Drag events prove message of inclusion still valid

Pride Month began in Atlantic Canada this past week with a lesson in acceptance and further proof that Pride events are still very much needed.

On June 3, the King’s Arms Pub in Kentville, N.S., hosted a family-friendly drag performance where children younger than 3 were admitted for free. The show soon sold out, but the event also prompted hateful comments on social media, rude phone calls to town officials and a movement to petition against and protest the dinner.

The hatred percolating around the Kentville “Drag me to family dinner” show is the latest example of vocal opposition to drag performances around the region. In March, a drag queen story time planned for a P.E.I. theatre had to be rescheduled after organizers feared for the performer’s safety. In August, a similar event at a library in Cape Breton attracted a small number of protesters who sat at a table with signs and toys.

In each case – in Kentville, in P.E.I. and in Cape Breton – the number of supporters of the Pride events far outnumbered those who would shut them down.

In St. John’s, the all-ages Kaleidoscope drag space that opened in July has seen increasing popularity for its kid-friendly movie nights, bingo and performances.

“Love will always win over hate,” said Jacob Rafuse, who was among about 300 people who came out in support of the show in Kentville. “They started with something they thought was going to cause hate and disturbance and we turned it around and made it a celebration of love.”

Rafuse told Saltwire ahead of the event that he was not surprised by the backlash, considering the discourse happening around drag performances as several U.S. states move to ban the entertainment.

“I am not stupid. I am not blind. We see the writing on the wall. We see what’s going on in the States. … We know it’s happening in Canada as well,” he said in a May 21 interview.

“It’s hurtful. It’s upsetting. It makes me very sad.”

He said the vitriol “starts affecting us and painting Nova Scotians as hateful, uneducated, disrespectful, intolerant people when that’s not who we are.”

A 2020 Angus Reid poll found 73 per cent of Atlantic Canadian respondents support Pride parades and the same number said Canadian society should work toward a greater acceptance of people who are LGBTQ2.

It has been three years since that survey was conducted, during which time vitriol around Pride events has become perceptibly heightened.

Yet the number of people who donned their rainbowcoloured garb, painted signs with messages of inclusion and gathered together to drown out the hatred at recent Pride events in this region reminds us that those few voices preaching intolerance do not speak for the vast majority of Atlantic Canadians.

As Pride events continue throughout the region this summer, we expect that show of support will only grow. It has to.