How drag queen readings became a target for England’s far-right
In footage shared online, anti-vaxxer Michael Chaves is seen berating parents – some of whom are carrying babies – arriving for Drag Queen Story Hour UK, an event at which books promoting compassion and inclusion are read to the children. Chaves goes on to falsely accuse Sab Samuel, who was performing that day as drag queen Aida H Dee, of being a pedophile. CNN contacted Chaves for comment; he did not answer.
As protesters unfurled a banner reading, “Welcome Groomers” outside the library, two women who had pretended to be attendees interrupted the reading inside the building, calling Samuel an “artist adult” as they terrified parents and children in the process, according to Samuel. At least one mother was seen crying after the incident, Samuel said.
The term “groomer” is a homophobic stereotype used to falsely defame homosexuals and their supporters by labeling them as child molesters.
At the end of the session, Samuel left the library under police protection as protesters hurled abuse.
“It’s the same hate (as you see in the US) but just in a different context…the same disgust, the same homophobia and the same transphobia,” said Samuel, who founded Drag Queen Story Hour UK, at CNN.
Extremist groups in Britain now feel emboldened by “a broader pushback against existing (queer) identities in public”, according to Tim Squirrell, online extremism expert and director of communications at the think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue ( ISD).
“Even people who are reasonably progressive in their beliefs and politics have become quite radical[in their opposition to] this thing, which I’m really, really worried about, especially in terms of the real risk of gay people existing in public, but in the United States we’ve seen it tied to a much broader attempt to roll back rights LGBT,” he told CNN.
Britain’s Conservative leadership race has seen hopefuls embrace anti-trans rhetoric and promising policies that would undermine trans rights.
Trans people can potentially be excluded from plans to ban conversion therapy in the UK, while some religious and other anti-trans groups are campaigning against the teaching of what they call “the ideology of gender” or information about the existence of transgender and non-binary identities at school.
Drag queens have also been targeted by some feminists, who criticize them for what they perceive to be a mocking portrayal of women and for being over-sexualized.
Difficult expectations
Samuel said it was what inspired him to quit his job in marketing and start Drag Queen Story Hour UK three years ago. He said he wanted to provide children with various role models, which he didn’t have growing up. But he says death threats quickly followed, and Samuel said in 2020 he and his boyfriend moved away because anti-LGBTQ trolls “found out where I live”.
He said last week’s incident pushed him to the brink.
Speaking to CNN, Samuel vehemently denied accusations that children attending his shows were exposed to sexual language. What he does is a public good, he said.
Samuel, who has autism and ADHD, gave an example from the Reading event as to why he considers story hours so important. “Some autistic children and their parents had come to see me especially because they knew I had autism,” he said. When some of the young participants realized that his drag queen character, Aida H Dee, was a play on ADHD, a condition they also had, their faces lit up, he said.
“I could see the sparks in the synapses of their brains firing with joy… (they thought) that this person was amazing and just like me,” he continued.
Yet as anti-drag queen protests escalate, analysts are increasingly concerned about the extremist hate speech surrounding them.
Monday’s protest in Reading included anti-vaxxer Chaves as well as members of the anti-government sovereign citizens group Alpha Men Assemble, said Joe Ondrak, head of investigations at threat intelligence organization Logical.
Alpha Men Assemble is described by anti-extremist advocacy group Hope Not Hate as “attempting to establish a hard core of activists and has attracted the involvement of a number of far-right individuals”.
“I honestly thought what would happen next (is) some kind of opposition to the transition to green energy, but that kind of issue fell into the public discourse – so unfortunately the queer community became their target” , did he declare.
CNN has seen at least four anti-vax Telegram channels, including one with more than 17,000 subscribers, sharing fliers and messages protesting Drag Queen Story Hour.
When asked why groups that appear to facilitate hate speech are allowed to operate on their platform, a Telegram spokesperson said, “Telegram is a free speech platform where people are invited to peacefully express their opinions, including those with which we do not agree”. The spokesperson added that “messages that glorify or encourage violence or its perpetrators are explicitly prohibited by Telegram’s terms of service and are removed by our moderators.”
As for the white nationalist groups present at the protests, such as Patriotic Alternative, ISD’s Squirrell described them as “deeply homophobic”.
They believe that “whites are being systematically replaced by non-whites in Western countries,” he said. They say a “dark cabal of Jews” is encouraging white people to embrace queer identities as a means of lowering the white birth rate – views rooted in neo-Nazi ideology – Squirrell added.
In response to CNN’s request for comment, a spokeswoman for Patriotic Alternative said, “Drag queens are often caricatures of highly sexualized women and we believe that children should be able to enjoy their childhoods and should not be subjected to LGBT indoctrination.”
The protests continued last Thursday, when Samuel visited libraries in Bristol, a city in south-west England known for its liberal attitudes.
Rosie, a local parent who asked CNN not to use her last name out of concern for her safety, told CNN she decided to bring her young daughter to the event because she thought it was important to learn about inclusivity and different communities.
“I love drag queens, I think it’s fun, it’s art, it’s a laugh and something different that involves books and stories,” she said.
“It was just awful. I expected it to be a joyous thing, considering it was Pride a few weeks ago in Bristol.” Instead, she said the harassment of protesters was “very retrograde and (I feel) naive to think there has been progress”.
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