Drag Queen Story Times picketed by protestors who claim that it grooms children and promotes paedophilia

[smokedout]

Ordinarily yes. I'm not sure whether many anti-fascists will want to put their necks on the line over middle-class baby raves with drag dancers but it won't be anybody else.

Your insistence that this was some kind of deliberate provocation in the culture wars just makes you look out of touch tbh. Most people don't give a shit about the culture wars and neither do they think something which has been a staple of prime time family entertainment for several years now is a threat to children. Drag is everywhere to the point of it being a cliche. I went to a drag show last year in a not very well known London pub and there was a load of teenage girls there (with mums in tow) who'd come from out of town to see one of the performers who I think might have been on Drag Race once. It's mainstream to the point it's pissing a lot of drag queens off because a bunch of straight middle class people keep turning up and dominating events in LGBTQ venues.

It's no more a culture war than people necking e's and going to raves was, or queuing up to see Star Wars, it's just fashionable and popular at the moment. And whilst you may be comfortable with allowing fascists to police what kinds of events should be held and using the threat of physical force to shut them down I suspect many anti-fascists are not prepared to cede that ground. Because they won't stop and go home if they win this, they will escalate. It'll be adult drag shows next, then LGBTQ events. Should we wait until then to confront them, when they are stronger, more organised and bolstered by victory?

 

[iona]

It's mainstream to the point it's pissing a lot of drag queens off because a bunch of straight middle class people keep turning up and dominating events in LGBTQ venues.

Off topic but I went to a cabaret thing that included drag last year that was specifically put on as a T4T thing, and I'm not even someone who usually bothers about hanging out with other trans people or anything, but holy fuck it was so good

 

[ddraig]

Antifa will definitely be there.
For one thing, they'll be able to get a lift home with their folks and younger siblings once DQST is over.

your shit is showing again
own it and stop pretending you're not a fellow traveller

 

[Magnus McGinty]

He’s just a contrarian I think.

 

[ddraig]

He’s just a contrarian I think.

nope, acts like one but plenty of evidence now

 

[kenny g]

I doubt they'd build on drag queens in libraries. The baby stuff is literally a gift to them because different optics. You and others clapping it along whilst ignoring any potential danger.

Danger of what???

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Your insistence that this was some kind of deliberate provocation in the culture wars just makes you look out of touch tbh. Most people don't give a shit about the culture wars and neither do they think something which has been a staple of prime time family entertainment for several years now is a threat to children. Drag is everywhere to the point of it being a cliche. I went to a drag show last year in a not very well known London pub and there was a load of teenage girls there (with mums in tow) who'd come from out of town to see one of the performers who I think might have been on Drag Race once. It's mainstream to the point it's pissing a lot of drag queens off because a bunch of straight middle class people keep turning up and dominating events in LGBTQ venues.

It's no more a culture war than people necking e's and going to raves was, or queuing up to see Star Wars, it's just fashionable and popular at the moment. And whilst you may be comfortable with allowing fascists to police what kinds of events should be held and using the threat of physical force to shut them down I suspect many anti-fascists are not prepared to cede that ground. Because they won't stop and go home if they win this, they will escalate. It'll be adult drag shows next, then LGBTQ events. Should we wait until then to confront them, when they are stronger, more organised and bolstered by victory?

You’re like Rob Ray’s twin being able to argue me into a position I can’t move from. I’m sure a decade or so ago I wouldn’t have given a shit so I blame me pushing 50 on my grumpiness.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Danger of what???

Fascist schemes gaining traction amongst the general populace. But Smokedout is right, folk can’t self censor due to the wishes of fascists.

 

[Orang Utan]

your shit is showing again
own it and stop pretending you're not a fellow traveller

Nah, he’s just a neuropedantic logic bro

 

[Magnus McGinty]

nope, acts like one but plenty of evidence now

He’s a boyo like you I think. Show a little solidarity.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I went to a drag show last year in a not very well known London pub and there was a load of teenage girls there (with mums in tow) who'd come from out of town to see one of the performers who I think might have been on Drag Race once. It's mainstream to the point it's pissing a lot of drag queens off because a bunch of straight middle class people keep turning up and dominating events in LGBTQ venues.

When I lived in Tottenham Hale many years back there was a pub not too far away which had like bowls of condoms on the shelves, but also a stage where there was a regular drag standup act, and the audience for that was 90% working class East End families I'd say. Not in a hipster way, and all generations there.

(eta: the point that I'd like to make being that even without recent popularisation of drag, it's been an accepted part of mainstream culture for a long time)

 

[bellaozzydog]

Fuckers at at it again

 

[ddraig]

It's disgusting
They were murdered recently behind a bar that used to be a drag venue

Man jailed for harassing drag queen months before his death

Donovan Clarkson chased Darren Meah-Moore down a Cardiff street one night and posted on Facebook daily about the drag artist's historic rape conviction, a court heard

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

[A380]

(eta: the point that I'd like to make being that even without recent popularisation of drag, it's been an accepted part of mainstream culture for a long time)

A good few hundred years.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

Not directly connected to drag - but strongly connected to this discussion anyway.

 

[A380]

Not bad news from my local rag.

 

[Tanya1982]

The story underneath that is absolutely horrifying. That it’s relegated to the bottom of the page, so a big picture of Titiana can be squeezed in above is a damning measure of how pervasive this vicious culture war has become. Octogenarians being murdered and left to decompose in their own homes by people they’d done nice things for used to get top billing.

