The drag queen debate has arrived in Quebec. After a demonstration which forced the displacement of the hour of the Barbada story, it is the turn of Éric Duhaime to get involved. On Wednesday, the Conservative leader launched a petition “to protect children from drag queens”. How to explain this outcry?
For the professor at the University of Sherbrooke and co-holder of the UNESCO chair in the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism, David Morin, we are witnessing “the structuring of an ecosystem of the reactionary right” which began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a bit like the same conspiratorial leaders of the pandemic who suddenly react to drag queens,” he explains in an interview with The Canadian Press.
François Amalega, who has been very active in the movement opposing health measures during the pandemic, took part in the demonstration to have the hour of the story of the drag queen Barbada canceled in Sainte-Catherine, in Montérégie, there is two weeks.
“All human societies are based on family and love, children are called to be protected! “, he launched during the demonstration, according to Radio-Canada.
A discourse that Frédérick Nadeau, researcher at the Center for Expertise and Training in Religious Fundamentalism, Political Ideologies and Radicalization (CEFIR) at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit, associates with a form of “pretty classic conservatism”.
“We will consider the family as the basic unit of Western societies and we will affirm that progressive movements seek to destroy the family, cultural references, through issues such as abortion, the role of women, the rights of sexual minorities, etc. “, he argues.
The return of conspiracy?
Part of this pandemic conspiratorial movement is now very active in terms of anti-drag discourse.
A reality that does not surprise political scientist Frédéric Boily of the University of Alberta.
“It’s a bit like an echo phenomenon. We go from one subject to another quite easily, especially with social networks which participate in the development of conspiratorial ecosystems much more easily than before, ”he says.
David Morin explains how conspiratorial software relates to drag queens: “It’s seen as the effort of certain malevolent elites to break up what is called the ‘traditional family’ or ‘normal sexuality’. »
He affirms in the same breath that we must however show nuance on the question. “You have to be careful, when people have a reactionary vision, not to immediately attach the label of conspiracy to them to try to delegitimize their voice,” he says.
Gender theory and wokism
The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec also threw himself into the fray on Wednesday.
In his petition calling for an end to public funding of drag queens’ activities for children, Éric Duhaime indicates “that some drag queens have been trying for several years to enter daycares, schools and public libraries to read stories about sexual diversity or explaining gender theory from a woke point of view”.
According to Frédérick Nadeau, using children is a good way to obtain support. “It becomes an emotional lever powerful enough to rally to a cause, whatever it is. […] Essentially children represent innocence that has not been perverted by the system,” he explains.
“The fear in conservative circles is the idea that going to hear a drag queen tell any story would have the effect of ‘converting’ children to the gender ideology,” he adds. .
As of this writing, the petition has garnered over 20,000 signatures.
United States influence
The anti-drag movement comes from the United States. Several American states – such as Arizona, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa and even Texas – have legislated against drag queen shows.
Far-right groups in the United States – sometimes armed –, such as the Proud Boys, have canceled events with drag queens.
“There is clearly an influence in relation to what happened on the issue of drag queens, especially in Tennessee, and it had an impact here in Canada,” says David Morin.
Frédéric Boily agrees. “Ideological currents cross borders very easily. […] The Quebec right is quite alert to everything that happens outside, ”he says.
Mr. Morin believes that this discourse has very real consequences in Canada.
“I would still link it to the increase in hate crimes against sexual minorities in recent years. […] Statistics Canada has shown that to be the case here,” he says.