The Canadian Broadcasting Company recently released a promotional video for a new documentary called “Drag Kids.”
CBC shared the video on the CBC Kids News account with the caption, “What’s it like to be a KID #DragQueen? @CBCKidsNews spoke with the four stars of CBC’s news #DragKids documentary to find out what @drag is, and why they do it. #lgbtq #queer #kiddragqueen.”
What’s it like to be a KID #DRAGQUEEN? 👠💄🌈 @CBCKidsNews spoke with the four stars of CBC’s new #DragKids documentary to find out what #drag is, and why they do it. #lgbtq #queer #kiddragqueen @cbcdocs pic.twitter.com/Mip5pZMOjE
— CBC Kids News (@CBCKidsNews) July 4, 2019
The first kid they talked to was a 12-year-old girl named Bracken Hanke, who described herself as a “hyper drag,” which is a girl who dresses in drag. They also spoke with an 11-year old boy named Jason Kerr, who goes by Susan B. Anthony, a 10-year-old-boy named Nemis Melancon-Golden, who performs as “Queen Lactatia,”and a 9-year-old named Stephan Hirst, who dresses as “Laddy Gaga.”
Then the video asks the children to explain what “drag” is. Melancon-Golden described drag as a “performing art,” explaining that the performer is the canvas. Hanke also used the language of the performer as a canvas. Most disturbingly, Hirst said drag is when a “man dresses as a woman for entertainment.”Life Site News pointed out a glaring oversight in this piece of the promo– “Stephan is not a man. In fact, he is not even an adolescent–he is a child.”
The documentary’s director, Megan Wennberg, believes that dressing in drag is healthy for children. She described drag as “an incredible outlet for self-expression, it’s really artistic, it’s really creative, it lets them explore different parts of themselves.” She also said that drag culture has become “increasingly mainstream” thanks to RuPaul’s Drag Race and YouTube videos. In addition, a number of schools and libraries across the country have hosted Drag Queen Story Hour, as did a church in Texas. A Cincinnati church also recently featured a Drag Queen reading a story in a worship service during LGBT Pride Month.
In the video, producers asked the children to share what they hoped people would learn from the documentary. Kerr said he hoped people would learn that “if someone wants to bring you down, you fight back.” Melanchon-Golden replied, “Not only that it’s okay, but that there are other people like that.” Hancke shared how she hoped it would help LGBT kids, saying, “When you figure out you’re gay or trans, that’s not something that happens once you become an adult.” She went on to say she hoped kids would see that other kids think about these things too and that being gay or trans does not make them “weird.”
The video closed by asking the children how drag has helped them. Melanchon-Golden, who spoke while holding a large, stuffed elephant, said, “I perform in front of crowds now and they cheer, so I know I’m doing alright.” However, the response from many Twitter users showed that many think these things are not alright, with many accusing the CBC of child abuse and promoting pedophilia. A host of others called for the Canadian Parliament to withdraw funding from the CBC.
Drag Kids premiers July 25th.
Scott Slayton writes at “One Degree to Another.”
Photo courtesy: Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash
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