In Quebec, the right wing of reaction attacks drag queens

” The place for drag queens is in cabarets, not libraries “. On April 2, a demonstration was held in Quebec against Barbada, a famous Canadian drag queen, who has been reading fairy tales to school children in the province since 2016. While she had to host a new ” story time in the city of St. Catherine, Barbada was to perform in a secret place, for security reasons. Two weeks later, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party (which has no elected members of the National Assembly) has just filed a petition calling for the suspension of funding for drag queen activities in schools and community libraries.

A culture war with the false air of child protection

For our Radio-Canada colleagues, there is no doubt:hate against drag was imported directly from their US neighbors, whose chronicles in recent months have been studded with numerous restrictive measures against drag queens and kings. The media evoke a culture war:

“On the one hand we have the progressive values ​​of diversity, inclusion, tolerance. On the other hand, we have more conservative values, which believe that progressivism goes too far. There’s sort of a backlash to all the social developments of the last few years, and I think the protest movement against drag queens there is part of that larger phenomenon. »

Frédérick Nadeau, CEFIR researcher, quoted by Radio-Canada

In fact, the conservative right is waging a fierce fight against drag shows in the United States, in the name of an alleged protection of the youngest: in 2022, activists of the far-right group Proud Boys attacked reading sessions animated by drag queens in some public libraries, crying out for brainwashing and accusing speakers of being potential” pedophiles ». This The child protection argument is the conservatives’ favorite wild card who use it at all costs to better camouflage their uninhibited LGBTQIA-phobia.

The sex education of children in question

It is on this same logic that Eric Duhaime, leader of the Canadian Conservative Party, has supported the initiative of a petition aimed at limit drag queen-led activities to ” protect children ». Like his American colleagues, the politician is convinced that these interventions, which are very popular in Canada, are ” a disguised way to promote sexual diversity and influence the judgment of younger people “. A certain vision of the traditional nuclear family is also at stake, analyzes Frédérick Nadeau, which would be compromised by models such as those embodied by drag queens.

In the background, there is also the thorny issue of the sex education of the youngest, which raises many fears among conservatives, who wish to entrust this task to parents to prevent their children from being ” pervert through discussions of gender identities and/or sexual orientation. An argument heard many times during the demonstration against Barbada, as reported by Radio-Canada: “ Today [les drag-queens] they want to educate. It’s not their role, they’re not trained for it “. Absolute irony, when we know that in parallel with his practice of drag, Barbada teaches music in elementary school.

In France, drag queen entertainment for children is also in the crosshairs of conservatives: in December 2022, La Maryposa was the target of a torrent of hate after the announcement of her participation in a cabaret for the little ones. Harassment fueled in particular by a debate (without the first interested party) on the set of Don’t touch My TV.