Hate Group Targeting Local Area Drag Story Hours And Video Posting

[runnerguy1977]

There is an Anti-Drag Queen group of men that has been showing up at local public library Drag Story Hours to protest. There are about 8 of them, wearing white masks and holding signs that say, "Stop LGBT Supremacy" and "Drag is not for Kids". One of them will then use a megaphone to get the rest of them chanting. They video tape for a couple of minutes. They actually don't interact with people very much or affect the presentation happening inside the library. They do post the video on youtube and make it appear like they staged a protest.

I have reported the video but they don't seem to break any youtube rules although they are spouting anti-queer garbage and hate speech.

I could get queer supporters to flood their comments but I don't want to direct any traffic toward their videos. They currently have 5 or 6 videos up.

Yes, I could just leave it alone but silence seems like the wrong answer.

Anyone have suggestions for dealing with this and taking a stand against them?

 

[pat grimshaw]

Anyone have suggestions for dealing with this…

What kind of "dealing" do you want?

Do you want to slap them across the face? Or knee them in the groin? Or call the police?

 

[runnerguy1977]

What kind of "dealing" do you want?

Do you want to slap them across the face? Or knee them in the groin? Or call the police?

Something non-violent. The police have been called and they just use their presence. They don't intervene unless there is a physical threat.

I'm more interested in getting the videos removed from youtube. Would a surge in queer supportive comments cause them to stop or would that fuel their contempt?

 

[pat grimshaw]

The Youtube Corporation is already doing quite a bit of censorship.

Censorship doesn't resolve the problem (as you know when the US tried and failed to remove the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol between 1917 and 1933).

You talk about "fuel their contempt". It is possible to defuse their contempt by dealing with the catalyst for their behaviour. That catalyst being that exhibitionists are being allowed to exhibit themselves in front of vulnerable children who have no understanding of what they're being forced to look at.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Not clear how drag is LGBTQ. It's entertainment, traditionally men in women's attire adopting the persona of a diva, complete with salacious, sexual, and catty monologues befitting a night club.

None of that has been the realm of children's fiction. Taking it to underage audiences only hurts the LGBTQ cause and feeds animosity in the culture wars.

Drag is not a gay lifestyle, as drag performers do not live as females, only when entertaining. In the long history of it, both straight and gay men have performed it.

When youth or children portray a person of opposite gender, it may be for numerous reasons associated with theater, or even a young form of drag, but it isn't the same genre as adult burlesque humor. Traditionally, children and youth have been punished for speaking many of the crude sexual remarks that are the stock and trade of drag.

The taking of drag to children's venues is an intentional poke in the eye of heterosexuals. Don't do it. There are plenty of actual LGBTQ needs for understanding without being provocative just because it gives some gays jollies to piss off their local neighbors. There are two sides to the culture wars. Don't be the bad guys.

 

[pat grimshaw]

The taking of drag to children's venues is an intentional poke in the eye of heterosexuals

Poking the eye of anxious parents is sure to get a response.

 

[Kahaih]

Not clear how drag is LGBTQ. It's entertainment, traditionally men in women's attire adopting the persona of a diva, complete with salacious, sexual, and catty monologues befitting a night club.

None of that has been the realm of children's fiction. Taking it to underage audiences only hurts the LGBTQ cause and feeds animosity in the culture wars.

Drag is not a gay lifestyle, as drag performers do not live as females, only when entertaining. In the long history of it, both straight and gay men have performed it.

When youth or children portray a person of opposite gender, it may be for numerous reasons associated with theater, or even a young form of drag, but it isn't the same genre as adult burlesque humor. Traditionally, children and youth have been punished for speaking many of the crude sexual remarks that are the stock and trade of drag.

The taking of drag to children's venues is an intentional poke in the eye of heterosexuals. Don't do it. There are plenty of actual LGBTQ needs for understanding without being provocative just because it gives some gays jollies to piss off their local neighbors. There are two sides to the culture wars. Don't be the bad guys.

I'm not much aquatinted with the drag world, people or common performances.

From what I've seen, though, it appears to be predominantly about humor. Purposely going overboard portraying (mocking or glorifying?) women as loudmouth tramps.

So, how is doing this acceptable in the modern world? How is performing drag any different/better than performing blackface?

Surely reading to anyone anywhere in blackface would be widely condemned.

How are women not offended by drag performers?

 

[HoodedRat]

So, how is doing this acceptable in the modern world? How is performing drag any different/better than performing blackface?

Surely reading to anyone anywhere in blackface would be widely condemned.

How are women not offended by drag performers?

Lots of women are offended by the whole misogynistic, woman-face, concept of drag, but they tend to get condemned as homophobes and 'terfs' by uber-lefties.

Personally, I think that drag/woman-face is just as outdated and offensive as black-face. Hopefully it will eventually go the way of minstrel-shows.

 

[LeicsDom]

Not clear how drag is LGBTQ. It's entertainment, traditionally men in women's attire adopting the persona of a diva, complete with salacious, sexual, and catty monologues befitting a night club.

This is what annoys me. Drag acts have nothing to do with the T in LGBT. They have unwittingly been coerced into this horrible LGBTQ activism and entertainment will ultimately be the worse off for it

 

[Essex Boy]

Yes, I could just leave it alone but silence seems like the wrong answer.

Anyone have suggestions for dealing with this and taking a stand against them?

I think silence is actually the right answer. It will only work if everyone does it though. The protesters and the drag artistes are part of the same circus. If nobody took any notice they would all eventually drift away.

The taking of drag to children's venues is an intentional poke in the eye of heterosexuals.

I've thought all along that the point of drag story time was to épater le bourgeois as much as to entertain children. The trouble is, I can't decide if that's a bad thing or a bit of harmless fun. I could argue on both sides. Is dragging up as a low-rent Carmen Miranda any different from wearing a Santa Claus or furry animal costume? I mean just the costume, aside from what the performer does or says while wearing it.

