Drag shows and people in drag reading books to kids are not the same thing. If you don’t understand the difference, just let know and I’ll explain it to you. To answer the question about why people in drag would want an audience of kids:
1. I used to organize a lot of fundraising events in San Francisco. It was very typical for the drag shows in The City to have a fundraising component tied to them. While I wasn’t involved directly in any of the drag fundraisers, I can tell you in my experience the drag community tends to have very socially-conscious and charitable leanings. So volunteering to read to kids isn’t surprising at all. It’s probably just one of the many ways that person or group of people is giving back to society in a positive way. Also, if they’re invited to read, it probably feels like a safe space for them to dress in the way they prefer to dress. If you yourself do charitable work, you’re probably regularly doing it alongside people who dress in drag. They just may not do it around you
2. There are clearly a lot of the older generation who have pre-conceived notions about people who don’t always feel comfortable with the gender role they were assigned at birth. I’m sure there are members of the drag community who would like to decrease the ignorance in society and would like kids to grow up without as much illogical fear as their patents’ and grandparents’ generation.
3. There are quite obviously a great many people who grow up not feeling like the gender role they were assigned at birth. Having known my fair share of these folks, I can tell you that their childhood/teens/early adulthood are often brutal experiences full of harassment, bullying, self-loathing and a whole maelstrom of toxicity. I’m not qualified to speak on behalf of folks who dress in drag, but I can guess that they would probably enjoy helping kids to understand that it’s completely natural and healthy to question gender roles and identity probably. I imagine they would say that if they can help someone to not have to struggle as much as they did growing up, that’s probably something they would sign up for every day of the week.
4. Why wouldn’t they want to help out kids? As someone who does a lot of volunteer work to help kids with their education, I can confirm it’s tremendously rewarding. Given that people who dress in drag are human beings, I’m gonna guess it’s very fulfilling for them, too.