A “drag mom” who mentored an 11-year-old at a Satan-themed pub in Oregon has been sentenced to less than a year in prison for 11 felony child sex crimes.
Kelsey Meta Boren, 31, pled guilty on March 23 to 11 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree. Another charge of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct was dismissed.
She will serve 11 months in jail and five years probation. She will need her probation officer’s permission to have contact with minors, she will be banned from contact with the victim, and she will have to register as a sex offender.
Boren was arrested back in August after police received tips alleging she was uploading child pornography to the internet, the Lane County Sheriff’s Office in Eugene, Oregon, said.
A sexually explicit image of a girl estimated as 12 or younger was found to have been uploaded multiple times from email accounts that were traced back to Boren, a detective said in a court document.
At the time, Boren was an instructional assistant in the Fern Ridge School District. After her arrest, she was suspended from her position and barred from school grounds and from having contact with students, the district said.
The sheriff’s office said no children Boren knew through her job were identified as victims.
Before her arrest, Boren posted several photos of herself with an 11-year-old girl, a young drag queen called Vanellope MacPherson DuPont, on her Instagram and said she was the child’s “drag mom.”
In October, the Satan-themed Old Nick’s Pub in Eugene, Oregon, said it was hosting Vanellope for a drag queen event.
“Vanellope is here to show you what an 11-year-old drag queen can do,” a Facebook post by the pub promoting the event read.
“With all the charm and sweetness of a bowl of sugary cereal, Vanellope is here to brighten up your morning with all her drag talent,” the post said.
Boren was part of the October event, which happened two months after she was arrested.
Protesters opposing the events carried a sign reading, “What kind of monster exposes kids to this?”
Supporters yelled “go home Nazis” and had a banner reading “protect trans youth.”
Vanellope reportedly did not end up performing in the event as planned.
However, the pub has also hosted Drag Queen Story Hour events featuring Vanellope, as well as drag burlesque events with adult drag queens that do not include the young performer.
The pub accused critics of sexualizing the child performer and remarked in one Facebook comment, “it all boils down to fundamental misogyny.”
Vanellope’s family and friends have since released a statement saying the relationship between the child and Boren was “professional” only and they only met “maybe four or five time[s].”
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