Too not want Drag Storytime for schools

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It's not what I want kids to be subjected to.

Firefighter story time is a thing
https://cmlibrary.bibliocommons.com/list/share/559792807/1752293411

Many different story tellers, talkers etc are things that happen

But the outrage shouts about drag

@MonsterFiesta well that's fair enough but I think the point is what is the purpose of the costumes AT ALL when reading to children? Drag is men wearing women's clothing and how is that necessary or relevant to story telling to children?

@tommika what's the point of firefighter story time? And what makes it different to drag story time?

Is there no mention of storytelling in it?

Do children only require a heterosexual environment?

Tea, who identifies as queer, came up with the idea after attending children's library events with her newborn son and finding them welcoming but heteronormative.[1

Why do the protests need to promote their cause with examples that don’t happen?

Like pantomimes?

Could the point be about someone engaging, covering a range of topics / interests ?

Why not?
I’ll agree with not having transvestite strippers exposing themselves in schools, but despite the claims to the contrary that’s not a thing

@tommika No. I don't think children only require a heterosexual environment. Or homosexual environment.
I don't think children should be in any sexual environment.
Just let them be kids, for crying out loud.

@tommika being a firefighter has no reflection or reference to sexuality or sexual preference. It's about a vocation. Queer ideology is not that.

You had better not take your kids to any pantomimes then...

@YeahOkWhatever the pantomime Dame originated because women weren't allowed on stage. Just like principle boys (women dressed as lead boy) originated through laws prohibiting child actors. This is a tradition that continues.

What's the relevance to drag story time?

Because it's ultimately a form of drag regardless of the origins. Certainly at any panto I've been to.....

@YeahOkWhatever but pantomime is about entertainment. We are talking about storytelling in schools. What is the purpose of drag here?

Don't be pathetic. The teaching union voting positively for a motion that included the introduction of drag queen story time in schools.

The NEU has zero decision-making power in schools (I am a member). Just because some members (and most of us don't bother voting in these things) have said they would be theoretically in favour, doesn't mean they have the power to actually organise anything.

I would be interested to know the number of schools that have actually held a drag queen storytime during the school day. I am guessing zero.

Not zero, as Scottish MP Mhairi Black attended an LGBT event alongside a drag performer called Flow Job in a primary school in 2020. That got a lot of extremely negative publicity at the time, so may have put other schools off. https://www.scotsman.com/education/row-over-flowjob-drag-act-invited-to-speak-at-scottish-primary-school-1889329

Re firefighter story hour, I'm delighted that some libraries are doing this. The example linked to, however, was in the US. Most of us here are talking about the UK. Are there are any such initiatives here?

I agree with @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - how many would there have been if it were not for all the pushback from women's groups and groups on school safeguarding? That is the point of complaint and discussion, to prevent it being a common occurance. If you think something is not appropriate for children you don't wait till it is everyhwere before getting round to discussing it. the library dildo monkey would no doubt have been hired elsewhere if there had not been complaints. What is worrying is that there are employed adults in schools and libraries who book these acts and have to have it pointed out to them by parents and the pressure groups that this is not ok. In the heads of some adults currently employed in children faciing services there is a real lack of safeguarding or the concept of a non-sexualised childhood.

It is great if we are managing to stop the DQSH in schools but where is the weeding out of the adults who make the bookings who perhaps should not be in their jobs or at least need some serious re-training?

There was the girls school that hosted a drag queen for Pride. Not quite DQSH, but along the same lines.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4622222-drag-queen-at-wimbledon-high-school

Isle of Man: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11800751/Sex-education-suspended-Isle-Man-school-drag-queen-tells-pupil-73-genders.html

'A school has suspended its sex education curriculum after a drag queen guest reportedly told pupils there were 73 genders and made a child who argued that there are 'only two' leave the classroom.'

For those so dead against, is it impossible for you to imagine that this could also just be, yknow, fine? Because IME it always has been. The drag queens weren't grotesque parodies of women. They were men in fabulous makeup reading perfectly acceptable stories to kids. Kids were happy, parents were happy. No sexual element whatsoever.

Where is your flexibility of thinking?

A school in Wales:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/17/drag-queen-teaches-pupils-conversion-therapy-spectacular-safeguarding/

'A drag queen who posted on social media about "orgies" and said that "love has no age” was invited into a school in what campaigners labelled a “spectacular safeguarding fail”.'

Primary school in London:

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/drag-queens-visit-primary-school-23243677

@ArabeIIaScott you've got some way to go to tar every drag queen with the same brush, no matter how many links you manage to link

A nursery school:

Eh? Some posters have asserted that this has not happened. I'm just posting some links to demonstrate that it certainly has, and does happen.

In response to this:

'I would be interested to know the number of schools that have actually held a drag queen storytime during the school day. I am guessing zero.'