Tate gallery responds perfectly to Tory peer’s ‘anal sex’ rant over Drag Queen Story Hour
Baroness Nicholson shared her correspondence with the gallery online. (Credit: Drag Queen Story Time UK, Getty, @baroness_nichol, Twitter)
London’s Tate Britain has responded to a rambling letter about anal sex, orgies and ‘Daddy’ t-shirts from Tory peer Baroness Nicholson over a Drag Queen Story Hour event.
The world-renowned art museum in is set to hold a Drag Queen Story Hour pop-up in its galleries on February 11.
During the interactive event, which coincides with February half-term, drag queen and children’s author Aida H Dee will read stories to youngsters.
The story events, usually staged in libraries across the UK, have become the focus of anti-LGBTQ+ protesters, who have come out in force to demonstrate against the events and accused the drag queen, attendees and supporters of being “groomers”.
Last year in July, Dee was targeted by protestors who infiltrated the library and began heckling the literature hero.
Ahead of the children’s show at Tate Britain, Baroness Emma Harriet Nicholson penned a letter to the museum’s chairman of the Board of Trustees, Ronald Rudd.
In the letter, dated 20 January, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne wrote: “Having adults read to children is a wonderful thing, of course, but why does it have to be a man pretending to be a woman?”
The House of Lords member continues the letter to Rudd by making references to “anal sex”, “orgies” and a “Daddy t-shirt”.
“Why does it have to be a man who posts on Facebook about anal sex and orgies, with photographs of themselves in a ‘Daddy’ t-shirt, whose mission is to be a “role model … for young, queer people”, pretending to be a woman,” she wrote.
The Baroness goes on to call Drag Queen Story Hour “propaganda” and drag queens as “advocates for queer ideology”.
Three days later, Rudd issued a short reply to Baroness Nicholson’s letter.
He responded by describing the gallery’s programme as “broad and diverse”, stating events are not designed “either to promote, endorse or reconcile differing points of view on wider political issues”.
“Rather,” the chair continued, “they aim to be inclusive and celebrate the diversity of Tate’s visitors and their community.”
In a final statement, Rudd wrote: “Tate is open to all. By virtue of this, there will be some programmes, which appeal to some visitors and some that do not.
“Visitors are free to choose with which aspect of our programme they engage.
“We appreciate some might not be interested in or agree with the forthcoming event. Drag Queen Story Hour.
“However, we believe firmly that others should be given the chance to make that decision for themselves.”
In an interview with PinkNews, Aida H Dee said her forthcoming Tate appearance is “an honour and just also bonkers”.
Dee says she’s still wary of protestors trying to stop the event. A petition trying to prevent the event was short-lived, being removed by Change.org moments after it was created.
“Of course preparations are created at each event that I do, and we always do a little bit of a risk assessment on that kind of stuff,” Dee said.
“It’s sort of things like, you know, do we need to ticket just in case we need to take details and do we need to let the police know and need personal security?
“The fact that we need to take a risk assessment on whether or not I need security is ridiculous, to be honest.”
