More and more men are dressing up like women in provocative clothing to read books to young children, and it’s provoking fresh fury from parents and others who disagree with the idea.
Drag Queen Story Hour has been a serious concern in the U.S. for many years, and now those same concerns are growing in the U.K. as well.
The storytime events have taken place in libraries, schools, and bookstores over the past few years, as those involved try to convince impressionable kids that the LGBTQ lifestyle is normal and exciting.
In the U.K., many opposing Drag Queen Story Hour are speaking out by urging local councils and libraries to reject the events as distasteful and inappropriate.
Family Education Trust is encouraging parents to get involved and find out if their local library is allowing a Drag Queen Story Hour. The group even provided a letter template for them to fill out, outlining their opposition to the events.
According to the group’s website, the drag queens have nearly 70 activities planned in 20 different areas across the U.K. this summer.
Safe Schools Alliance UK (SSAUK) is another group that opposes drag queen-related events. Teachers and parents are joining forces to speak out against the men who wear gobs of makeup, huge wigs, and vulgar outfits.
“Drag queens entering children’s environments is already an abuse of power,” the group said, adding that it’s being “pushed as the new, inclusive thing to do” so children will develop a deeper love for reading.
SSAUK continues, “Boundaries are imposed by schools to keep children safe from themselves, from each other and from exploitative adults. Drag is a form of adult entertainment, and as such can never be appropriate for the age, developmental stage, or background of pupils.”
Drag queen story time classes for primary school children in council libraries have sparked fury from parents over inappropriate content and men in “highly sexualised” dress.https://t.co/mLkUWyhkTf
In a statement, Drag Queen Story Hour UK said every performer is checked for a criminal record and receives safety training, according to GBN News.
“Performances are very similar to pantomimes, except they are explicitly literacy-focused and support inclusivity in communities and an interest in reading,” said a spokesperson for the drag queen group.
But CBN News previously reported that some drag queens in the U.S. have been exposed for having criminal records that involve sexually assaulting young children.
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Library system seeing increase in request for more reading material that features diverse lifestyles
By Roderick Benns
Family-friendly drag events across Canada, many hosted by local libraries, have been targeted by a deluge of hateful comments, CBC News is reporting – but the same can’t be said locally.
The national broadcaster is reporting that multiple threats during Pride month have occurred, prompting multiple police investigations and renewed concerns about the safety of the LGBTQ community.
But Rylee Rae, an organizer of Kawartha Lakes Pride Week which starts next week said there has been only one comment about keeping drag away from children “and it was challenged with love from our supportive community.”
“We have an amazing team of drag artists, some who work professionally with children as their day gig, who are partnering with Kawartha Lakes Library to host a Drag Queen Story Book time and a cozy reading tent at our Pride in the Park event on July 8,” says Rae.
The drag artists are bringing in a collection of LGBTQIA+ literature to share.
They will also be performing a family friendly version of their acts during the day while another version will be available for adults during the evening.
“We are doing our best to normalize and familiarize folks with drag culture and encourage people to express themselves in new and fun ways,” Ray said.
Marieke Junkin, manager programming and public services for Kawartha Lake Library, said the library has celebrated Pride in our branches “for several years now,” which includes their Storytime programs hosted by various members of Kawartha Lakes Pride.
“The response to these events has been very positive and we have received zero criticism for hosting such programs,” Junkin said.
She says library staff have also noticed an increase in the amount of families and caregivers who are actively requesting material for children that feature positive images and storylines of diverse lifestyles and non-traditional family structures.
“We have been pleasantly surprised to find these books then go on to circulate well at all 14 of our library branches.”
The collection of Pride material has been built by a demand from the community as a whole, she says, and not from any particular interest group.
Family-friendly drag events across Canada, many hosted by municipal libraries, have been targeted by a deluge of hateful comments and threats during Pride month, prompting multiple police investigations and renewed concerns about the safety of the LGBTQ community.
More than half a dozen libraries and drag performers, from Saint John to Victoria, reported being inundated online and over the phone by homophobic slurs and, in some cases, threats of violence.
Drag Story Hour events are popular at many libraries in the country, and usually feature a performer in drag reading children’s books about inclusion. They are often held in collaboration with local LGBTQ associations and have caused only minor controversy in the past.
But amid a surge in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and policies in the U.S., and a conservative movement in Canada increasingly influenced by right-wing politics south of the border, the all-ages drag events have turned into flashpoints of anger.
The City of Dorval, a Montreal suburb, received a wave of complaints in early June as soon as it announced its library was hosting a story hour with well-known local performer Barbada.
