Page 22 | Drag Queen Story Time

LizzyStrata · 2022-06-13T09:33:17+00:00

First time posting here, so not sure of the etiquette. My apologies if this is the wrong place to raise these concerns. Reading Borough Council is planning to hold Drag Queen Story Hour events in our libraries during the summer holidays. I’ve written to my MP, my councillors, and the Head of the Library Service to raise concerns. I think drag is entirely inappropriate for children, as it is a form of adult entertainment, highly sexualised and misogynistic, that blurs boundaries and undermines safeguarding. The response Ive had is simply that they have received very few complaints so no reason to cancel. Has anyone had any experience of tackling their local library over this issue? Grateful for any tips. Also, if you live in Berkshire ,would you be willing to write and share your concerns? thanks!

VestofAbsurdity · 26/07/2022 14:03

Two great posts @LizzyStrata at 0824 & 0841.

achillestoes · 26/07/2022 13:39

Correction - doesn’t claim to be trans, but when dressed as ‘Aida’ claims to be a woman.

achillestoes · 26/07/2022 13:21

Also goes by Sab Samuel (also doesn’t sound like a real name) and presents in a masculine manner and uses ‘he/him’ pronouns, so I don’t know in what sense we’re meant to consider this person as transgender.

achillestoes · 26/07/2022 13:16

Have had a look at Aida H Dee’s Twitter and it’s also a bit disingenuous to say ‘what about panto?’

A man dressing up in drag as a woman for panto isn’t a transwoman. Aida claims to be trans, and communicates like a trans rights activist. Let’s at least tell the truth about that.

Musomama1 · 26/07/2022 12:39

Would you let a stripper do a story time to little children? Bet the children would love their sparkly costumes and find pole dancing funny

Actually, I'm going to try that one myself. Maybe it's just male adult entertainers who can do the f they want.

achillestoes · 26/07/2022 12:32

@antifascist

I’d take my kids to a pantomime, no problem. Isn’t that particular Drag Queen Aida H Dee?

Let me tell you what I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t let my children be read to by a person who thinks it’s appropriate to form their stage name based on a parody about a neurological condition affecting some of the children they’re talking to. That’s gross. I wouldn’t let them go to a public library and associate that visit with males in skimpy costumes emphasising their groin area. That’s not appropriate.

Widow Twanky, meh, I’m not bothered.

Lucyam1 · 26/07/2022 12:26

Does anyone know who protested at Reading library? Was it a group of parents?

MrsOvertonsWindow · 26/07/2022 12:24

LizzyStrata · 26/07/2022 08:24

On the topic of grooming, I don’t think all men are predators. Trouble is, sadly some are & we have no way of knowing which ones in advance. Often they are people who have encouraged us to admire & trust them - family friends, priests, teachers, policemen, youth group leaders & yes, drag performers. Look up Brett Blomme. They gain our trust by breaking down our boundaries, small steps at a time. Small children seeing men in wigs & dresses being normalised in an every day environment, are having their boundaries pushed - just harmless fun, it’s a library & books are good, the friendly ‘woman’ gave me a sticker…. etc. Children need adult guidance while they learn about personal
safety & who can be trusted. If adults don’t help to do that, we put children at risk. They may want to tell an adult that someone is making them uncomfortable or afraid, but their instincts have been undermined. Their parents, teachers, library staff have told them we must all ‘respect diversity’ & ‘be kind’. So they ignore that funny feeling in their tummies & sit on the ‘nice lady’s’ lap…. Children have no need of adult cabaret entertainment in their lives. They deserve adults who understand safeguarding & child development and who will respect their need for boundaries.

Just bumping this excellent comment to remind us all how anti child safeguarding /welfare it is to insist that self interested adult performers must be given access to little children or it's phobic / unkind/ etc

When you read to children, the story, the language and the ideas are meant to be the focus - not any tacky misogynistic performances by the reader. Adult entertainers should remain just that - for adults and be nowhere near children - no matter how much it upsets them and their bandwaggoners.

