Trans woman wants drag acts banned from Pride festival
A transgender woman in Calderdale is calling for the area’s Pride festival to ban drag acts or publish a disclaimer about them.
Rose White, 64, claims that drag acts promote negative stereotypes about trans people and encourage hatred, the Halifax Courier reports.
In a letter to Pride organisers, she wrote: “Drag queens – homosexuals dressed as women – and drag kings, women dressed as men, performing as stereotypical crossdressers promote, foster and reinforce the belief among the audience that any bloke in a frock must be a homosexual.
“The council needs to prevent anything that reinforces out-of-date stereotyping.
“If these people are allowed to perform in the town in the Pride, they must have a prominent sign stating ‘We are homosexual men – not transexuals’.
Pride organisers brushed off Ms White’s complaint, saying that ‘disclaimers’ would be a violation of privacy.
Organiser Matt Gosridge responded: “We wouldn’t ever want to attempt to restrict or control in any way the people that attend the event. Calderdale Pride is all about inclusivity and freedom of expression.”