“We received hate mail. We received threats. You name it — we received it,” said Sébastien Gauthier, a spokesperson for the city.
Drag performers Jessika Rabid, left, and Farrah Nuff, right, were among two dozen supporters who turned up to protect an all-ages drag storytelling in Calgary last week. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)
In the comments, library staff were, among other things, accused of assisting pedophiles and threatened with lawsuits. Their personal information was also circulated online.
“We also received more worrisome threats for the activity per se, people threatening to come by and do this and that during the event,” Gauthier said.
Montreal police patrolled the June 11 event, which was without incident, and have opened an investigation into the threats.
“I’ve worked for the city for almost 20 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Gauthier said.
An all-ages drag show in Victoria was cancelled mid-June after the cafe that was scheduled to host received a slew of threatening phone calls.
“Our show has been running for the last three years with absolutely zero complaints or concern from anyone in the community,” said a spokesperson for For the Love of Drag, the group that was slated to perform.
The spokesperson asked CBC News to withhold their name because of ongoing safety concerns.
The online hate directed at libraries in Canada comes amid a surge in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and polices in the U.S. Earlier this month, police in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, arrested 31 men for conspiracy to riot at a Pride event. (North Country Off Grid/Youtube/Reuters)
“It’s frightening to be reminded that there are people out there that wish you didn’t exist, that wish they could harm you — especially during Pride month,” the spokesperson said in an email exchange.
A police investigation did not treat the incident as a hate crime and no charges were laid but a restraining order was issued against one person, the spokesperson said.
Libraries in Pembroke, Ont., Pickering Ont., Orillia, Ont., and Calgary also confirmed receiving a large volume of negative comments for hosting their own Drag Story Hour events this month.
Ontario Provincial Police said they have an active investigation related to the Pembroke event, but declined to provide further details.
Convoy-linked groups
The surge of hate appears to have diverse sources. In Saint John, for instance, past and aspiring candidates with the People’s Party of Canada were among those who circulated misleading images on their social media accounts to suggest a story hour event at a local library earlier this month wasn’t age appropriate.
One image was from a 2019 burlesque show in the U.S., the other was from an adult drag performance in April.
The posts spurred a long string of hateful comments against the performer, Alex Saunders, whose drag persona is Justin Toodeep.
“We read a couple of books about a prince and knight who fell in love and then a couple of books on different types of families you might see,” Saunders said of the all-ages June event.
In several instances, groups and social media accounts affiliated with the Freedom Convoy encouraged supporters to protest the Drag Story Hour events. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Saunders says they sent more than 40 pages worth of screen grabs of the comments to Saint John police, including one that said it was time to “light the torches,” and another that called for Saunders and a fellow performer to be burned alive.
Saunders says they were told that there was insufficient evidence of a direct threat to pursue charges.
“[It has been] very scary and weird and I really have been trying to put on a brave face for my community, but I had a full-blown, crying, didn’t-want-to-leave-the-house meltdown,” Saunders said.
Alex Saunders, also known as Justin Toodeep, helps host a drag storytime with the Saint John Free Public Library on June 5. (Supplied by Alex Saunders)
The public library in Pickering said it received a wave of homophobic and transphobic comments, both via phone and online, following an article and video report by True North, a right-wing media outlet founded by former Conservative MP Candice Malcolm.
On True North’s Facebook page, posts about the event received more than a dozen homophobic comments, many accusing drag performers of pedophilia, a long-running trope in anti-LGTBQ rhetoric.
In several instances, groups and social media accounts affiliated with the Freedom Convoy encouraged supporters to protest the Drag Story Hour events.
Stand4Thee, an anti-vax mandate group that supported the blockade in Ottawa, has issued several calls in the past month for members to contact libraries hosting drag events.
In posts on Telegram, a social messaging app, the group says the events “indoctrinate our children” and are “disgusting perverted filth.” Their posts were shared on the Convoy to Ottawa 2022 channel, one of the largest groups on the app used by convoy supporters.
Members of Calgary Freedom Central — a Telegram channel with nearly 9,000 subscribers that helped rally support for truck blockades in Ottawa and Coutts, Alta., this winter — used slurs as they tried to mobilize opposition to an event last week at a branch of the Calgary Public Library.
Members suggested a physical confrontation to show performers they were “not welcome” in Calgary. Another user suggested confronting parents who brought their children to the event.
As in many of the other online forums, the comments in Calgary Freedom Central often invoked the term “groomer” to describe the drag performers or the library staff hosting the events.