GCworld · 26/07/2022 12:21

Lucyam1 · 26/07/2022 11:59

Hi there does anyone know who protested DQSH at Reading Library? Videos on Twitter saying it was organised by "Sovereign Citizens" so just wondering if it was ordinary parents who were concerned. The guy from DQSH Aida H Dee is saying on their facebook page it was "extreme far right groups"!

It was Alpha Team Assemble, they've previously protested covid vaccination centres and 5G mast installations amongst other things.

Datun · 26/07/2022 12:21

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RoseslnTheHospital · 26/07/2022 12:02

Bore off, anti, with your contempt for women and your straw men.

Lucyam1 · 26/07/2022 11:59

Hi there does anyone know who protested DQSH at Reading Library? Videos on Twitter saying it was organised by "Sovereign Citizens" so just wondering if it was ordinary parents who were concerned. The guy from DQSH Aida H Dee is saying on their facebook page it was "extreme far right groups"!

antifascist · 26/07/2022 11:59

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Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

antifascist · 26/07/2022 11:57

See that fascists attacked Reading Library - with a big banner saying
"welcome groomers"

I'm sure some will be saying they aren't really fascists. And others will as many posters are on here claiming all (gay) men are paedophiles.

KittenKong · 26/07/2022 10:55

I was wondering what little King would think if a) a drag Queen or b) a (gay) woman like kongniece (tall, pretty, confident, smart, funny, kind firefighter who gets to do really cool - and dangerous - stuff at work) came and read to me on the library as a child.

a - would have upset me. I would have been scared by him and ‘known’ the jokes were naughty and that he was being rude about grown up ladies. I’d be confused that adults were laughing and wondering what this person actually ‘did’. Chances are I would have hidden behind my mum and cried.

b - I’d be following her around and asking if I could come on a ride along. I’d be thinking - hang on - big girls can be firefighters - or astronauts, or physicists (later my physics teacher said he didn’t like girls in his class), or even bloody train drivers. And she’d do it for free. As she does. She has set up training sessions for school age girls to get them into the service.

so sorry - I’m asking the ‘ooo it’s di-ver-si-teeeee’ folx - how does ‘a’ teach kids anything about diversity (or anything else)?

GCworld · 26/07/2022 09:32

The protest was by Alpha Team Assemble who until a few months ago raided Covid vaccination sites across the UK.

OldCrone · 26/07/2022 09:31

Some pictures here from some DQST events in the US.

Children crawling over a drag queen who is lying on the floor.

elizabethjohnston.org/library-quietly-removes-photos-of-children-lying-on-a-drag-queen-at-story-time-after-massive-backlash/

Drag queen in mini skirt exposing himself to children:

www.theblaze.com/news/photo-shows-drag-queen-story-hour-performer-in-miniskirt-exposing-crotch-as-children-sit-close-by

The video in this thread of a drag queen teaching children to twerk (this was in the UK) has been deleted.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3813857-Drag-Queen-Story-Time-at-the-British-Library?page=1&reply=93679020

Boadicea2 · 26/07/2022 09:06

I'm not sure what I think about these protests but I don't thik they can say no-one's complained...
rdg.today/drag-queen-story-hour-interrupted-by-protestors/

mrshoho · 26/07/2022 08:58

Cassi sat right next ti Aida and couldn’t resist touching Aidas sparkly, rainbow jumpsuit.

Taken from an online review from a parent. Mumforce.co.uk . I'm not generally untrusting but dash is one that raises red flags.

The following review from a 7 year old on mixuptheatre.com.

Aida was really nice to me when I met her. I really liked her outfit especially her wig and make up. I want to be a drag queen when I grow up. It gets 10 out of 5 stars!”

something very wrong.

