A Melbourne drag show has been postponed following threats by anti-LGBT and white supremacist hate groups.
It’s the second time a Victorian drag show has been targeted with protests and threats in the past few months, raising fears that the rising opposition and violence facing performers in the United States is finding its way to Australia.
On Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for local council City of Stonnington told Crikey that the end-of-year celebration for its youth service had been called off.
“In accordance with advice received from Victorian Police, Council, Minus18 and The Victorian Pride Centre, we have made the difficult decision to postpone tonight’s Glitter Nova event at the Victorian Pride Centre,” they said.
The Glitter Nova event, put on for young people 12-25, included drag performances along with comedy, a garment-making workshop and a photo booth.
Earlier this week, white supremacists associated with Australian neo-Nazi groups spread posts on social media platform Telegram, urging members to protest the event.
These calls to action featured slurs that falsely linked paedophilia to drag performances, a type of variety show challenging gender norms using clothes, makeup, music and dancing.
Local community and anti-fascist groups responded to these calls by promising to counter-protest in solidarity.
A group of 12 neo-Nazis held a protest against a similar all-ages drag event in Queens Park in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne at the end of September. The protesters, performing Hitler salutes and chanting hate speech, were drowned out by counter-protesters.
One performer, Belial B’Zarr, was part of both shows. She told Crikey that she didn’t know about the protests for the September show until she turned up.
“We were okay but they were calling me ‘demon flesh’, saying that drag performers groom and indoctrinate children,” she said.
B’Zarr said she is aware of the vitriol directed at drag performers in the US who have become a fixation of right-wing groups, commentators and groups.
Extremist groups like the Proud Boys, sometimes touting weapons, have disrupted drag events across the country. Mainstream politicians like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio have attacked drag performers and proposed laws banning the art form. Venues hosting drag events have been targeted with acts of violence like the Colorado Club Q shooting and the firebombing of an Oklahoma doughnut shop.
At the centre of these attacks is a claim that drag performances are “grooming” or “indoctrinating” children while conflating it with LGBTIQA+ gender identity (while drag is associated with LGBT culture, it is not exclusively so). These smears have been a core part of the anti-LGBT rhetoric that’s resulted in surge in violence this year.
These attacks and protests have taken place in Australia before. In 2019, the UQ Liberal National Club protested a drag queen storytelling event at a Brisbane library. And last month, South Australian Liberal senator Alex Antic accused the ABC of “grooming” children by airing a Play School segment showing drag queen Courtney Act.
B’Zarr said that she was disappointed the council chose to postpone the event.
“The thing is that you can’t give these people an inch, and if you give them an inch, the next instance is going to be worse,” she said.
Even after the event was postponed, organisers continued to stage a counter-protest where Belial B’Zarr performed. Videos circulated on social media showed a crowd of counter protesters significantly outnumbering a small number of protesters wearing clothing associated with the Proud Boys.
Victorian Police confirmed one protester had been arrested for failing to move on.