The slur, which is derived from the baseless stereotype that LGBTQ people are involved in pedophilia, is increasingly popular among right-wing groups in the U.S., where several drag story hour events have been disrupted by protests this month.
When Calgary’s LGTBQ community learned of the negative online chatter, about 25 members of the community and their supporters turned up at last week’s story hour event to prevent disruptions.
“I want to make sure the children and performers are the most protected they can be,” said Farrah Nuff, a drag performer who attended the event at the Nicholls Family Library.
Despite being subjected to threats, officials at municipal libraries hosting such events insist on their importance and maintain they won’t be intimidated.
Bessie Sullivan, CEO of the Orillia Public Library, said she never contemplated cancelling the event, even though callers were, among other things, threatening to get her fired.
“They pissed me off,” Sullivan said. “So actually, what we did, as this ratcheted up, I added a second story time.”
Library staff in Pembroke say they fielded a slew of threatening calls and emails, some promising that dozens of protesters would disrupt their drag story hour event.
Karthi Rajamani, the library’s CEO, was sufficiently concerned that she contacted police and gave her staff additional safety training. But, like Sullivan, she never considered cancelling the event.
“Libraries are community leaders. We should be examples of inclusion and diversity,” Rajamani said.
In the end no one showed up to protest in Pembroke. The event was well attended and, Rajamani said, residents applauded the library for going ahead with it. Several other librarians expressed similar sentiments.
Organizers of a family-friendly drag show at a Victoria café have cancelled the event after the café owner says staff were inundated with homophobic and transphobic phone calls.
The monthly Sashay Café drag show was scheduled to go ahead this Saturday at Caffe Fantastico.
Café owner Ryan Taylor said staff received many hateful calls, but one call on Tuesday turned especially aggressive when the caller threatened to “shoot up the place and everyone in it.”
After that call, Sashay Café organizers decided to cancel the event and the incident was reported to Victoria police.
Taylor said staff had been logging calls, which he said expressed homophobic sentiments and mischaracterized the event as “trying to groom children to be gay.”
“Our team was doing its best to try and sort of counter that ignorance and explain that this is a simple dress-up show,” said Taylor. “It’s not by any means lewd or anything but positive.”
Taylor said two of the phone calls logged by staff came from local numbers.
Victoria police said in a statement they are investigating two separate reports.
“It is very disappointing to learn of these deeply concerning calls and the impact that they have had on staff, event organizers and those who were looking forward to this event,” said Staff Sgt. Jennifer Ames.
Police say they are keeping café staff and organizers updated and supported.
Taylor says the Sashay Café event, which features performers doing musical numbers in drag, encourages participants to express themselves.
“It’s for people who are looking for an avenue for expression and a safe place,” he said.
Taylor said rising homophobic and transphobic sentiments are a particularly tough blow as people are emerging from a pandemic.
“To be trying to finally feel like you’re coming out the other side and trying to have some sense of normalcy, an attack like this is really kicking you when you’re down,” he said.
“It just brings me to tears.”
While Taylor understands why the event’s organizers would not want to be in the limelight at this time, he hopes for more pride events to lift people’s spirits.
“To show these perpetrators of hate that it’s not acceptable. They’re not going to win,” he said.
“They need to be condemned at every single step along the way, and they need to know their attitudes are not tolerable and that they cannot be part of our society.”
Alex Saunders loves doing drag storytime for kids and has no plans to stop, even after being the target of online hate.
Saunders, a Saint John drag king whose stage name is Justin Toodeep, has been a drag performer for 12 years.
They’ve also been a dedicated volunteer with the YMCA and the Salvation Army, as well as spending the past five years reading books and making crafts with kids through the public library with drag storytime.
“Doing drag is about first and foremost giving back to your community,” they said.
The past week, though, Saunders experienced something they say they’ve been through before.
Alex Saunders, also known as Justin Toodeep, helped host a drag storytime with the Saint John Free Public Library on June 5. This is a photo from the actual event. (Supplied by Alex Saunders)
They’ve been receiving hate messages, some even threatening their life, after Saint John People’s Party of Canada candidate Nicholas Pereira made an online post about a drag storytime event.
Saunders was part of that event last weekend through the Saint John Free Public Library in Market Square.
Pereira paired the event’s information with an unrelated image of a young person tipping a burlesque dancer by putting money in their underwear, spreading misinformation about what drag story time is all about.
He has since deleted the post, but not before it reached hundreds, causing both strangers and people Saunders knows to attack them online.
