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Bristol Post

National

Ellie Kendall

Disruption and 'fears for safety' at Drag Queen Story Hour library tour protests

Aida H Dee Bristol Bristol Live Libraries Police United Kingdom

Protesters have caused disruption to a number of library events today (July 28) and some at the events have expressed concerns for the safety of the staff, artists and even families involved. Drag Queen Story Hour UK was set to see drag queen Aida H Dee perform some of her own stories to young children and their parents at a select few libraries in Bristol, as part of the Story Hour's summer tour across the country.

The tour began in Reading on Monday, however protesters stormed the event - some with their own children - to protest, which meant police had to get involved and escort the drag queen, who grew up in Bristol, to her next event location while forming a human wall to protect her from assault or any protesters carrying out a 'citizen's arrest'.

The protests in Bristol today saw protesters both for and against the event holding flags, carrying banners and even playing music. Placards from the opposing group had messages such as 'stop grooming kids' and 'child abuse' written upon them, while trans-rights activists and others in support of drag queens and the LGBTQ+ community in general held up banners stating that 'drag is art' and chanting that 'drag queens are welcome here'.

A large crowd of protesters stood outside of Henleaze Library, where the first event was due to take place at around 11am, at least one of the people protesting against the story time event had brought their own child with them, who could be seen holding up a banner which read "this ends now". Mere metres from them, parents and their young children queued up to enter the story time, some telling a Bristol Live reporter on the scene that they had come along because it was a "fun event that's not a sexual thing, not a risk at all" and that the protests were "completely unnecessary".

One local protester, who was for the event going ahead, told Bristol Live: "This is my local library and honestly I'd just like this reading to be an event where I can take my local siblings. And I'm just so sad to hear that it's being disrupted by people who don't even live in this area and who aren't bringing their children. The divide is quite strong between the two sides."

Another local protester, this time against the event, said: "I'm very much against the brainwashing of children. Kids gotta be kids. They don't need to be programmed or have ideas put in their minds. No."

While debates were ongoing outside, gradually parents and children were being checked in using their pre-bought tickets and allowed to enter the library. Officers from Avon and Somerset Police had also created a barrier between the two sides, in order to avoid any violent confrontation.

Shortly after 11am, the scheduled time for the event to start, it was reported the event had still not begun and allegedly Aida H Dee hadn't made it to the venue. The first reading in Bristol was later cancelled, however the second - at Hillfields Library - was still due to go ahead as planned.

Protesters from both sides made their way to Hillfields Library where, at first, only a small crowd could be seen gathered along with police. As parents began to enter the premises with their young children, however, more and more protesters were seen crowding around the entrance as, yet again, they began holding up their flags and banners - and blasting out music.

One woman at the event, who did not wish to be named, said: "It feels a lot like the nineties, when gay people were being told they were paedophiles and Thatcher brought Section 28 in to stop any mention of gay people in schools. It feels a lot like that and that's quite scary if you're gay or trans or anything that's not straight.

"For me this is quite scary and I think for a lot of people seeing this organised, homophobic, transphobic act, it's confusing and I try to understand perspective. But there are people here talking about marriage and how it should only be between a man and a woman and a lot of people here are anti-vax, so I think that's how they've organised this.

"And the pro Drag Queen Story Time people are here to defend because they're worried about intimidation, so I think that's what's going on here."

Among protesters was Dario, a Catholic man from London, who had travelled especially for the event, which he said he was very much against. He told Bristol Live: "There has to be a creator of the universe. I can't accept the idea that the universe creates itself, as such there has to be a creator. And it wouldn't be very interesting or logical for a creator to just be like 'oh right OK I'm just going to create this world and there's going to be no rules, you just do what you want' - that wouldn't make any sense.

"And I'm very happy that in that sense we've received the Bible and the church to tell us exactly what God's opinion is about moral corruption in this form. He makes it very clear in Genesis that man and woman are created - there's no in betweens, there's no mixtures, there's nothing.

"He makes it very clear in the bible that he's not interested in sodomy, he's not interested in any kind of moral corruption of this kind.

"The death penalty isn't currently acceptable but there is a moral justification for us. So yeah, that's why I'm here. I'm praying for these people - these ANTIFAs, these drag queens and such - they were made in the likeness of God in the sense that there is a sense of beauty inside them.

"These people who are afflicted by these conditions - same sex attraction and all that stuff - they've been given a huge privilege and I actually envy them quite a lot, I really do because when God gives you something like that he's like 'right how much are you willing to defend me' in the sense that (I'm not attracted to other men) but if I was I'd be like 'right God's given me a pretty big cross to carry' and it's my job to say 'I'm going to live the rest of my live trying to fight against this temptation'.

"And when I die, right, God's going to be like 'I handed you this huge task, made you attracted to all these other men and stuff and you never gave in'. And that would be a beautiful thing, for God to be like 'well done'."

During the protests at Hillfields, one person was arrested reportedly for assault after attempting to swipe a phone out of the hands of someone from another group. The protesters have now moved on to the third and final event of the day in Stockwood.

What is Drag Queen Story Hour?

Attending six libraries across two days in the city (July 28/29), it will see the Storytime Drag Queen, Aida H Dee, reading stories with the aim of 'engaging children's creativity and love for reading by giving them a brand-new, positive experience, one page at a time, all the while learning and communicating'.

Aida H Dee describes themselves as an ADHD and autistic 27 year old, who has been patron of Autistic Inclusive Meets London for over two years. She is a published author of two children's books, has appeared as an official act for The British Museum during The Queen's Jubilee, has a five star Edinburgh Fringe act, has been featured on Forbes Magazine for being an activist for neurodivergence, and has recently been shortlisted as Local Leader Of The Year 2022 by PinkNews for the nationally acclaimed PinkNews Awards.

What's more, in 2020 she was nominated as runner-up Achiever Of The Year by GeniusWithinCIC, and has already performed close to 100 Story Hours to hundreds of children in recent months. And Bristol is a location on the tour very close to her heart.

"I came out as gay in Bristol 10 years ago," she said. "I lived in Bristol and went to school in Bristol, specifically St Brendan's Catholic College!

"So I'm excited to return to a city I once called home and perform my books to children there."