Bronwyn Bishop suggests Labor will fund drag story time

Bronwyn Bishop, the former Speaker of the House and Liberal government minister, has suggested that the Labor party might begin funding drag queens to read stories to children.

Bishop was appearing as a panelist on the Sky News program Paul Murray Live when the discussion turned to the Outdoor Advertising Association’s decision to reject an advertisement from anti-transgender lobby group Binary because it villiffied a specific segment of the community.

Panelist Nicholas Reece said he thought it was unacceptable to vilify people over their gender and sexuality, but Bishop said people needed to know about drag queen story time events because they were an attack on the family unit and part of a plan to destroy capitalism.

“It’s part of the Labor party manifesto, it’s part of the Labor party policy.” Bishop said. “Bill Shorten won’t deny that they will use public money to actually have the drag queen story told.”

“This is about telling children that their gender is fluid, that they can choose to be male or female, and I don’t think its proper that young children should be told that. I certainly don’t think it should be taxpayers money paying for it to be done.”

“It comes out of queer theory, which is based on Marxist theory, and it’s again based on breaking down the family which they see as necessary to get rid of capitalism.” Bishop declared.

While the Labor party has outlined a wide range of strategies to support LGBTIQ+ people their policy document makes no mention of drag performers. Nicholas Reece challenged Bishop on her assertions noting it was not in the policy document.

“It’s there in writing.” Bishop said.

The banned billboard featured a quote from Labor’s Senator Louise Pratt who voiced her support for a Drag Story Time event. The comment was made in 2018 in relation to a Drag Story Time event being held at Maylands Rabble Books and Games.

The local bookshop hosted the event for queer families in their neighbourhood and faced a barrage of abuse and intimidating threats from people opposed to the event.

Earlier in the evening current Liberal senator Amanda Stoker appeared on the Credlin program and agreed that Labor’s policies around sexuality and gender were aimed at destroying the family unit.

Senator Stoker said there a lot of concern about gender reassignment surgery being covered by medicare, and argued against Labor’s support for a ban on conversion therapy.

OIP Staff