“I haven’t been letting it get me down too much,” Saunders said. “But it makes me feel very unsafe in my own community.”
No plans to stop
Although they fear for their personal safety, Saunders has no intention of stepping back from drag performances, including events for kids.
Support from the community has kept pace with the hatred they’ve been experiencing, they said, and they plan to keep going and perform at more Pride celebrations in Saint John in August.
“The outpouring of love from my own community, and from supporters and allies has been unreal, absolutely unreal.”
The library said it has hosted four drag storytime events, intended to celebrate diversity during Pride Month, and people have been “very supportive.”
“Activities such as this are a healthy part of a child’s development as they develop an understanding of and respect for differences, while feeling free to explore identities,” head librarian Laura Corscadden said in an email.
“Programs such as this have been offered successfully over the past several years in many other public libraries in other jurisdictions around North America.”
Saunders said they want to be part of events for kids because kids don’t have very many queer role models.
“They see me out there, being my weird self and living my best life. And, you know, they fall in love with that,” Saunders said.
Saunders said because they have a charisma kids are drawn toward, the least they can do for the community is read to children and show them there are different kinds of people in the world.
“People need to know that they’re not alone. And that’s what I like about drag story time. Plus, how cool is it to read stories to kids, make them happy and give them cookies?”
What happens at drag storytime?
Blair Richardson and her family moved to New Brunswick from Toronto a year and a half ago.
Richardson, who has a young daughter nicknamed Mouse, said her family was always connected with the queer community in Toronto, going to events like drag storytime and drag brunches.
“I think a lot of youth need to not only hear it if they are part of that community, or will eventually be, but also the kids that will just grow up to be straight,” said Richardson, a supporter of the drag storytime series in Saint John.
“It’s important that they hear the regularity of the stories that are presented here, the inclusion, the messages of love.”
While she’s noticed a difference in how many queer-friendly places are available in Saint John — there are no gay bars, for example — she said attending events like drag story time has helped her family find friends when they didn’t know anybody in the city.
She even worked with the library to expand storytime events beyond just Pride week in August.
Richardson said the drag storytime events themselves are always full of colour and costume — all outfits are appropriate for kids, she added.
Her daughter also loves books and reading.
“It really combines a lot of the passions that a five year old should have, which are, you know, stage and entertainment and literacy.”
Blair Richardson’s daughter, Mouse, plans to try out drag herself for the first time this summer — using the name ‘Mouse-tache’. (Supplied by Blair Richardson)
The stories the drag kings and drag queens read to kids usually focus on themes of acceptance and being yourself — Richardson pointed to a recent story by Michael Hall called Red: A Crayon’s Story about a blue crayon inside a red wrapper that goes on a journey to find its true colours.
On top of reading stories, kids get to do crafts and have a snack at drag story time.
“It’s just a really beautiful event for kids to be a part of,” Richardson said.
Her daughter, who looks forward to drag storytime “more so than anything else in life,” is even trying out drag for the first time later this summer.
“Mouse just wants to be just like Alex, in kind of every aspect of life, and really looks up to them.”
Library CEO Bessie Sullivan says there were many inappropriate comments posted to the library’s event page on Facebook when it was announced.
“This is not the first time the Orillia Public Library has offered a drag queen story time,” she said. “We offered one in 2018 and it’s a common occurrence across most public libraries.”
The event is meant to promote equality, inclusiveness and diversity in the community, Sullivan says.
“The library and our new strategic plan is to promote and serve all members of our community,” she said.
While she says the library always invites and welcomes respectful discourse, the way frustration was being expressed online was not respectful.
“We had profanity and hatred,” she said. “Now that I’ve disabled the comments, I’m now being accused of not welcoming respectful discourse.”
Sullivan was prepared to face some backlash because of the event, but the amount of criticism and the crude nature of comments was unexpected.
“It may be a very small minority that just makes a lot of noise,” she said. “We have had families say they are going to come ahead of the event and camp out to make sure they get a spot because space is limited.”
The event is something Sullivan believes most in the community want to see happen.
She says it makes her sad to see such comments from other members of the community.
“I have no issue with people disagreeing with things that we do,” she said. “What I have an issue with is meanness and cruelty.”
It’s not just the library facing backlash.
Royal LePage broker Mike Stahls says he has been contacted by individuals who were angry with him for sponsoring an adult-only, ticketed Pride Month event at the Orillia Public Library even though he is not a sponsor of the drag queen story time event.
“They were all saying they don’t want children exposed to that,” he said. “They used the word ‘grooming.’ They think that children going to that event are going to think it’s OK to be gay.”
