A Drag Queen has defended the “story time” programme for children, saying on GB News: “That's not something you would say to a clown."
Drag Queen Story Hour UK will visit almost 70 events in 20 areas across Britain, running sessions for three to 11-year-olds.
But the sessions have been slammed by some people, with protesters recently flocking to events in Bolton and Norwich.
Vanity Von Glow
GB News
Screenshot from a promotional video of Drag Queen Story Hour UK
Drag Queen Story Hour UK
Explaining the idea, Drag Queen Vanity Von Glow said on GB News: “It’s essentially an initiative in which Drag Queens who are bright and colourful performing the role, similar to a clown, want to read to kids as something for the kids to do, taken at face value that’s all it is.
“I can understand why people have become upset by this consternation around it but I think they have a misapprehension about what drag is in these contexts.
“Because if you come to my show its quite spicy, there’s a lot of adult humour.
“But there is a whole sub-genre of British traditional drag in panto which is perfectly acceptable for kids and it’s kind of inappropriate to be protesting that.”
GB News host Bev Turner then asked: “It does make people suspicious that’s why they say ‘why does she want to be there? What is her ulterior motive? Why doesn’t she do it as her normal self without a dress?”
To which Vanity replied: “Well that's not something you would say to a clown and it’s not a suspicion that you would superimpose on to a comedian who is maybe doing comedian story art.
“The art form of drag does involve being dressed in colourful and gender-bending ways.”