Original poster

LizzyStrata · 26/07/2022 08:41

On the topic of stereotypes, we are repeatedly told that we should challenge them. I completely agree. I have very short hair, never wear dresses or make up & as a child was a proper tomboy. I am also a mum & a grandma. Nobody told me I was probably a boy because I preferred ‘boy’ things. I was allowed to grow up liking what I chose. In the era of raising my own kids, feminists had worked hard to dismantle the pink/blue divide in clothes & toys. Sadly it has hugely reasserted itself in recent years. Now kids are encouraged to believe they may have been ‘born in the wrong body’ if their interests aren’t 100% feminine /masculine. This is dangerous, regressive nonsense.
I think drag presents a parody of womanhood which actually promotes stereotypes which we should all want to see the back of, even when it claims to be challenging them. Sab Samuel (Aida H Dee) is a man. But when he puts on make up & address, he’s a woman & people use ‘she’? How does that teach children that stereotypes are wrong? It doesn’t. It plays right into them by saying if you put on a dress, you ARE a woman. If you want to be a woman, you need to have long hair & wear high heels. If you are male & like to do those things, or a woman who doesn’t, well maybe you need a new gender identity…? One that requires you to take medication to block puberty, or have your breast cut off. The two photos are from Aida H Dee’s FB page. Clearly he thinks wearing a dress is not only about challenging stereotypes….
By the way, the claim about suicide are completely untrue. Even the Tavistock has said suicide is very rare in young people with gender dysphoria. The post uses scare tactics that will terrify parents into seeking ‘treatment’ for their children simply because they like don’t like stereotypical pursuits.

OP posts:

Original poster

LizzyStrata · 26/07/2022 08:24

On the topic of grooming, I don’t think all men are predators. Trouble is, sadly some are & we have no way of knowing which ones in advance. Often they are people who have encouraged us to admire & trust them - family friends, priests, teachers, policemen, youth group leaders & yes, drag performers. Look up Brett Blomme. They gain our trust by breaking down our boundaries, small steps at a time. Small children seeing men in wigs & dresses being normalised in an every day environment, are having their boundaries pushed - just harmless fun, it’s a library & books are good, the friendly ‘woman’ gave me a sticker…. etc. Children need adult guidance while they learn about personal
safety & who can be trusted. If adults don’t help to do that, we put children at risk. They may want to tell an adult that someone is making them uncomfortable or afraid, but their instincts have been undermined. Their parents, teachers, library staff have told them we must all ‘respect diversity’ & ‘be kind’. So they ignore that funny feeling in their tummies & sit on the ‘nice lady’s’ lap…. Children have no need of adult cabaret entertainment in their lives. They deserve adults who understand safeguarding & child development and who will respect their need for boundaries.

OP posts:

Leafstamp · 26/07/2022 07:52

Thanks Sneakerheads.

I agree with PP that I don’t think protesting in that way is the best approach.

It’s a bit disheartening that parents have been objecting to these events for years and still they are happening.

MangyInseam · 26/07/2022 01:39

VestofAbsurdity · 26/07/2022 00:43

I note we are back to the contradictions again - it all about diversity and drag queens are mostly gay - how would children know that, let alone the fact that the overwhelming majority of gay men are not drag queens so hardly a representative portrayal is it? Then it's all about just dressing up because children like to dress up - so why not a Pirate Story Hour or a Princess Story Hour?

I think it comes down to how library programming works in many public libraries.

Often they are asked to include various diversity targets in their programming. That ends up looking like, come to a Korean cooking demonstration and have a look at our cookbooks, or come to an African drumming workshop.

But when they try and figure out what their lgbtq+ programming will be, it's not obvious. Especially for kids.

Most public librarians are progressives, it's a problem really in library circles because it means there can be a lack of balance, and also that may be no pushback when someone get the idea that a drag is gay, and kids love dress up, so somehow drag is how to check that diversity box.

VestofAbsurdity · 26/07/2022 00:47

Local residents where these are held need to ask their Councils/Councillors how much money is spent on this and where the money comes from. Taxpayers have every right to question what their taxes are being used for and to hear the justification for it.

VestofAbsurdity · 26/07/2022 00:43

I note we are back to the contradictions again - it all about diversity and drag queens are mostly gay - how would children know that, let alone the fact that the overwhelming majority of gay men are not drag queens so hardly a representative portrayal is it? Then it's all about just dressing up because children like to dress up - so why not a Pirate Story Hour or a Princess Story Hour?