Multiple prominent Quebec media figures, including columnists and radio hosts, are speaking out against the presence of drag queens in libraries, schools and daycares.
This comes amid Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) leader Eric Duhaime’s campaign to put an end to drag shows for kids in public places. The PCQ leader, who is openly gay, doesn’t believe taxpayers should be funding these controversial events.
Renowned Quebec media personality Denise Bombardier said in a Le Journal de Montreal column that she feels uneasy about kids being exposed to drag queens. She added that the latter are “a character in an adult show where sauciness and sexual transgressions are appreciated.”
Bombardier also asked if society will begin telling children “the recognition of a third gender” – something that is already happening in schools across Canada as school boards have included radical gender ideology in classrooms.
Meanwhile, 98.5 FM radio host and former municipal politician Luc Ferrandez, said “I don’t really agree with drag queens in schools” amid there being a lack of parental choice. He also said he’s “convinced that it’s a counter job for a drag queen to be in a library,” because the latter is political.
Ferrandez says he believes “sexual identity is a public health issue.”
104.7 FM radio host Michel Langevin said, “I think we should wait until our children are a little older, so that they understand well, so they don’t get mixed up,” amid several young children being gender confused.
Journalist and Radio X personality Jerome Blanchet Gravel said he believes “the problem with drag queens is not their existence as artists, personalities and free human beings, but the fact that they are now serving a political agenda, that of converting the population to gender theory.”
Columnist Sophie Durocher wrote in Le Journal de Montreal that “a man dressed up as a woman, with huge nails, fake eyelashes, fake boobs, a sequined dress, jewelry everywhere, isn’t that a huge ‘stereotype’?”
Le Journal columnist and QUB Radio host Richard Martineau asked “how is it the role of public libraries to promote gender deconstruction?”, while Le Devoir columnist Christian Rioux said, “let’s give schools back their neutrality and libraries back their innocence” amid the fact that “the mixing of genders has not always been a success.”
Earlier this month, the National Library and Archives of Quebec put out a statement saying it was proud to platform drag artist Barbada de Barbades (who True North previously interviewed) for story hours. It claimed purposes of the activity include teaching children gender ideology.
“Drag story hour is an activity adapted to the age of its participants. Children can hear stories about love, well-being, self-expression, respect for differences and the deconstruction of gender stereotypes, all while having fun,” wrote the national library.
It should be noted that the nuance of opinions on drag shows for kids coming from the Quebec media is different from the anglophone legacy media – who have embraced and promoted the controversial concept.
Canada’s public broadcaster CBC has, among other things, run a segment that tried to normalize drag for children.
Meanwhile, Global News published an article in January claiming drag events in Canada are facing a “crisis of hate” amid peaceful protests from parents and other community members.
This is not the first time that Quebec society has been critical of wokeism. In the past, several of the province’s media figures, columnists and politicians denounced cancel culture and discrimination against white people to promote “diversity.”
Quebec Premier Francois Legault has also rejected narratives that his province is systematically racist.
A petition started by the Conservative Party of Quebec calling on governments to cease all funding for drag shows for children and respect parental consent now has over 40,000 signatures.
