A British comprehensive school has come under fire for hosting a controversial drag queen who has said that “love has no age” in lessons for 11-year-old children, in which he explained to the pupils the meaning of “queer identity”.
On Monday, the leading figure of the Drag Queen Story Hour UK organisation, 27-year-old Sab Samuel, who performs in drag under the stage name Aida H Dee, was invited to host a series of lessons for 11-year-old children at the Lewis School Pengam comprehensive school in Wales.
During the lessons, he reportedly explained to the young children how to “understand that queer is an identity”, what it’s like living as a gay person, and about the late American drag queen and gay rights activist Marsha P. Johnson, The Telegraph reported.
Demonstrating the confusion among the children, students reportedly asked Samuel if gay people could stop being gay, to which the drag queen replied “no”. Another allegedly asked: “Did you ever think about killing yourself?”
The appearance at the school sparked controversy after the Drag Queen Story Hour UK Twitter account reportedly posted and later deleted pictures of children watching the drag queen during the class.
Drag Queen Story Hour UK, which promotes its services for schoolchildren as young as five-years-old, has come under increasing scrutiny over the past year, with protests being staged across the country by activists and concerned parents, some of whom have accused the organisation of “grooming” children.
Sab Samuel, who claims to be autistic, has personally been criticised for fundraising for a rapist’s funeral, as well as previous social media posts in which he reportedly said that “love has no age” and another in which he shared a picture of a pubescent boy and an older man, with a cation claiming that gay clubs are “wild” as you can “meet both types and be told both are 23”.
Mr Samuel has attempted to defend his performances for children, saying that they may act as a “catalyst” for youngsters to start “living their true selves” and not experience the “horrendous mental health battle” that he claims to have endured as a child.
Commenting on the decision to host Samuel at the historic Lewis School Pengam, Shadow Education Minister Laura Anne Jones MS said that “it’s extremely concerning that this is happening in schools in Wales” and “highly inappropriate for him to be in this kind of environment”.
“The first question to ask is why is it necessary to have a drag queen in a school environment. There are far better and more appropriate role models out there,” she said.
“Our children deserve far better than to have a known highly sexualised and biased individual coming in to indoctrinate them and talk about delicate subjects, such as suicide and sexuality.”
However, while Wales is governed by the Labour Party, drag queens are still often invited to schools in neighbouring England, where Jones’s Conservative Party is responsible for education.
Meanwhile, Cathy Larkman of the Women’s Rights Network said: “Are we really telling young men that this is what it means to be gay? That it is fair game to represent women in this way?
“Schools, and our children, would be far better served by bringing in strong aspirational gay role models for their pupils, such as lesbian fire-fighters or gay barristers.”
Previous pressure campaigns have successfully shut down sexualised shows for children in the United Kingdom, including the “Family Sex Show“, which featured nude actors and taught children as young as five-years-old about masturbation and queerness.
Breitbart London revealed last year that a Labour Party-run council had hosted a performer dressed as a rainbow monkey with a giant dildo strapped to the crotch of his costume during a “Summer Reading Challenge” for children.
Following the backlash, the local council was forced to cut ties with the LGBT carnival troupe and issued an apology to parents.
More recently, a bondage-themed drag queen show for one and two-year-old babies and their mothers in London was forced to cancel future performances after intense public outrage earlier this month.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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