DQ Story Time kicked off in Bristol

[McDuffy]

I'm going to wade into the comments...!

Protesters try to arrest drag queen Sab Samuel

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2ad0798c-0e9d-11ed-93cf-b011fa7fe86b?shareToken=3c528b6084adfbc7a3f1da805c2c7ee5

“Lessons like [DQSH] are how we can create a more inclusive society.”

Evidence, please!

Drag queens have no place near or with children.

I've posted on twitter that it would be more inclusive to have people who break stereotypes, male nurses, female fire fighters, disabled dancers - you could have a different person each week.

They’re just men dressing up as women FGS! Shakespeare, anyone?

And why are they being paid to read stories to small children?

Why is the Times saying the protesters were from right wing groups? What's wrong with safeguarding? Drag Queens are adult entertainment, reading to small children shouldn't be sexualised

Panto Dames, Justin in Gigglebiz… performers. That’s all.

Do we know that they’re just doing their regular drag act and not making it age appropriate for a young audience at all? Or has that just been sensationalised?

That's not answering the question

How many women do you know who look like drag queens? They're exhibitionist men parading a grotesque parody of femininity for laughs, because, you know, being female is just so humiliating and funny.

Dames (well, in the old days, personally I think they've been well over the line in a couple of recent pantos I've seen - whilst absolutely fine in others), Justin etc. = aimed at children. Drag is adult entertainment.

Lets try it with something else - how about dance - everyone wears fairly revealing/skimpy costumes, but there's a fundamental difference between taking the kids to the ballet vs Burlesque no?

I don't remember anyone in Shakespeare twerking, or teaching children to twerk. Also I don't think any genitals have been flashed in Shakespeare either.

Also female actors are no longer thought to be prostitutes.

Drag is adult entertainment.

Its adult entertainment for homosexual men, its not homophobia to point out that an adult entertainer is not a suitable role model for children. That is a very basic safeguarding fail that the council employees who are authorising paymemt of these acts fail to recognise.

Its intresting to see safeguarding play out on twitter, so many beard accounts in support or indifferent don't have an answer when asked why would an adult entertainer want to involve children.

It is sexist homophobia to pretend that drag is the cultural pinnacle which represents LGBT because its adult male homosexual entertainment.

That being said the article looks as if it has been lifted off twitter. This protest will be seen as "Right Wing" not "Anti-Government" / "Left Wing" because protests outside US vaccination centers were by the US political right, which totally ignores the political reality that most protesters were public facing working class as the office class were not as impacted by vaccine refusal as working from home was possible.
The "arrest" move is always a stupid one as it is false imprisoning which is a serious arrestable offence.

More importantly the protesters should be protesting outside the council offices as they are the ones who control what is paid for, from public funds. If I remember correctly this council had elected members who had no problem with the Family Sex Show being staged so their and the whole council's "understanding" of any safeguarding policy is not translating into actions.

Is there such a thing as Drag King Story Time? If this is all about diversity and LGBTQ+ awareness, then DQSH ticks the G, T and Q+ and at a stretch the B boxes, but what about the L? What does DQSH offer the little girls who go along?

Your cultural ignorance is showing.

Have a guess why Shakespeare hired men to wear dresses on stage, when it would have been easier to hire a woman who owned her own dress?

PP, because we're talking about very young children, they all think the drag queen's are women anyway.

“Drag Queen Story Hour offers children a rich experience,” a spokesman said.

WTF!!

How many councils would hire a woman to read stories ti children dressed in the kind of clothes DQ wear to read to children

if it’s all about diversity, why don’t DQ read ti children wesring a dress, cardigan & flat shoes?

Abd if it’s really really about diversity why aren’t councils investing the same amount of money & devoting the same level of publicity to having people with disabilities or carers or people from other cultures read to children?

I think it needs careful safeguarding, and it absolutely mustn't become a blind spot where anything goes, for fear of offending.

But it definitely can be done safely and appropriately. I find it totally unacceptable for people to be attacking individuals like this when RuPaul is presented on early evening mainstream TV as family entertainment.

My biggest problem with this particular drag queen is his name and the fact that he thinks making ablist jokes about ADHD is OK because he has ASD (his claim) plus all the problems with dqsh.
I was able to successfully block my DS's school PTA from hiring him for a school fair unfortunately not because drag is not suitable for children but because of his choice of name and that took some doing and pointing out that just because I have ASD doesn't mean that it's OK for me to take the piss out of someone who has spinabifida just because we both have a disability (head of the pta has a niece with SB) for them to agree that he was not suitable, but they are looking for a "more suitably named Queen for next time ".
If the people who are arranging this sort of event won't listen to sense about dqsh then we need to push them on other things like encouraging disability discrimination (you know things that they do care about) as it works since your not talking about banning drag just that particular artist. I have yet to come across a single queen who is involved with dqsh that doesn't have a specific issue that can be pointed at in a similar way whether that's their stage name, website/Facebook page or content

Also, it's not up to the drag queens themselves to promote every single other minority category. If you want even more inclusivity, then your issue is with the library/Council, not with individual readers.

@Hoardasurass is it just the name that you found offensive, or were there inappropriate jokes being made about ADHD and/or spina bifida?

Lots of kids are being encouraged to think of ND as their "superpower", I don't see anything wrong with the name by itself.

If someone decided to work in adult entertainment that's a lifestyle choice.

If/when they decide their employment prospects include promoting themselves to children then anyone can take issue with that decision.

“Drag Queen Story Hour offers children a rich experience,” a spokesman said. “Lessons like this are how we can create a more inclusive society.”

😂😂😂😂😂

What, exactly, does a male performer of adult sexualised entertainment wearing ugly outfits and makeup as a grotesque parody of women have to offer children in terms of a rich experience? Is there any actual evidence that presenting men who engage in sexualised performances for money as role models to children helps create a more inclusive society?

This.

The kids won't remember any of it anyway.

It's all about the performers experience and the venues' opportunity to virtue signal. The kids are an irrelevance.