Conservative MPs and peers are mainstreaming hostility to drag events, which are increasingly being targeted by extremist groups as part of a wider anti-LGBTQ+ narrative, a report says.
Across the UK, at least 57 drag events have been targeted over the past year, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), which has also documented how anti-LGBTQ+ messaging from the US is increasingly being imported to the UK.
Some events have been framed as a threat to children by a loose coalition of far-right groups and self-styled “child protection” advocates who have been at the centre of flashpoint protests outside libraries hosting Drag Queen Story Hour events.
Several Conservative MPs and peers have publicly criticised all-ages drag events, including one peer who questioned whether children would also be offered “entertainment by murderers, paedophiles, terrorists, furries and other fetishists”.
The report’s author, Aoife Gallagher, said: “These incidents should not be viewed in isolation; they speak to a wider anti-LGBTQ+ mobilisation in the UK and they raise concerns about a backsliding trend in LGBTQ+ rights. Although counter-protesters at drag events often outnumbered protesters, this is not enough to protect these communities.”
The report, which notes that the Conservative party deputy chair, Lee Anderson, in February discussed a strategy of leaning into “culture wars” in the next election, says the interest of Conservative politicians showed how the opposition to drag is being “mainstreamed”.
The research is part of a larger project that has evaluated similar threats in the US, France and Australia and found isolated incidents in several European countries. The UK had the second highest incidence of anti-drag mobilisation of the countries analysed, topped only by the US, which had 203 incidents.
In the UK, 49 of the 57 events targeted took place between the end of July 2022 and the end of August 2022, when Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) embarked on a tour of libraries, where performers read to young children and their parents.
In January this year, the Tory peer Emma Nicholson described a DQSH event due to take place in the Tate Britain the following month as “propaganda”. On the day, clashes took place between far-right activists and counter-protesters.
In March, the Tory MP Sara Britcliffe tweeted about a DQSH event due to take place at a literary festival in Lancashire, urging the organisers to cancel it, which they did due to “safety concerns”. A month later, another Conservative MP, Nick Fletcher, said “serious questions” had to be answered about a “glam camp” for children that took place over the Easter holidays in Doncaster.
The Conservative party said it would not be commenting on the report, titled A Year of Hate: Anti-Drag Mobilisation Efforts Targeting LGBTQ+ People in the UK.
The UK went from receiving the top score in LGBTQ+ rights across European countries in 2015 to falling to 17th position this year. Homophobic crimes have doubled and transphobic hate crimes tripled.
Organisations involved in some of the protests have included Turning Point UK, a rightwing student group whose honorary president is the Tory MP Marco Longhi. A GB News presenter, Calvin Robinson, and the activist actor Laurence Fox were among those who took part in one of Turning Point’s protests against DQSH.
In April, a man who took part in a protest against a drag queen story event in a library was sentenced to a 12-month community order after being convicted of hate crimes.
Robbie de Santos, director of external affairs at Stonewall, said: “Many LGBTQ+ people in the UK are living in fear as far-right activism grows and gains legitimacy from mainstream political and press support. Protesting drag queens is only part of a picture that also includes attacks on LGBTQ+-inclusive education in schools and ongoing attempts to row back well-established rights.”
