Drag Storytime Dragged Down By Far-Right Protesters

Drag storytime events have been targeted by far-right groups with violent threats and protests, forcing over ten events in the past six months to be cancelled in Australia or move online.

These campaigns convey a unified message: “Let our kids be kids”, “protect our children”, and “Hands off our kids”, while unfairly labelling performers and supporters of these events as “paedophiles.”

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On today’s episode of The Briefing, we talked to Drag queen Frock Hudson about their experience after several of their story time events were cancelled.

It’s exactly what’s written on the box, a drag entertainer reading story books, just like kids already experienced during storytimes,”

Hudson said.

Hudson said drag storytime allowed children to engage with stories and characters in a fun and inclusive environment.

It’s just another fun little element that occurs when different members of the community or different people from multicultural faces come and read stories as well,”

they said.

However, being a drag storyteller was not simple. Hudson was targeted by the far right with protests, experiencing numerous online harassments and hate comments. 

The problem with what’s going on now is that people are actually targeting and harassing online individuals with misinformation and false information. “

Hudson said.

Hudson said their personal details were shared, along with their drag pictures. They also said libraries and councils would receive complaints and calls to cancel the event.

There was a time when they were kicked out of the library and forced to read stories outside.

What we do is train people to be a passive resistance to this, to have some resilience and just create a rainbow barrier,”

they added.

We’ve got angel wings and bright colours, and dance to camp music and surround an event where something like this is going on. That’s being targeted and letting the event happen. Let kids be kids.”

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