A woman was arrested in Ontario while protesting just outside a church hosting a “family friendly” drag show titled Hallow-Queen & Pump-King Spooktacular.
“I’m protesting grown adults who want to dress in lingerie and dance in front of children,” the woman said.
“You’re supposed to protect the children,” she told police.
Subsequently, the OPP arrested the woman for “swearing and yelling in a public place,” and the event proceeded as planned.
The Trinity United Church of Canada in Gravenhurst held the drag show.
Drag shows are events that glamorize and sexualize transgenderism. The events include a cross-dressing individual in provocative clothes who dances with sexual undertones in front of others. Sometimes audience members give the performer cash mid-performance, as happens at strip clubs.
The shock of a church hosting the event is minimized after viewing The United Church’s website.
“Even as we seek to eliminate sexism, misogyny, homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia, we know that we, too, are guilty of these forms of oppression. We acknowledge the roles that Christianity and religion in general play in such oppression,” the website reads.
The United Church’s website also showcases a “40 days of anti-racism” theme, where individuals associated with the church write blogs about what anti-racism means to them. One individual talks about “colonial language.” Another one debases herself because of her skin tone.
“As a White person, I had never before been told so explicitly that a space was not for me…. What would racialized people have to say that couldn’t be said in the presence of White people? What did they know about my identity that I didn’t? How will I learn if I’m being excluded? Why could no White person, even me, be trusted? What is it that makes White people unsafe?”
Drag shows for children are a burgeoning cultural issue.
Earlier this year, several sponsors withdrew from the Boise Pride festival in America after learning of a planned drag show for kids.
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