Lots of women are offended by the whole misogynistic, woman-face, concept of drag, but they tend to get condemned as homophobes and 'terfs' by uber-lefties.

Personally, I think that drag/woman-face is just as outdated and offensive as black-face. Hopefully it will eventually go the way of minstrel-shows.

Well, there's an answer. (HoodedRat's post came in while I was still writing that last bit.) I can agree with that too.

When youth or children portray a person of opposite gender, it may be for numerous reasons associated with theater, or even a young form of drag, but it isn't the same genre as adult burlesque humor.

This came my way recently. Not strictly on topic, but it's relevant to the question of children's exposure to drag. This makes me clutch my pearls all right, but I'd be hard put to prove that it's doing any harm. It bothers me in the same way that grown men dressing like twelve-year-old kids bother me.

 

[HoodedRat]

Drag acts have nothing to do with the T in LGBT. They have unwittingly been coerced into this horrible LGBTQ activism and entertainment will ultimately be the worse off for it

And the T has nothing to do with the LGB.

The T is concerned with gender-identity; the LGB are concerned with sexual-orientation.

 

[HoodedRat]

The protesters and the drag artistes are part of the same circus. If nobody took any notice they would all eventually drift away.

​

I agree.

 

[rareboy]

Funny how the Brits love drag but not drag queens.

And ironic that it was the drag queens that finally fought back at Stonewall and other venues all those years ago to get all the 'macho' homos the rights they now enjoy.

Drag queen story hour is a safe space that gives a lot of children permission to imagine themselves as characters.

In Canada at least, the community of parents has come out in a number of towns and cities to outnumber the protestors. And that is what it takes.

 

[Essex Boy]

Funny how the Brits love drag but not drag queens.

We've had lots of well-loved female impersonators: Danny La Rue, Paul O'Grady, Barry Humphries, Dick Emery, Stanley Baxter, and going way back there was Mother Riley. None of them would have called themselves drag queens though (Dick Emery was a champion womanizer). Drag queen is a pejorative term and suggests something sleazy.

And ironic that it was the drag queens that finally fought back at Stonewall and other venues all those years ago to get all the 'macho' homos the rights they now enjoy.

I can't see that this is ironic or even relevant. Are cross-dressing storytellers in libraries repelling a physical attack? Surely they're just reading a book out loud while dressed as a Christmas tree.

Drag queen story hour is a safe space that gives a lot of children permission to imagine themselves as characters.

If you remove the words "drag queen" from that sentence it will still be true. Anything that feeds the imagination is good. An engaging reader/performer and an interesting story are the essential ingredients. If you haven't got those then all the slap and fishnet tights in the world won't make a bit of difference.

 

[Peloso]

Only eight of them? Get sixteen people and have a counter protest.

 

[Essex Boy]

Going back to the OP, the question was not are we for or against DQSH but how to neutralise the protesters. I said if everyone ignores it the whole phenomenon will eventually fade away (I mean DQSH, not just the protests). I think that's a long way off, it's still in the early stages. The earliest report I can find on the subject is dated 16 May 2017, and it's still growing. Obviously those who first organised these events didn't have a rule book other than existing laws and regulations, so as the idea catches on a consensus will gradually develop around what is acceptable and what is expected.

I have reported the video but they don't seem to break any youtube rules although they are spouting anti-queer garbage and hate speech.

YouTube is clearly at fault. What a shit show their editorial/censorship policy is! If the local people totally ignored the protesters, then to hell with all their hate speech. They're only talking to themselves. But YT helping them to reach a worldwide audience is only stoking the flames. I can't find the videos, which makes me wonder if they have in fact been pulled already. If not, can you give us a link so we could all report them?

 

[Peloso]

Throw rainbow glitter on them. That shit is hard to get off. They'll be finding that stuff in their cars, in their house, everywhere, for months.

 

[PalacePaul]

There is an Anti-Drag Queen group of men that has been showing up at local public library Drag Story Hours to protest. There are about 8 of them, wearing white masks and holding signs that say, "Stop LGBT Supremacy" and "Drag is not for Kids". One of them will then use a megaphone to get the rest of them chanting. They video tape for a couple of minutes. They actually don't interact with people very much or affect the presentation happening inside the library. They do post the video on youtube and make it appear like they staged a protest.

A counter protest would be a good idea.
The signs should read:

You are so brave
Take off your masks

 

[rareboy]

We've had lots of well-loved female impersonators: Danny La Rue, Paul O'Grady, Barry Humphries, Dick Emery, Stanley Baxter, and going way back there was Mother Riley. None of them would have called themselves drag queens though (Dick Emery was a champion womanizer). Drag queen is a pejorative term and suggests something sleazy.



I can't see that this is ironic or even relevant. Are cross-dressing storytellers in libraries repelling a physical attack? Surely they're just reading a book out loud while dressed as a Christmas tree.



If you remove the words "drag queen" from that sentence it will still be true. Anything that feeds the imagination is good. An engaging reader/performer and an interesting story are the essential ingredients. If you haven't got those then all the slap and fishnet tights in the world won't make a bit of difference.

You obviously don't know what drag time story hour is all about.

As I said, Brits love drag, they are just afraid of drag queens and crossdressing.

It isn't fishnets and sex.

But whatever.

 

[Kahaih]

Only eight of them? Get sixteen people and have a counter protest.

Be aware, though, that there may be permits to consider. Limits to the number of participants and/or available locations. There may be restrictions on the use of bullhorns/loudspeakers, as well.

Contact City Hall to find out, and while you're at it, find out if the protesters are acting within the law. Don't ever rely on the police to know these things.