a White House report earlier this year accused it of becoming a tool for liberal indoctrination.
Ms. Hartig repeatedly ducked and stumbled over questions about her exhibits and offerings.
She wouldn’t say whether she thought it was appropriate for her gift shop to sell “Latina Power” items, and she declined Ms. Mace’s invitation to say what a woman is.
“We strive to represent, and not categorize, all Americans,” Ms. Hartig said.
