Tate criticised over Priscilla, queen of the children’s story
TATE Britain is under fire for inviting a “storytime drag queen” to perform a half-term show for children.
The London gallery has invited Aida H Dee from Drag Queen Story Hour UK to tell stories “celebrating difference” to children, some of primary school age.
Parents have rounded on the Tate for “actively and one-sidedly promoting gender ideology to children”.
A petition signed by 3,000 people, many of them parents, calls for the free drag classes to be scrapped because they are “a performance for adults not children which depict women in a hypersexualised way”. The petition added: “Where are the safe-guarding checks? Why is this being funded with public money? How can parents trust that their kids will be safe at Tate?”
The Daily Telegraph understands that Art Not Propaganda, a group of parents and artists behind the petition, has formally complained to the Tate. Other groups including Safe Schools Alliance UK and the Family Education Trust have also raised concerns.
A sequin-dress drag act on Feb 11 will be performed by Sab Samuel, an autistic children’s author whose tour of 70 council libraries sparked furious protests last summer. A Tate Britain advert for families heading to London during the half-term holidays boasts that Samuel is “the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery”.
Samuel’s drag story sessions were stormed by protesters at council libraries in the summer, prompting police escort and library crisis talks. The advert goes on: “Aida H Dee is an ADHD, neurodivergent, queer hero of literature, theatre, and children’s entertainment.”
The Tate Modern is also laying on workshops for schools from this week until mid-march, including Amani, “a black trans-feminine person [who] blurs the lines of reality and fantasy”.
In a short statement, Drag Queen Story Hour UK said: “Only 3,000 signatures for one of the most internationally acclaimed museums in the world? Bit of a rubbish turnout isn’t it.”
A Tate spokesman said parents, carers and staff would be present, adding: “The performer... will read children’s books pre-selected by Tate. All bookings relating to events at Tate are carried out in accordance with our internal safeguarding and safe recruitment policies.”