Cabaret star Reuben Kaye has defended Drag Storytime events during an appearance on Monday night’s edition of Q and A.

Audience member Jeffrey Rain asked Kaye for his thoughts on why in the past Australia has embraced drag in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, celebrated Dame Edna, and loved characters like Mrs Doubtfire, but now all of a sudden it has become a dirty word, something to be feared.

Kaye said first we should define what drag is.

“Drag is whacking on a bit of make-up and a costume. It’s as simple as that. It has no other definition. ‘Drag’ itself, the term, does not define content and it does not define aesthetic. One could argue that all of the panellists tonight are in drag.” Kaye said.

The next step Kaye said is to have a clear understanding that drag performances and people who are transgender are different things.

“Then we would really define…or at least separate, because there is confusion here in society that…or in the public forum, that drag and being trans are the same thing. They are not mutually exclusive, but they are very different things.

“And that’s key to this. And then we get down to what this is really about, which is drag queen storytime. And drag queen storytime is simply a drag queen stepping into a library in a sparkly outfit, reading a story and singing some songs to kids.

“That’s it. It’s not nefarious. Because drag can span…drag can span art forms as long as you like. It can be an adults-only club performance.”

“It can be something as simple as this. And it’s necessary, because drag queen storytime does something important – it opens kids’ eyes to a world that is diverse and reflective of reality. And then it offers queer kids an opportunity to see themselves. And if queer kids don’t see themselves represented in this world, how can they envision a future with them in it?

Kaye said it was important to recognise that trans and gender diverse youth have a lot of mental health challenges that are created by discrimination and stigma.

“48.1% of trans and gender diverse kids attempt suicide in their life. So when people say, “Oh, we care about the children,” they don’t care about that statistic. They don’t care that 16% of kids live in poverty in this country. They don’t care that one in four children in this country is on the brink of illiteracy.

“Drag queen storytime has been going on in libraries for 10 years before this, because of public demand. And we’ve seen this sort of rhetoric – “Oh, we care about the kids,” “They’re coming for the kids,” before. We saw it in Safe Schools, we saw it in marriage equality. We saw it just recently now, with Rishi Sunak even mocking trans people to his party in a video that’s been leaked online. And we’re seeing it now with drag queen storytime.

“And all this does is send a message to queer kids that their lives are not as important as the points we score debating them in open forums.”

Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie said she saw it as an issue about parents having free choice about what their children are exposed to, while Labor’s Bill Shorten said the campaigns against drag story time events were just part of an imported culture war from the USA.

“This is not freedom of speech. It’s just… It’s American culture wars. We should just say to the people doing it, “You’re not welcome.” There’s enough people in this country who are middle of the road. We are sick of intolerant shouters and we should just say no.

“If a kid wants to go to the library and have a story read to them by a drag queen or a person in a koala suit or whatever, that’s fine! Let’s just do it!” Shorten said.

The section about drag storytime gets underway at 21:41

The program also discussed the reaction Kaye received when he told a joke that referenced Jesus during an appearance on Channel Ten’s The Project earlier this year.

The cabaret performer shared that he’d been inundated with death threats and abuse, and the address of both him and his parents had to be removed from the electoral role over safety concerns.

“Since The Project, I can’t even begin to count the amount of articles that have been written about me calling me lewd, demanding for apologies. My phone has been confiscated and combed over by three different state police organisations.”

“My parents have been instructed to not open anything that comes addressed to me. My addresses and their addresses are on priority-response lists and have been scrubbed from the electoral roll so they can’t be found. As I said, in Sydney, there were mobs wanting to lynch me. So, I think there are comedians telling far worse jokes who receive far less. I don’t think this is about one joke.”

Kaye highlighted that many comedians poke fun at religion, sharing that he believed his sexuality was a big factor in the response he received.

OIP Staff

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