Furious parents slam primary school for inviting drag queen to read children stories
24 February 2020, 21:37
A council has issued an apology after inviting a drag queen to read to children as part of LGBT history month.
During the visit, the transgender drag queen, named "FlowJob" read to Primary 1 children, aged between four and five.
But parents of children at the school branded the visit as "outrageous" and "inappropriate", leading the local council to issue the apology.
A Renfrewshire Council spokesman said: "The school pupils at Glencoats Primary are currently organising a series of activities and events to mark LGBT history month.
"In discussion with pupils in their Rainbow club, one of their requests was to invite people from the LGBT community to hear about their own experiences growing up and they wanted to invite a drag queen to talk to this group to hear about their own personal experience.
"Learning about values including equalities and diversity has an important role in the school curriculum.
"All school visits are arranged and managed with the wellbeing of pupils first and foremost, however it is clear in this case, the social media content associated with the speaker's stage persona is not appropriate for the children and had we been aware of this, the visit would not have been arranged.
"We are sorry for the concern this has caused and are investigating."
The school and its headteacher have both locked their Twitter accounts following a barrage of complaints from parents and Twitter users alike.
One parent with a child at the school claimed parents had not been told about FlowJob's visit.
FlowJob visited the school with SNP MP Mhairi Black and was introduced as "Flow".
Many parents said that they took issue with FlowJob's social media activity, in which they simulate sex acts and speak about drugs.
Hello everyone, I woke up to over 1k notifications and over 30 DM’s due to majority of it being abuse I have chosen not to go through the comments, there is to many small minded to people to try and justify what I have done, but thank you to everyone who has supported me❤️
— flowsaphine occupation (@flowjobqueen) February 24, 2020
Both Flowjob and Mhairi Black have defended the decision on social media.
The drag queen tweeted:"As the drag queen who read the story to the children it was amazing to see what the kids have learned, we live in a time where kids will be going to school with 2 mums/dads or LGBTQ+ family, we are showing them that it's normal.
"Yes 'flow job' is my stage name, but I was introduced as 'Flow' and I'll have you know when the children where asked what they wanted at 'LGBTQ+' history month the first thing they wanted was a 'drag queen'"
They later added: "Hello everyone, I woke up to over 1k notifications and over 30 DM’s due to majority of it being abuse I have chosen not to go through the comments, there is to many small minded to people to try and justify what I have done, but thank you to everyone who has supported me"
If my school had invited a gay MP and a drag queen to visit during LGBT History Month, or even acknowledged that LGBT History Month existed, it would have made an immeasurable difference to the difficult childhoods my LGBT classmates and I had.
— Mhairi Black MP🏳️🌈 (@MhairiBlack) February 24, 2020
Mhairi Black, who is an LGBT campaigner, said: "If my school had invited a gay MP and a drag queen to visit during LGBT History Month, or even acknowledged that LGBT History Month existed, it would have made an immeasurable difference to the difficult childhoods my LGBT classmates and I had.
"You just know that the people pretending to be livid that a drag queen read a book in a school in my mentions rn are also the people who run out to buy their kids the latest Grand Theft Auto on release day. Your homophobia is transparent."
