![]() “I didn’t choose to be an activist,” he says. Now, all he wants to do is continue reading his stories to children in peace. It made him realise that not only could he inspire people like him, but he could also change the attitudes of those who were not. He got a standing ovation, but, more importantly, was praised by a boy who had bullied him. I feel robbed of a childhood, in some way.” A pivotal moment came at 13, when he was cast as an evil villainess in a school play. “The teachers saw a camp boy, but couldn’t help me. Samuel describes himself as a victim of section 28. “It’s something I didn’t get to do until I was much older, because of the world we live in.” ![]() So, I love being able to join those two together.” He also wants to teach children who might be gay that they can love themselves. “Pantomime was the best thing ever, because it was colourful and I got to shout. So, why carry on? As a child, Samuel struggled with autism and ADHD (hence his drag name) and found sitting crossed-legged in silence for story time boring. “I got a message from one, saying their kid asked: ‘Why are these angry people shouting at us?’” (Drag Queen Story Hour was established in San Francisco in 2015.) It is not what the parents signed up for, either. Still, this is not exactly what Samuel signed up for when, in 2017, he became the first drag artist in the UK to read stories to children in libraries. I got a message from one parent saying their kid asked: Why are these angry people shouting at us? Aida H DeeĬhapter and verse … Sab Samuel AKA Aida H Dee gives a reading for children. We prepare ourselves for degree-level protesters, but they rock up as year 7s,” he says, with perfect drag-queen sass. ![]() “Often, they’re protesting outside the wrong buildings, celebrating that they’ve cancelled events that are actually happening elsewhere. But, in general, the groups are easy to keep at bay with a few well-timed misdirections, he says. However, he worries about protesters trying to film the children at Drag Queen Story Hour shows: one snuck into an event to try to livestream it. “People think I must be stressed, but I’m actually totally fine,” he says over a video call. When we speak again, he is in a car returning from a successful event – and feeling great. It turns out he has just escaped another protest, this time in Bristol, where protesters met counterprotests from antifascist and gay rights groups. “The main thing you need to know is I am safe and the events are still going ahead,” he says, hurriedly. When I first make contact with Sab Samuel, the 27-year-old who performs as Aida H Dee, he sounds flustered. How could such a joyful event be causing such controversy? Then I realised the drag queen at the centre of it all was Aida H Dee, the same performer who had entranced my daughter two years earlier. It was a scene you might expect to see in the US, where homophobic Christian groups have long maligned large parts of the LGBTQ+ movement and their allies as “groomers”. Videos of the protests in Reading were posted online and looked terrifying. Parents entering the libraries had questions shouted at them about why they were taking their children to see a paedophile. ![]() This summer, groups including the far-right and conspiracy theorists calling themselves “sovereign citizens” have been holding up signs saying “Welcome groomers” and “Nonce upon a time” outside libraries in places from Bexleyheath to Reading when Drag Queen Story Hour events were due to take place. I might not have thought of that day again, but Drag Queen Story Hour has recently been hauled into a culture war.
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