'We're not Arizona, Missouri or Tennessee': B.C. MLA tables motion in response to rising anti-drag movement

Drag queen Conni Smudge reads to children in Coquitlam, B.C., on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. (CTV)

Vancouver -

In response to recent anti-drag laws being passed in the U.S., a Vancouver MLA is calling for B.C.’s government to condemn violence and intimidation of artists and performers in the drag community.

As Spencer Chandra Herbert tabled a private members’ motion titled Violence Against Drag Artists and Performers in the legislature Monday morning, he warned that attitudes south of the border are bleeding into Canada.

"We've seen people targeted in their communities across B.C … whether it was in Nelson, Coquitlam, I think this weekend in Kelowna, North Vancouver, Duncan, Vancouver, in my own community of the West End. Really, the list is too long to go on with, where because somebody has decided to express themselves, decided to show up in drag as a performer, they've been targeted,” Herbert told the House of Commons.

In his speech, Chandra Herbert referenced a January protest in Coquitlam over a drag story time event featuring the artist Conni Smudge.

“The thing that those haters came to say was a horrible thing they should never have done. (Smudge) read Itsy Bitsy Spider to children in a library. They read Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in a library — for shame,” he said.

Chilliwack-Kent MLA Kelli Paddon is one of 10 politicians who stood and spoke in support of Chandra Herbert’s motion on Monday, but she told the House she hadn’t planned on doing so because she wasn’t sure she could do so “in a way that didn’t lead with anger.”

“I must confess that is the predominant feeling here: anger born out of protection, an instinct to protect; anger born out of the harm that I’ve heard directly from my community, from members of the 2SLGBTQ community, from drag performers, from youth in my community,” said Paddon.

To explain some of her anger, she pointed to a student-led event in her district back in February, in which a drag artist was invited to emcee and perform.

“The backlash that came out of that was what spurred this conversation on. It was equating (drag) not only to transgenderism but mis-equating that to predation and grooming and sexualisation,” Paddon said. “It’s disappointing when we see it.”

More recently, Nelson Public Library postponed a drag story time event scheduled for March, allegedly over safety concerns due to violent threats.

As of March 21, the Nelson Police Department said there were several ongoing investigations into suspected hate crimes related to the drag story time event.

Last week, the Vancouver theatre company Carousel Theatre announced its summer programming schedule, which includes a drag camp for kids, attracting negative attention from the People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier.

As a result, Chandra Herbert says the company has been the target of harassment online and over the phone, and has even hired additional security personnel.

Even in the hours after he tabled Motion 32, Chandra Herbert says at least half a dozen of people who don’t live in B.C. have called into his office or sent hateful messages against the proclamation.

“Unfortunately, there are moments where we’ve seen people come together in hateful ways, in scary ways by threatening violence,” Chandra Herbert told CTV News over the phone. “I wanted the legislature to have a chance to join together and say, ‘No, we’re not going back to that place.’ We have to say yes to love, even if there are haters out there, the vast majority of B.C. does not support that.”

He added that he was pleasantly surprised that no one voiced opposition to his motion on Monday.

“Two years ago, there was debate over rainbow crosswalks … there was an MLA who didn’t believe that transgender people existed. It’s great to see progress can and is being made,” he said.

“We’re not Arizona or Missouri or Tennessee. We’re B.C. where we support diversity.”