He said the negative response shows how important Pride events are in the community.
“The comments do … show the need for having a mix of events that reflect Orillia’s own diversity. The library is a public space, and our taxpayers include people of many diverse groups,” said Stahls.
“One group should never decide if a program for another takes place. They have a free choice to attend what they want to attend and not attend those of no interest to them.”
It is also important, he said, for adults to “consider that despite their personal opinions on any given issue, LGBTQ2S+ youth are seven times as likely to attempt suicide.
“I don’t know what to say about an adult who is aware of that fact and still makes public derogatory comments about LGBTQ2S+ people online, where it will most certainly be read by those who may be in a vulnerable state.”
Sullivan says the hate has only fuelled the library’s determination for hosting events that promote inclusiveness and equality. The first-come, first-served event is going forward at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Ramstein Air Base in Germany is overhauling its Pride Month festivities after critics, including a Republican senator, complained that a drag queen was picked to read to children.
Ramstein, the largest American air base in Germany and headquarters of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, was slated to host local drag queen Stacey Teed at a 30-minute story time event for kids at an on-base library, according to a since-deleted Facebook event.
“Be sure to wear your brightest and most colorful outfits!” the post read.
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But the event created a furor. Chief among its opponents was Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who confirmed the Air Force had canceled “Drag Queen Story Time” the same week he wrote to Secretary Frank Kendall demanding the service “immediately cancel this politically divisive event, and take appropriate disciplinary action against all involved in allowing this gross abuse of taxpayer funding to place children in a sexualized environment.”
Rubio also asked Kendall how many events “involving drag queens spending time around children” have been held on American military installations around the world, and what resources have been used to hold them.
“Decisions over children and their bodies should be left to moms and dads serving our nation,” Rubio wrote Thursday. “The last thing parents serving their nation overseas should be worried about, particularly in a theater with heightened geopolitical tensions, is whether their children are being exposed to sexually charged content simply because they visited their local library.”
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His opposition comes amid a spike in baseless accusations of LGBTQ people “grooming” or befriending children with the intent to sexually abuse them.
“It’s story time, not RuPaul’s Drag Race,” said Natalie Ricketts, a member of the Ramstein community who created a Change.org petition to reinstate the events. “Stacey Teed isn’t a sexualized name, nor would they wear the same clothes [to the reading that] they would for a show.”
Neither Ramstein’s 86th Airlift Wing nor the Modern Military Association of America, an advocacy group for LGBTQ service members, responded to questions by press time Friday.
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Drag is the centuries-long practice of dressing in exaggerated makeup and clothing of the opposite sex, most commonly used in theater and other stage performances. It’s often on display during Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Pride Month events, held worldwide each June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York that served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement. Pride Month also celebrates the community’s contributions and remembers those killed in hate crimes or by HIV/AIDS.
Military organizations have started hosting Pride events in the decade since the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning openly gay service members ended.
This year, Ricketts wrote in the petition, the 86th Mission Support Group commander canceled all Pride events unless they are rebranded without drag queens.
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“The reason for this is because the [public affairs chief] received a lot of angry emails from ‘taxpaying Americans’ … most of which aren’t stationed here,” said Ricketts, whose public LinkedIn profile shows she served as an active duty geospatial intelligence analyst before joining the Air Force Reserve.
“Per the [86th Airlift] Wing … ‘You can do the event but remove the drag queen [and] have someone ‘normal’ reading the stories,’” said Ricketts.
According to the Change.org petition, which had gathered more than 140 digital signatures as of Friday afternoon, the library will only hold Pride story time if a drag queen participates.
Objections centered on the library gathering but allegedly led to a blanket ban from local leadership on any drag-related event. Pride was slated to kick off next week with a karaoke event run by drag queens at the base’s enlisted club, Ricketts said.
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Ricketts disputed the idea that the event would involve anything untoward.
The “Monarchy of RoyalTea,” a drag group in the Kaiserslautern military community that holds performances and events like holiday drag brunches, is losing out on funds it would have received for working at Pride Month activities, she said. Most of the drag queens are enlisted members.
A note anonymously posted to the popular Facebook page “Air Force amn/nco/snco”, which airs airmen’s questions and gripes and shares news articles, said those involved with Ramstein Pride are working with the Air Force’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning Initiative Team; the Modern Military Association of America, an advocacy group for LGBTQ service members; and 86th Force Support Squadron on a solution.
“We are deeply disappointed that discrimination like this continues to be tolerated,” the note said.
Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), the Washington Post, and others.
