'I Took My 3-Year-Old Son to a Drag Queen Story Time Event'

• New dad Jack Beresford took his son Patrick to a drag queen story time reading so the 3-year-old could be happy with who he was and accepting of others.
• These events have come under fierce scrutiny of late, especially since the Nashville school shooting by Aubrey Hale, who identified as a transgender man, with Tennessee banning drag shows where minors might be present.
• However psychotherapist Dr. Joe Kort told Newsweek said he did not see any adverse effects on children attending a drag queen story time event.

Becoming a dad was a massive shock to the system. I'd read the books and bought all the expensive and ultimately unnecessary accessories, but none of that prepared me for the feeling that came over me when my son, Patrick, finally arrived.

There was joy and a few tears, but pretty soon after there was also an overriding sense of panic. Suddenly I was responsible for looking after another human life. It was a huge step up from the two Russian hamsters, Noel and Liam, I previously cared for as a teenager. That hadn't gone well; Noel ended up killing Liam.

Planning has never been my strong point which kind of worked out well in the chaos of the three years that have followed. Thinking on my feet and being able to improvise allowed me to navigate the tornado of diapers, no sleep and occasional tantrum.

While I was able to deal with the fact that a lot of what we had intended to do ended up going out the window, I always had a clear idea of the kind of father I wanted to be. I wanted to be fun but also fair. It was OK to have boundaries but I didn't want to be too strict. I didn't want Patrick to be afraid of me or the repercussions that some misdemeanor might bring.

Above all, I wanted Patrick to be happy with who he was and accepting of others. So, when my wife suggested we take him to "Story Time with Mama G" near where we live in the South Norwood neighborhood of London, England, I was all for it.

'We Didn't Exist'

Drag queen story time events first started popping up in San Francisco in 2015 with a series of events organized by author and poet Michelle Tea. They were aimed at promoting both reading and diversity to children.

The movement has since gone worldwide, with events popping up in the U.K. and London in particular. I wasn't that familiar with the concept until I came across an advert for Mama G. She has been around since 2018, serving as both a pantomime dame and drag act. Her story time events are all about teaching children and their families the importance of being who you want to be and loving who you are.

"It's really important for kids to hear diverse stories," Mama G told Newsweek. "I was born in the 1980s. My entire school career was during the existence of Section 28."

Established by the UK's Conservative government, Section 28 was a series of laws that prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality" via published materials or through teaching in schools. Reading up on it, it's not entirely dissimilar to the "Don't Say Gay" bill signed into Florida law by Governor Ron DeSantis last year.

"There was no representation of people like me in books," Mama G said. "It was like we didn't exist. So now there's a generation of us doing drag story time events because we know what it's like to grow up and not be represented."

The Power of Representation

Representation is important for marginalized groups like the LGBTQ+ community, particularly for those living through difficult formative years. According to a study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than half of the transgender male teens polled reported attempting suicide. A similarly high number was reported among transgender female teens (29.9 percent) and non-binary respondents (41.8 percent).

Growing up, I had experienced firsthand the pain of losing a friend to suicide, along with the guilt and the many unanswered questions left behind. I don't ever want Patrick to feel like he couldn't talk to me about his feelings. I don't know what type of person he will grow up to become yet, but I know events like Mama G's Story Time could help him to start learning about acceptance of both himself and others.

That was certainly the message that came across in the stories read to us. Alongside a mix of bright colors and fun songs, How Rainbow Became Proud, written by Mama G herself, told the story of a Rainbow who was bullied into losing all of their colors by a Cloud and the Sun, who both felt the Rainbow should be more like them.

With the help of a bird puppet called Gilbert, however, the Rainbow learned that people have been waving rainbow-colored flags at pride parades. Using a light-up rainbow as a prop, Mama G then invited Patrick and the other children present to shout out the names of the colors of the flag. The focus on the colors, in particular, appealed to Patrick, who was eager to participate.

Mama G also read You Need To Chill, by activist and author Juno Dawson. It's a picture book in which a young girl fields a series of increasingly imaginative questions from her classmates, eager to find out what has happened to her brother Bill. As the story progresses, we learn that the girl's sister has transitioned and she is serving as an ally, promoting a message of acceptance within her classmates.

A fun and colorful way of engaging with a complex issue, like all of the stories read to us it promoted a simple message of inclusivity. "I want future generations to hear stories like this so they can understand and respect that people lead different lives and everyone is valid," Mama G said.

The Anti-Drag Movement

While I wasn't familiar with the format of these events, I knew they had drawn criticism in some quarters. The same month Mama G read to us, the right-wing group Turning Point U.K. held a protest in the nearby London district of Bromley against a drag story time and brunch event.

In the U.S., drag events of this kind have come under even fiercer scrutiny. In early March, Tennessee became the first state to ban drag shows from being performed on public property or anywhere where minors might be present. Similar legislation is being discussed in Oklahoma and Kentucky.

Later that same month, there were also violent clashes between right-wing groups and counter protesters demonstrating outside a drag queen story time in Manhattan, New York.

Mama G has noticed a "big surge" in anti-drag and anti-trans sentiment in the wake of the recent school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, where Audrey Hale, who identified as a transgender man, shot and killed six people. The hashtag #TransTerrorism began trending on Twitter afterwards, with performers left fearful over a potential backlash.

