Stand Up To Racism is holding a protest in support of ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ at Tate Britain in London tomorrow to defend the event from a rival demonstration by the far-right group Patriotic Alternative.
Drag Queen Story Hour provides interactive and lively kids shows and storytelling sessions with drag performers across schools in the UK. Their mission is to ‘show the world that being different is not a bad thing’. It is aimed for 3-11 year olds where parents are able to attend.
The anti-racist campaigners said their demonstration at 10am on Saturday 11th February by Tate Britain, Millbank in London, would be in solidarity with the story-telling event, which has been targeted by the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative.
The white nationalist organisation, which opposes LGBTQ+ rights, claims that the story-telling sessions amount to grooming children.
The protests come after controversial peer, Emma Nicholson, wrote an open letter to the chair of Tate’s board of trustees opposing the performance of Drag Queen Story Hour this Saturday.
She described the event as “propaganda” and “nonsense on stilts“.
In response to her letter, a Tate spokesperson stated, “We do not programme artists in order to promote particular points of view, nor to reconcile differing points of view. Our galleries offer a broad programme and visitors have the freedom to choose which aspects of it they engage with.”
The Tate has not commented on the planned protests and declined to say whether security will be increased during the performance on Saturday.