Right-wing protesters clash outside Tate Britain over drag queen story telling for children
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Far-right protesters have clashed outside Tate Britain over a children’s drag queen storytelling event.
The Tate has hired Aida H Dee to read stories to the children, the gallery website describes the artist as “Europe’s first drag performer to read stories to children in a nursery”.
The act of narration has been carried out despite the large police presence abroad and the clashes between both groups of protesters.
Both sets of protesters have been photographed in physical altercations as police try to keep the groups apart from each other.
Far-right protesters wear T-shirts with slogans such as ‘boyfriend dogs not children’, while banners such as ‘Don’t let the far right divide us’. Counter-protesters hold back LGBTQ+ communities.
Right-wing protesters clash with counter-protesters outside the Tate Britain gallery in London in response to a ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’
The pop-up event involves drag queen and activist Aida H Dee reading stories to children.
The Aida H Dee storytelling event went ahead (pictured) despite a large police presence outside
Anti-fascists and members of Stand up to Raciscm demonstrate against the Patriotic Alternative protest at Tate Britain
In honor of LGBTQ history month, Aida H Dee was hired to perform for children
Tate describes Dee on his website as a “queer, neurodivergent, ADHD hero of literature.”
The protests were organized by groups that encouraged attendees to “mask up”
The Transgender Action Block called for people to join a counter-protest, but said “these people are dangerous” and encouraged those in attendance not to be “identifiable”.
The drag queen’s real name is Seb Samuel, and she’s been on a tour called Drag Queen Story Hour UK, which has been the subject of protests in several places.
Samuel unleashed anger after old social media posts came to light, where he made a rude joke about an orgy, and another about how ‘love has no age’.
In an equally nasty – and now deleted – offer, last November, Samuel threatened to release a reviewer’s personal information and, in April, directed an abusive threat at ‘Terfs’.
Other questionable images he has posted include a photo of a pubescent boy and an older man accompanied by a comment that gay clubs are “wild” since you can “meet both guys and be told they’re both 23.”
In an open letter to the Tate’s board of trustees, Conservative Party Life Fellow Emma Nicholson described the event as ‘propaganda’ and ‘nonsense on stilts’.
Baroness Nicholson said: “Getting adults to read to children is a wonderful thing, of course, but why does it have to be a man pretending to be a woman?”
The MP concluded the letter by saying: ‘These are children. Will they be entertained by murderers, pedophiles, terrorists, furries and other fetishists so that their parents have to explain why they can’t keep the eccentric and colorful cartoon character they’ve seen promoted?’
Sab Samuel (pictured), acting as his flamboyant alter ego ‘Aida H Dee’, a play on the neurological disorder ADHD
A protester wears a T-shirt that reads ‘boyfriend’s dogs, not children’ as a police officer stands in front of her
Piers Corbyn was present at the protest and was photographed speaking to the crowd.
There have been outbreaks of violence outside the gallery.
A petition against the event was signed by more than 3,500 after being created by the Art Not Propaganda group.
The petition demands that the Tate stop imposing “gender ideology” on children and asserts that, as a state-funded institution, the Tate is accountable to the public.
Previously, a Tate spokesperson said: ‘We do not program artists to promote particular points of view, or to reconcile differing points of view.
‘Our galleries offer a broad program and visitors have the freedom to choose which aspects they relate to.’
Claire Loneragan of the Women’s Rights Network previously said: ‘Drag Queen’s story time is a far cry from the innocuous presence many people assume.
“Aside from the fact that drag is sexualized adult entertainment, children are already being force-fed gender ideology; drag further normalizes this in the adult world and confuses them.”
