Swedish populists have been compared to Russian president Vladimir Putin after attempting to halt a drag queen story time show for children in the town of Trelleborg.
Members of the populist Sweden Democrats (SD) were compared to President Putin by Green Party spokeswoman Märta Stenevi after they attempted — unsuccessfully — to have a drag queen show for children cancelled at a library in Trelleborg.
“The rhetoric we hear could have come directly from Vladimir Putin’s mouth,” Stenevi alleged.
“It’s… not unexpected. This is exactly what we see in authoritarian regimes and leaders when you start to suspect and attack LGBTQI people,” she added, according to a report by public broadcaster SVT.
Sweden Democrats party secretary Mattias Bäckström Johansson defended the SD’s attempt to have the drag queen show cancelled, saying: “These are grown men dressed up as women, who have names like ‘Miss Shameless’ and ‘Winewhore’, who are supposed to talk about norms with sexual elements for children who are two to seven years old. I think it goes without saying that you should see the inappropriateness of it.”
The dispute follows the Russian government recently expanding existing laws against the promotion of LGBT “propaganda” in books, television, films, and social media.
Despite the SD’s efforts to have the drag queen story time cancelled, the cultural committee in Trelleborg voted earlier this week to have the performance go ahead.
“It is especially important that we in politics keep an arm’s length distance from culture. We set goals and then it is the officials who plan the business,” Centre Party politician Ola Olsson said in the wake of the decision, as if public libraries promoting drag events to children was no business of taxpayers’ elected representatives.
The two drag queens set to perform, ‘Lady Busty’ and ‘Miss Shameless’, have been the subject of controversy in the past in Sweden.
The pair have been performing for children in libraries for several years and have been active in the multicultural city of Malmo, where they have been performing since at least 2018.
Last month, a library employee in Malmo was subjected to alleged death threats linked to drag queen story ime performances following an appearance by Lady Busty and Miss Shameless in October.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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