Birmingham's Director of Public Health promoting drag queen to kids

[middleager]

Birmingham's Director of Public Health, Dr Justin Varney, is promoting a video that teaches children to wash their hands.

This video is by a drag artist called Cheryl Hole.

I find this really inappropriate. It's like any excuse to be 'alternative' let's use a drag queen to explain it.

Really inappropriate choice of name.

If this is what he likes then fine, but why share it?

Also concerned that in his position he is promoting this which refers to women as a 'hole' and in charge of the region's healthcare for girls and women.

twitter.com/DrJV75/status/1244018614266667008?s=20

That name alone should be a warning sign

Yup that seems to be the trend. Drag as a kids thing.

Why would somebody in his position deem it suitable to tweet this in a professional capacity?

People - quote often - who don’t have kids and are living the lifestyle.

Drag is adult entertainment. Like porn is for adults. It's not difficult to understand.

The people advocating such regressive messages always seem to be male and in positions of power.

Funny that.

Why are you claiming that he "is promoting a video that teaches children to wash their hands." ?

I've just watched the clip and it's a message of encouragement. There's nothing that could be construed as teaching anyone to wash their hands.

And why do you believe it's aimed at children? There's one reference to "kids" and another to "divas". The content doesn't appear to be aimed at children.

And he posted it on his personal Twitter feed, not on a work-related account.

Is Dr Varney related to Marcel Varney from Barnardos?

"So kids, you gotta keep washing your hands" seems pretty clear message to me.

This is the same account he publishes his professional guidance from, followed by parents, schools etc.

It is a very child directed thing through these days - library and school story times, the drag show expo seemed to have a lot of kids attending, drag kids on bbc kids website... they would have scared the hell out of me as a child.

Trying to be balanced here. He does refer to his job title in his bio. The drag artist (from Ru Paul's drag race) only uses the word kids once and nothing suggests it's aimed at children and it's talking about the necessity to take guidelines seriously.

Varney's special interest is LBGT health. What bemuses me is the underlying idea that LBGT people need therir own special message from one of their own in order to absorb the message. (Nobody mentioned gay people so it doesn't apply to me)

Don't like drag queens but in this instance I don't think he's actually done anything wrong. It's just another celebrity endorsement of the government's measures.

Imnobody - I have watched the video and I agree. I dont think it is aimed particularly at kids and more people from different parts of the community passing on this message the better.

Varney is self-isolating with CV symptoms. Varney is wfh and an article from the Bham paper makes it clear that this video and another one were produced on Varney’s request. Varney is also retweeting content that I can’t see (might be my prudish internet filter) from an apparent trans group. I cannot comment on whether it was health advice or otherwise!
I hope that Varney gets well soon but maybe also thinks about the way this appears..

It's about validation:

TransBareAll
@TransBareAll
6h
Things are tough for us all right now and they can be made harder if you're isolating with family members who are not supportive of you being trans or non binary. Why not check out the validation station. Please look after yourself, remember you are loved and appreciated