These past few weeks, more and more drag performers have received threats to their social media inboxes. Hate groups have been threatening them and their clients with verbal and physical abuse. They are specifically going after performers who do all-ages events.
Guelph based performer Crystal Quartz, who Fanshawe students might know from the FSU’s monthly sex toy bingo, is one of the performers being targeted. When she first reached out to the police about this, she didn’t get much support. Since then though, she has been in touch with an LGBTQ+ liaison officer.
To Crystal, these threats came as a complete shock, as she’s been doing drag since she was 18 years old and has never felt unsafe. Now, she’s considering taking self-defence classes and raising funds to buy ID scanners. To her, this is a huge step backwards.
She’s not the only person getting these threats sadly enough. Other performers even felt too unsafe to speak on the issue.
Crystal has the feeling the threats picked up after the Colorado Springs shooting. The threats they are hurling around though, are not new. Drag performers and 2SLGBTQ people have been accused of “grooming” children for years now. Last weekend, they even went to an all-ages event at a Boston Pizza in Hamilton. They stood outside the restaurant and protested the event all the way through, with OPP officers on stand-by. Watch the video here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/osLY67IT9_0
According to Crystal though, kids love the drag events she puts on, and growing up with diverse role models is very important. “And if you don’t want your kids at the show, don’t bring them to the show! It’s not that hard!” she says.
Want to hear more? Listen to the Almost 107 podcast episode about the issue here.
