Call drag queens ‘pantomime dames’ to fool protesters, librarians told

Drag queens should be called “pantomime dames” to fool protesters, council librarians have been urged in a crisis meeting amid embattled “story hour” sessions for children.

More than 100 librarians attended the training earlier this month on how to handle the fierce row with parents over a country-wide summer tour by Drag Queen Story Hour UK.

The webinar on “managing controversial events” was organised by the national body Libraries Connected, formerly the Society of Chief Librarians, and only for library staff.

It has been leaked to The Telegraph after the first week of the tour, which descended into chaos as local authorities called in police to stop protesters storming sessions. Aida H Dee, the drag queen, also had to be given a police escort.

Chants of ‘paedophile’ and ‘groomer’

Dozens of activists have picketed libraries in recent days chanting “paedophile” and “groomer”.

Aida H Dee, also known as Sab Samuel, performs in a tight sequined dress with heavy make-up. Samuel is a 27-year-old male children’s author who is autistic and has ADHD.

In the forum, held on July 20, librarians from across Britain shared “war game” strategies for dealing with “really distressing” drag criticism and being “bombarded by complaints letters”.

One speaker suggested the protesters could be fooled. “We’ve always said pantomime dame because we don’t want protestors outside our building,” Ian Anstice, a librarian from Cheshire West and Chester, told the seminar.

“Is that knuckling under pressure? Probably, possibly, but we find we have no protests, it’s a good event, we run the event,” he added, as he criticised how some protesters have “no politeness, no trying to see your point of view”.

Social media 'pile-on'

He referenced a performer known as Mama G, who is unconnected to the story hour but who is also touring libraries this summer. Mama G was billed as a pantomime dame in Devon County Council libraries in 2019, but was accused of “twerking” in front of toddlers.

Julia Ball, Bristol Library Service’s regional engagement manager, told attendees about a social media “pile-on” her team experienced over a tweet in May promoting Drag Queen Story Hour UK's summer tour, which runs until September.

“What we’ve come up with is a rough guide to if you’re holding a controversial event – in our case it’s drag queens – we would say that the best thing is to involve your comms, involve equalities, councillors and the safeguarding teams from the start,” she said.

This includes a “statement from our safeguarding lead [officer] that says about how much they support what we’re doing”, while “hiding” negative comments on Facebook and not using Twitter “because that’s where the particularly bad trolls are”.

She urged librarians to let police and council know about the “potential threat of disruptive protests”, but avoid defending drag queen events on social media on a Friday “as it could blow up over the weekend”.

Almost 70 events in 20 areas of Britain are being visited over the next two months by Drag Queen Story Hour UK, a group that hosts sessions for three to 11-year-olds.

Some groups engaged in scuffles with police, chanting “paedophile” and vowing a “citizen’s arrest” of Mr Samuel at the first sessions in Reading and Bristol last week.

Separate parent groups, such as the Safe Schools Alliance and the Family Education Trust, have written letters to peacefully protest the tour, but they were criticised in the seminar.

Ms Ball said her library’s chief took the attitude of “template letter complaint, template letter response” and should report “anything abusive, offensive or aggressive” as hate speech.

Mr Anstice, who also runs the Public Libraries News website, showed attendees a picture of a man at a drag story event in the US wearing a “kill your local paedophile” T-shirt with an assault rifle logo. He said “this sort of thing has got its followers and adherents here in Britain” and is “pretty brutal”.

The librarians were also trained in generic “crisis comms” in the session, with James Gray, the Libraries Connected marketing and advocacy manager, suggesting they “war-game best and worse scenarios”.

‘Flies in face of proper safeguarding’

Parents and other librarians have hit back. Tracy Shaw, a spokesman for Safe Schools Alliance, said: “This training flies in the face of proper safeguarding practice. Librarians should be focused on addressing valid concerns.”

One librarian from the south of England, who did not wish to be named, said: “Libraries are not an appropriate place for what is just a sexualised parody of womanhood.”

Another librarian from London added: “Library staff no longer have the time or the resources to properly vet these performers. We’re told that we have to tick a box for diversity.”

Drag Queen Story Hour UK has defended its tour, saying it is not a “night-time cabaret” and its performers are DBS checked. Councils say it is “entertaining and age-appropriate”.

A spokesman for Libraries Connected said: “The webinar included contributions from a range of library professionals with different perspectives, based on their experience of managing events at their libraries.

“They were speaking in a personal capacity and were not representing Libraries Connected.”