The City of Fremantle Youth Network recently called for expressions of interest from Drag Queens and Kings to participate as paid performers in an ‘All Ages Drag Show’ in September.
It seems that since emails objecting to the event have begun to hit the Mayor’s and Councillors’ inboxes, the Facebook post has been deleted (or hidden). However, a phone call to the City’s office on Monday afternoon resulted in the customer service officer assuring me that the event was ‘definitely going ahead.’
If you are not familiar with drag shows, they involve men dressing as women and engaging in highly sexualised actions.
I encourage you to write an email to the Mayor and Councillors at the City of Fremantle urging them not to use ratepayer funds to sexualise children, and to replace the planned event with a family friendly event.
You can include some of the points below if you wish. It is most effective to put them in your own words…
- Exposure to drag shows is not only inappropriate for children, but harmful to their mental health. Young children simply don’t have the brain development to appropriately process these kinds of experiences.
- There are growing numbers of people in the LGBTQ+ community who are speaking out against children being exposed to drag events. One Drag Queen has even put out a two minute video urging parents not to expose their children to such events, on account of their highly sexualised nature.
- Our children are already growing up in an over-sexualised environment. It is distressing to see the City planning to add to this and cause further damage to children.
- A Federal Parliamentary inquiry into the sexualisation of children reported that while individual events can be very problematic for children, it is the ‘cumulative impact of all the material and information to which children are exposed’ that is having a very damaging effect on children’s mental health and adds to the problem of the objectification of women in our society.
- It is vitally important that young children become secure and affirmed in their biological sex. Drag shows lead vulnerable children in the opposite direction at this necessary developmental stage.
- There is a need to protect children from any form of pre-pubescent arousal, sexualisation, or untoward caricature of the sexes, and yet this is exactly what drag shows do.
Remember to be polite and courteous, even if you are upset.
The email addresses of Councillors and the Mayor can be found on the City’s website. Thank you for taking immediate action!
