A drag queen was captured on video leading children to chant ‘Free Palestine’ during a queer storytime event at a Massachusetts art center.
A video of the “Queer Storytime for Palestine” event organized by the Valley Families for Palestine group at the Northampton Center for the Arts on April 14 in Amherst, Massachusetts, has been met with outrage in recent days.
The video shows drag queen Lil Miss Hot Mess ordering a group of preschool and elementary school-aged children to chant “Free Palestine,” according to Valley Families for Palestine Instagram posts.
While reading her book “If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It,” Lil Miss Hot Mess told the children: “If you’re a drag queen and you know it shout ‘Free Palestine.'”
The event included “dancing, celebrating Palestine culture, learning about queer heroes and doing arts and crafts,” according to an Instagram post by the Valley Families for Palestine group. Event profits were donated to alQaws, a Palestinian organization “working for queer liberation.”
The event also featured Hannah Moushabeck, a Palestinian American activist and the author of “Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine,” and Sarah Prager, the Massachusetts-based author of “Queer, There, and Everywhere: 27 People Who Changed the World,” “Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History,”
“Kind Like Marsha: Learning from LGBTQ+ Leaders,” and “A Child’s Introduction to Pride: The Inspirational History and Culture of the LGBTQIA+ Community.”
The event and video has sparked harsh backlash online, with many pointing out that LGBTQ people are not usually treated with respect in Gaza and other Palestinian areas. The LGBT Equality Index, which ranks the most LGBT-Friendly Countries in the World, placed Palestine at 192 of the 197 countries on the list — just a few ranks above Iran.
“The harsh reality? Members of the LGBTQ+ community are often murdered in Gaza and other Palestinian areas such as Ramallah,” StopAntisemitism posted to X.