 

[B.I.G]

The story underneath that is absolutely horrifying. That it’s relegated to the bottom of the page, so a big picture of Titiana can be squeezed in above is a damning measure of how pervasive this vicious culture war has become. Octogenarians being murdered and left to decompose in their own homes by people they’d done nice things for used to get top billing.

That is such a bizarre comment, I can only assume it to be a form of satire.

 

[Edie]

That is such a bizarre comment, I can only assume it to be a form of satire.

It’s a fair comment on how out of perspective the optics have become on this drag queens in library issue.

 

[Tanya1982]

That is such a bizarre comment, I can only assume it to be a form of satire.

No.

I think it’s bizarre that the hysteria and moral panic about drag queens has reached such obsessive proportions that there’s some related story in every daily newspaper, and often on television too, to the detriment of other things that are happening. If you like it, go, and have a great time. If you don’t, don’t - including to abuse and/or intimidate the performer and/or audience. This is a fundamentally unimportant issue, which people and media outlets have become completely obsessed by. Meanwhile, a sad murder story takes up the bottom fifth of the page so we can all see Titiana instead. It’s back to front.

 

[B.I.G]

It’s a fair comment on how out of perspective the optics have become on this drag queens in library issue.

No.

I think it’s bizarre that the hysteria and moral panic about drag queens has reached such obsessive proportions that there’s some related story in every daily newspaper, and often on television too, to the detriment of other things that are happening. If you like it, go, and have a great time. If you don’t, don’t - including to abuse and/or intimidate the performer and/or audience. This is a fundamentally unimportant issue, which people and media outlets have become completely obsessed by. Meanwhile, a sad murder story takes up the bottom fifth of the page so we can all see Titiana instead. It’s back to front.

It is a news story with a picture, should they have had a equivalent sized picture of the dead woman to balance it out?

 

[Tanya1982]

It is a news story with a picture, should they have had a equivalent sized picture of the dead woman to balance it out?

No, I don’t think so. I don’t know how you thought that was an extrapolation from A to B.

 

[B.I.G]

No, I don’t think so. I don’t know how you thought that was an extrapolation from A to B.

You referred to the story of the death of the old woman being relegated so a picture of a drag queen could be squeezed in.

What should I have extrapolated other than the fact you thought the position of the stories and the use of a picture should be reversed?

 

[Yossarian]

The Great Yarmouth Mercury apparently reported extensively on the murder, arrest, trial, and conviction, which probably made the front page - I think that latest story wasn't particularly prominent because there was nothing new to report other than a procedural move related to the inquest.

 

[JimW]

The Great Yarmouth Mercury apparently reported extensively on the murder, arrest, trial, and conviction, which probably made the front page - I think that latest story wasn't particularly prominent because there was nothing new to report other than a procedural move related to the inquest.

I'd seen the story elsewhere too, horrible and depressing.

 

[Tanya1982]

The Great Yarmouth Mercury apparently reported extensively on the murder, arrest, trial, and conviction, which probably made the front page - I think that latest story wasn't particularly prominent because there was nothing new to report other than a procedural move related to the inquest.

I think the point was the culture war aspect, where every publication now has to feature a drag queen story of some kind, preferably with pictures so people can tut in disapproval as if it’s a new thing. The culture war and its various fronts are wildly out of control, and the laser focus only feeds the fire.

 

[A380]

The story underneath that is absolutely horrifying. That it’s relegated to the bottom of the page, so a big picture of Titiana can be squeezed in above is a damning measure of how pervasive this vicious culture war has become. Octogenarians being murdered and left to decompose in their own homes by people they’d done nice things for used to get top billing.

TBF That story was front page news for a couple of weeks when it happened and again when the trial happened.

 

[Pickman's model]

The story underneath that is absolutely horrifying. That it’s relegated to the bottom of the page, so a big picture of Titiana can be squeezed in above is a damning measure of how pervasive this vicious culture war has become. Octogenarians being murdered and left to decompose in their own homes by people they’d done nice things for used to get top billing.

Yeh back in the days when people actually bought newspapers

 

[Tanya1982]

TBF That story was front page news for a couple of weeks when it happened.

I’m sure.

I think the use of the picture is just because it’s a drag queen. The picture editor of a local paper hasn’t used that to add context to what’s basically a court report. Its been used to outrage the likely readers of a local Norfolk coast newspaper. ‘And just in case you didn’t know what one looked like, here they are’. There’s a circus element to the presentation, and it’s not on the side of the drag queen, even if the basic legal facts of the case are.

You can’t move for drag queens these days - except in reality, where they really form no more of a role than they ever did.

 

[A380]

Yeh back in the days when people actually bought newspapers

We have quite a strong newspaper culture with the Mercury and the Eastern Daily Press, England's not all London you know...

I’m sure.

I think the use of the picture is just because it’s a drag queen. The picture editor of a local paper hasn’t used that to add context to what’s basically a court report. Its been used to outrage the likely readers of a local Norfolk coast newspaper. ‘And just in case you didn’t know what one looked like, here they are’. There’s a circus element to the presentation, and it’s not on the side of the drag queen, even if the basic legal facts of the case are.

You can’t move for drag queens these days - except in reality, where they really form no more of a role than they ever did.

Not sure I completely agree about the picture; its actually a picture of the IP in the case doing what the case was about. The article also reads like the Mercury have actually spoken to the IP and done some journalism.