Last month, Adam Carver’s world was turned upside down when he was wrongfully accused of grooming children, and labelled a ‘Jimmy Savile Tribute Act’ 😔
His crime? Being queer and performing in drag for children 🙄
Let's get into it... metro.co.uk/2021/12/08/hom…
His crime? Being queer and performing in drag for children 🙄
Let's get into it... metro.co.uk/2021/12/08/hom…
In 2018, Adam created FANTABULOSA!, an interactive drag show for kids with a troupe of drag artists, which performed nationally.
He wanted to create spaces for LGBTQ+ people to feel celebrated, empowered and joyful - an icon ❤️
He wanted to create spaces for LGBTQ+ people to feel celebrated, empowered and joyful - an icon ❤️
The success of the event led him to host the family-friendly PALAVER! Festival in October 2021 - a day-long celebration of LGBTQ+ inclusive performance.
But halfway through the project Adam suddenly became the centre of an online attack aiming to shut the show down.
But halfway through the project Adam suddenly became the centre of an online attack aiming to shut the show down.
‘Transphobic blogs painted the project as a “national scandal worthy of public enquiry” and trolls took to social media to challenge my suitability to be around children,’ Adam writes.
Comments ranged from thinly-veiled concerns about safeguarding to outrageous accusations of child-grooming and paedophilia.
‘It was brutal to see the ease with which total strangers would happily compare me to a serial rapist and child abuser simply for existing authentically.’
‘It was brutal to see the ease with which total strangers would happily compare me to a serial rapist and child abuser simply for existing authentically.’
‘These comments are examples of the oldest, most vicious and flawed tropes of homophobia and transphobia; that LGBTQ+ people are somehow predators and simply by existing, pose an inherent danger to young people.’
‘To be caught up in the middle of it was deeply painful, devastating and frightening in equal measure.’
‘But as hurtful as this response was, it was a reminder of how desperately a queer festival for children and their families is needed. It’s what I needed as a child.’
‘But as hurtful as this response was, it was a reminder of how desperately a queer festival for children and their families is needed. It’s what I needed as a child.’
Growing up in the 90s, Adam’s formative years were lived under the influence of Section 28, the homophobic law introduced by Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1988 to stop councils and schools ‘promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality.’
‘I couldn’t imagine a future because there was no blueprint to follow. The seeds of shame had been sewn from the moment I recognised my difference.’
‘The vicious response I received to the festival this year shook me, but also strengthened my resolve – it was evidence that projects like PALAVER! are sorely needed.’
‘With Stonewall’s 2017 School Report showing that nearly half of LGBT+ pupils are bullied in Britain’s schools, and more than two in five trans young people have attempted to take their own life, we need positive queer representation for children more than ever.’
Read Adam's piece in full here... 🏳️🌈❤️metro.co.uk/2021/12/08/hom…
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