Children's Court Judge Who Was a Driving Force Behind Drag Queen Story Hour Arrested on Heinous Child Pornography Charges
A children’s court judge who was the CEO of a group that was a driving force behind a Drag Queen Story Hour program for the city of Milwaukee was arrested Wednesday on child pornography allegations, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Brett Blomme was elected last year as a “progressive alternative” to an appointee of former GOP Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. At the time of his arrest, Blomme was assigned to Milwaukee County Children’s Court.
Authorities took the 38-year-old Blomme into custody “following an investigation into multiple uploads of child pornography through a Kik messaging application account in October and November 2020,” according to a statement by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
“Based upon records linking those uploads to the defendant, [Division of Criminal Investigation] investigators obtained search warrants for the defendant, his chambers, his vehicle, and his residences in Milwaukee and Dane Counties,” it said.
In a 44-page search warrant, a special agent with the DCI alleged that Blomme, using the name “dommasterbb,” uploaded 27 images and videos containing child pornography showing young boys being abused through the app. Two of those files were sent from a Milwaukee County government building.
#BREAKING: Brett Blomme, who serves on the Milwaukee Circuit Court, is charged with seven counts of possession of child pornography. The Wisconsin Supreme Court said he is unable to do his job and has relieved him of his duties.
https://t.co/eZ6ewK1AQR— WKOW 27 News (@WKOW) March 17, 2021
The tentative child pornography charges can carry up to 15 years in prison if Blomme is convicted.
He was released on the condition that he not use social media or file-sharing apps, and he cannot have any unsupervised contact with children except his own.
Blomme’s primary role in government before his election last year was heading up Milwaukee’s board of zoning appeals.
However, he was also a highly visible LGBT activist, including a stint as the CEO of the Cream City Foundation, which gives grant money to LGBT groups in and around Milwaukee. According to WTMJ-TV, Blomme’s LinkedIn profile listed him as the CEO of the Cream City Foundation from 2017 to 2020.
“Cream City Foundation mobilizes philanthropic resources by harnessing the pride, passion, and commitment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies to advance the human rights and respond to the human needs of LGBTQ+ people in Southeastern Wisconsin,” the group’s website read.
It “began in 1982 with only $500 in seed money and has granted more than $1.5 million to life-affirming, life-sustaining and life-celebrating programs for the LGBTQ+ communities of southeastern Wisconsin.”
One of these programs was Drag Queen Story Hour for Milwaukee.
“Drag Queen Story Hour is just what it sounds like — drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores,” the website says.
“DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.
“In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.”
Among the benefits of Drag Queen Story Hour the foundation listed were “LGBTQ+ visibility in areas that lack representation,” a “[p]oint of first contact for families seeking LGBTQ+ information” and an opportunity to “[p]rovide safer spaces for children to express themselves.”
The Drag Queen Story Hour funded by Cream City Foundation also boasted an “[i]ntersectional reading list that covers a range of topics.”
The foundation’s website was down, for the most part, on Friday. On the front page was a message addressing Blomme’s arrest.
“The Cream City Foundation is deeply troubled, angered and shocked to learn of the allegations involving our former CEO, Brett Blomme,” it said.
“Cream City Foundation categorically denounces the actions he is accused of as abhorrent and totally contrary to the values that Cream City Foundation holds dear. We are deeply concerned about the young victims of all child sex crimes and we reiterate our commitment to the safety and well-being of all youth in our community. Cream City Foundation remains committed to serving the LGBTQ+ community.”
There’s one conclusion that should be strongly reproved here, which is any impulse toward adducing a connection between Blomme’s alleged pedophilia and the Cream City Foundation’s involvement in Drag Queen Story Hour.
Beyond the fact Blomme is an innocent man as far as the law is concerned, it’s worth noting the Cream City Foundation provides grants and funding; it doesn’t organize.
Jonathan Hamilt, executive director of Drag Queen Story Hour, said in a statement to Fox News that he was “deeply saddened and disappointed to learn about the actions of Judge Brett Blomme.”
“However, Drag Queen Story Hour wishes to make clear: while Cream City Foundation has served as DQSH Milwaukee’s fiscal sponsor (allowing DQSH Milwaukee to receive funds as a non-profit), the relationship is strictly financial: Cream City Foundation does not direct or influence the content of our programming, and Brett Blomme has never held a position within DQSH Milwaukee nor participate directly in planning, organizing, or hosting any of our events,” he said.
Hamilt said the national organization was “cutting all ties with Cream City Foundation as their acting fiscal sponsor.”
However, in any case that involves people in power and alleged sexual misconduct, the question becomes a what-did-others-know-and-when-did-they-know-it.
There’s rarely a day gone by these past few weeks that hasn’t brought forth a “bombshell” report about the “toxic” environment around New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and how it enabled his alleged sexual indiscretions toward women.
We just got done with the essential dismantling of the Lincoln Project — the anti-Trump group comprised of former Republican political operatives that ran an insufferable series of ads during the 2020 election and was turning its focus to holding former administration staffers “accountable” — over the handling of John Weaver, one of its co-founders.
Weaver was allegedly quite fond of dangling employment in front of young men in response for sexual favors, something reports said Lincoln Project leaders knew about as early as June 2020. They did nothing at the time; Weaver went on medical leave in August, and it wasn’t until late January that both Weaver and the organization acknowledged the existence of the allegations.
Blomme doesn’t have the stature of either Cuomo or Weaver, but this is likely to lead to a similar round of examination.
And, as it relates to Drag Queen Story Hour, it’s worth noting it’s neither homophobic nor transphobic to take a closer look.
We cannot pretend that Drag Queen Story Hour is an uncontroversial venture. It’s something where a decidedly leftist outlook on gender fluidity and sexuality — one that many parents, not wrongly, have serious qualms with — is being not just presented but thrust upon children.
“Does anybody in this room know how to twerk,” the drag queen asks the five year olds. “I’ll just give you a quick demonstration…”
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 19, 2021
Of course, you don’t have to take your children, but we shouldn’t pretend the sensitivity of the message being presented doesn’t mean Blomme’s involvement doesn’t necessitate a second look.
I pray Hamilt is 100 percent right — that Blomme’s organization provided only funding for Drag Queen Story Hour and no one involved knew of any red flags in his personal background.
There’s a lot that needs to be examined in that arena, however, and not just because Blomme is an LGBT activist.
This is a children’s court judge with multifarious connections in the community who stands accused of heinous crimes.
No one should dare to implicate anything without evidence, but a refusal to investigate would be a dereliction of responsibility.
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