Drag queens would tell stories to Trelleborg’s children at the local library. But after the Sweden Democrats’ future chairman of the cultural committee, who takes up the post at the turn of the year, gave the head of administration directives to stop the event, the drag show artists were cancelled.
On Wednesday, the cultural committee in Trelleborg announced that the fairy tale reading will be carried out as planned. The member of the Sweden Democrats was voted down by the numbers 6-1.
SD: “Grown men dressed as women”
The duo in question have the stage names Miss Busty and Miss Shameless. The latter has in previous contexts called herself Shameless Winehore, and that is not appropriate when you read fairy tales to children, believes SD’s party secretary Mattias Bäckström Johansson.
– These are grown men dressed as women, who have names like “miss shameless” and “whore”, who are supposed to talk about norms with sexual elements for children who are two to seven years old. I think it goes without saying that you should see the inappropriateness in it, he says in SVT’s Aktuellt.
Bäckström Johansson also believes that there is an “appropriateness aspect” to take into account when it comes to public events financed by tax funds.
MP: “Exactly what we see in authoritarian regimes”
The statement is met with strong criticism from Stenevi, who believes that it is “purely made up” that the event would have sexual elements. She also says that the rhetoric Bäckström Johansson gives expression to stands for a “displacement” of set directives which is symptomatic of SD’s politics.
– It is extremely rough and not unexpected. This is exactly what we see in authoritarian regimes and leaders when they start suspecting and attacking LGBTQI people, says Stenevi.
See Stenevis and Bäckström Johansson’s debate about the arm’s length distance principle in the video above.