Drag queens forced to stop reading Dear Zoo to children at library

15 comments

1. Funny how people allegedly care about kids when they want to remove lgbt books or block drag queens reading to kids, but they never care enough to actually look after the kids / spend time with them / read to them or help them in any other way.

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3. I say this with zero malice, but why has drag readings to kids become this weird battleground? As a kid I dont really remember anyone coming into schools to read books to us. Why has this issue become such a hot button? I know the usual counter-arguements of “kids like performance” and “reading to kids is always great” and I appreciate those. 

4. Would Lily Savage or Mrs Doubtfire be as culturally relevant now if they came out? I feel if either of those were a thing now they’d be massive targets for the right. Mrs Doubtfire would absolutely be the target of a hell of a lot of hate

5. Should’ve advertised it as Pantomime Dame Story Hour. I’m sure the sort of person who makes these assumptions is less than clear on the difference, but panto is middle-class and respectable so that’s perfectly fine, isn’t it?

6. Madness. If you don’t want your kids to go, they don’t have to go.

   Fucking rowling just needs to get a hobby.  Actively hurting a lot of folk who do no harm, for fucking what. Drag queens ain’t even in the nuanced topic of gender identity.

   Its madness, drags been a cultural thing in the UK for decades. Can’t remember anyone getting mad at Paul O Grady, or the panto.  But now everyone’s outraged as the wizard lady got into Twitter rather than any other hobby like, i don’t know, spending her millions on a big model train set or whatever.

7. I’d just like someone to explain to me in plain and simple terms what the issue is with events like this, when there’s no issue with pantos.

   Both are still some fella, in a wig and a dress, telling a children’s story to children, usually alongside the parents who took them there.

   What makes one completely fine and the other a massive issue?

   Is it the change of venue from a theatre to somewhere else?

   Would you be happier if they weren’t sitting down and ran around a bit more?

   Do you secretly miss Bobby Davro being there as well?

8. I hope the people protesting this are stepping in to fill the void left by the drag queens then. Being read to by anyone is important, drag queens or not, losing out on such experiences is bad for kids and those protesters are putting their own prejudice above the development of children. Unfortunately, since I doubt these people can even read, these kids will just have lost some cultural enrichment instead.

9. We need to get more comfortable with an official policy of ‘fuck off then’

   I saw a thread about a trans worker in M&S and someone complains they (born male) spoke to their teenage daughter in the underwear department—M&S apologised and promised a female member of staff next time….disregarding whether they’re trans or not, if they were cis-male the response should’ve been ‘they’re a trained member of staff who was being courteous—fuck off’

   The same is drag story hour ‘we DBS checked them- get back in your box’

10. It’s funny how I never knew so many things were actually things.

    Also, what happens if the main characters in a story are drag queens and they want to do a reading in character? I feel like this is a loophole that must be exploited so I can laugh at the outrage amongst Daily Mail readers.

11. If you don’t want Drag queens reading to you kids, read to them yourself.

12. It’ll be nice if we stopped importing American ignorance and intolerance.

    It’s bad enough we’ve got Christian groups harassing women over their bodies, and groups obsessed with what’s in-between the legs of others due to some unhinged sexual perversion masquerading as a sudden moral interest in children.

    No child will care what and who is reading to them, just that someone or something is taking an interest in them. What are they going to replace the story times with, or have they not thought that far ahead? I imagine it would be someone who’s got all the colour and flair as beige.

13. >Northern Ireland’s Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons said the event was ‘not appropriate for children’ and had ‘compromised the perception of our public libraries as a welcoming and inclusive space for all.’

    Can someone explain to me what about a person (regardless of sexuality or gender or appearence) reading a damn book is not appropriate for children? The book isn’t explicit, it’s a childrens book for fucks sake. And how is a trans person being in a library compromising the perception of inclusivity? If you kick them all out with a police escort due to the psycho Christian protesters – that’s literally the opposite of being inclusive!

    I wish bowel obstructions on the protestors. That way they’ll have some idea of how intellectually constipated they are.

14. Suggestion for all the bigots and lunatics out there – if you don’t want your kids to go to a drag queen story hour – don’t take them.

    What other parents choose to take their kids to is absolutely none of your business.

15. “I raise my children the right way; insular, ignorant, full of fear and illiterate”

    Maybe social services need to look at those reporting and the views they impart on their kids. Personally if someone wants to read for my 6m, I couldn’t give a shit on your gender, it gives me some help and he will love it.

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