She is no stranger to receiving abuse on social media either. "Some of the things I get sent are horrendous," she said. However, Mama G sees the current wave of anti-trans sentiment in the U.S. as "a distraction from the fact that guns kill thousands of children every year." She said: "They are distracting from the gun crisis by aiming politics at the weakest part of society and in this instance it's the LGBT community and, specifically, trans people."

'A Potential Safeguarding Issue'

Turning Point U.K.'s concerns differ slightly. "We do not protest or oppose drag queen events for over 18s. What consenting adults do within the law is their business," a Turning Point U.K. spokesperson told Newsweek. "However, what we do want to protest is children being exposed to adult performers who are inappropriate role models and a potential safeguarding issue."

They added: "We do not even oppose drag queen story hour events where the adults reading do not moonlight as adult performers. However, at a number of drag queen story hour events, the performers have age inappropriate content all over their social media and our concern is that children will access this, which has the potential to ruin a child's innocence."

That last part of the argument confused me slightly, partly as I would never imagine Patrick accessing social media independently at that young an age and certainly not in a manner that wasn't supervised by me. But the fact remains that children are regularly being exposed to adult content as a result of having access the internet.

In 2022, research by Common Sense Media showed that the majority of teens aged from 13 to 17 had watched pornography while some instances kids aged 10 or younger had been exposed to adult content of this kind. Policing the internet feels like an almost impossible task, meaning it's on parents and internet providers to try and stop this.

Mama G did acknowledge Turning Point U.K.'s concerns over social media output, although she noted that is not something necessarily limited to the work of drag performers. "If you're representing yourself professionally, you do have to be careful about what you post, but that's just like general P.R., isn't it?" Mama G said. "You do that with whoever your audience is."

She also said that while social media has played a positive role in fostering support and a community for events of this kind, it has also given critics an opportunity to take clips out of context to support an argument. "Sometimes I can watch the clips that people are complaining about, and I'm like, 'well, this clip does legitimize what you're saying, but what about the other 10 minutes that surrounded it?'"

Watching Mama G perform her stories, often laced with harmless innuendo to entertain the adults, it is perhaps possible to see how a short blast of her performance, taken out of context, could be viewed in a different light by some—but it would be a stretch.

A Form of Indoctrination

Though it's not a line trumpeted by Turning Point U.K., some detractors argue teaching kids about gender issues at such a young age is somehow robbing them of their innocence and serves as a form of indoctrination. "That's an ignorant argument. The pervasiveness of heterosexuality in our culture is evident," Mama G said. She recalled being accused of "grooming" and "pedophilia" after posting a video to TikTok of herself singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in a sparkly dress but can't see the connection.

"People say what I do is indoctrination but I can promise you that not a single one of the heterosexual love stories I experienced as a child through television and theater indoctrinated me, because you are who you are," she said. The word "indoctrination" is telling in itself, with those who use it evidently viewing gender issues as "beliefs." Patrick certainly didn't come out feeling any differently but I would hope he came away with a greater awareness that people are different and that it is OK to be different too.

'Panicdotal' Evidence

The claims of those opposed to drag story time events are largely dismissed by Dr. Joe Kort, a psychotherapist and clinical sexologist who slammed many of the "panicdotal" claims made online about drag story time shows.

"I don't see any adverse effects on children attending a drag queen story hour," he told Newsweek. "The children are having fun and they're talking about a topic that needs to be examined. The people that are upset about all of this are mostly people that have not examined their own gender, or are unwilling or unable to talk to their own children about gender, and it needs to be talked about."

Dr. Kort argues part of the issue lies in the fact that it is often gay men performing. "Historically people have not had a problem with straight men doing drag on TV during family time," he said. "This is about gay men, and when people hear the word gay, they equate it to 'sex.' There is also the myth that gay men are pedophiles, which is far from the truth. Research has even shown that most pedophiles are straight men."

Mama G is also critical of the "disregard for the history and culture" of drag performance. "My grandparents' generation grew up with drag being mainstream," she said. "To see people talking so viciously about drag and it's a negative effect on children is heartbreaking."

Empathy and Respect

Ultimately, I came away from "Story Time With Mama G" happy that my son had engaged in the event and enjoyed himself. I was also hopeful that he had started to understand more about himself and the world around him. My one and only concern is that other children may not get the same opportunity.

"Sadly, what people forget is that every child has to come to terms with how they're going to express and experience their gender," Dr Kort said. "Often people worry that this will confuse children but children are already examining and exploring how to express gender. This gives them another option they wouldn't have had that before."

Though Mama G believes the current anti-drag sentiment will pass in time, the internet has given opponents a dangerous platform. "Social media has emboldened people not to think about the person who's on the other side of the computer and say horrible things without any consequence," she said.

But that won't stop Mama G reading her stories and letting children like my son know that it is OK to be whoever you want to be. "Whether someone grows up to be gay or straight has got nothing to do with me. What I hope is that they grow up with the ability to have empathy and respect for someone who does grow up to be trans or grows up to be gay. It sounds really basic, but I genuinely think that's how we can make the world a better place."

UPDATE 04/14/2023: It was previously suggested Mama G hosted a "Drag Queen Story Hour." "Story Time With Mama G" is separate from the "Drag Queen Story Hour" brand.