U.K. Far-Right Takes Lesson from U.S. Protests Against Drag Queens
The Reading Chronicle, that he was protesting the tour as it was "sexualizing children."As protesters unfurled a banner reading: "Welcome groomers" outside the library, two women who had pretended to be attendees disrupted the reading inside the building, calling Samuel an "adult entertainer" as they terrified parents and children in the process, according to Samuel.
At least one mother was seen crying after the incident, Samuel said.The term "groomer" is a homophobic stereotype used to falsely smear queer people and their supporters as child sex abusers.At the end of the session, Samuel left the library with police protection as demonstrators hurled abuse.Recent angry confrontations around events involving drag queens in the United Kingdom follow a disturbing precedent from the United States, where right-wing extremist groups ambush similar events and conservative politicians have pledged to criminalize adults taking children to drag shows.It has coincided with a wider movement to curtail rights related to bodily autonomy, ranging from abortion access to gender-affirming care, punctuated by a wave of anti-LGBTQ bills and Justice Clarence Thomas questioning marriage equality as the US Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in the United States."This is the same hate (as seen in the US) but just in a different context ...
