We have today written to the Stratford on Avon Specsavers branch regarding their sponsorship of the drag queen Aida H Dee of Drag Queen Story Hour at the Stratford Literary Festival in May. We have also written to the Chair of the Stratford Literary Festival to ask why they are hosting a performer who openly boasts about sharing LGBTQ+ content with very young children and babies.
The letters will also be copied to the Specsavers head office in Guernsey.
Dear Jonathan and directors,
I am writing to you to express our concern that your Specsavers branch is sponsoring the drag queen Aida H Dee (aka Sab Samuel) to perform to children aged 2-5 years old at the Stratford Literary Festival on Saturday 6th May.
As Specsavers is a family-owned company, it is odd that as a brand you wish to be associated with an individual who has publicly stated that “love has no age”, fundraised for the funeral of a convicted child sex offender and also raised money for Mermaids, a charity currently under review by the Charity Commission for its lack of child safeguarding.
On his public social media pages, both as Aida H Dee and Drag Queen Story Hour, Mr Samuel criticises parents for their safeguarding concerns around sexualising young children and has also stated that puberty blockers are harmless. After a recent visit to a school in Wales in his persona as the drag queen Aida H Dee, Mr Samuel posted pictures on his Twitter account where the children could clearly be identified and boasted about speaking to them about adult sexuality, gender identity and mental health, including suicide. As far as we are aware, Mr Samuel has no medical qualifications and is not a trained counsellor, so is not in a position to be speaking to children about these issues.
Drag is a niche adult entertainment where men dress as exaggerated caricatures of women and often have highly sexualised names and routines. It is never suitable for children, especially young children as it blurs the boundaries between men and women and exposes them to adult sexuality and concepts of gender identity which they are too young to understand. Evidence shows that exposing young children to adult sexuality increases their risk of becoming a victim of sexual abuse or engaging in underage sexuality activity.
It is vital that child safeguarding is upheld and that we maintain childhood innocence wherever possible, therefore we urge you to reconsider your sponsorship of Drag Queen Story Hour at the Stratford Literary Festival. While encouraging children to enjoy reading is commendable, there must surely be a more suitable local children’s author who would be able to entertain young children at this event?
We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Lucy Marsh
PR and Communications Officer