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Eastern P.E.I. theatre postpones drag storytime event over online attacks
Kings Playhouse in Georgetown reschedules event ‘out of an abundance of caution’
Tony Davis · CBC News ·
Posted: Feb 23, 2023 8:48 AM PST | Last Updated: 3 hours ago
'I am working very hard to bring an inclusive environment here on P.E.I. for people who don’t fit into the norm around here,' says Trey Yeo. (Tony Davis/CBC)
A drag storytime event planned for the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown has been postponed after it was the target of online attacks.
Trey Yeo, a drag performer and producer who performs under the persona of Treyla Parktrash, was set to read a children's book to families at the Kings Playhouse in March.
He says the purpose of the event was to promote inclusivity and acceptance in a supportive atmosphere for kids.
"I was going to dress like a Disney princess, we were going to read a few books, [and] in between the books, we were going to have a few activities, like colouring — just showing kids that they can have a good time but also be themselves, be authentic."
So, dressing as a Disney Princess is being yourself? Seriously?
A detail from the cover of the children's book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, which was to be read
at the drag storytime at the Kings Playhouse. (CBC)
The plan was to have a performer read a children's book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, about a romance between two rabbits of the same gender.
"It's a really sweet story," said Catherine O'Brien, interim executive director at the King's Playhouse. "[It's about] two bunnies in love. I mean, what can you not love about that?"
What I cannot love about that is that it is about romance and about gay romance. Children of 10 years or younger have no business reading stories about romance or gay romance. There is no place for sexually charged stories in the lives of prepubescent children. It's madness to think you are doing something good for such children with such characters and stories.
The storytime has not been cancelled entirely, the theatre said in a Facebook post: "We are thrilled to be working with the Provincial Library to plan a new date for this event, and we look forward to continuing our inclusive programming for Islanders."
Some of the backlash on social media featured expletives and anti-LGBTQ slurs. Other posts fixated on the graphic for the event, which stated it was only for children under 10.
O'Brien said that graphic could have been worded better.
"It wasn't meant that parents can't be there with the kids … I should have maybe made it just that it was for families," she said.
"We were looking at the age level that would really be engrossed by this book that we had chosen … Children over the age of 10 just might find it a little bit young for them, that was it."
O'Brien said the playhouse has hosted drag events in the past with little backlash. But after the negative comments and hateful messages began to spread, they decided to postpone the event "out of an abundance of caution."
"It has become quite aggressive online and our drag queen performer has also been personally harassed," she said.
"We still really believe it's an important thing to do. We want to do it."
Events have attracted protests
Drag storytime events have become popular at libraries and community centres across Canada, as a way to start conversations with families and children.
"It is a great way to entertain and also help families understand gender diversity," said O'Brien.
Again, prepubescent children do not need to understand gender diversity. All you can do is mess them up big-time!
But as the events have grown in popularity, protests have also taken place across the country — a trend that is "really concerning" to Scott Alan, men's sexual health program coordinator with Charlottetown-based PEERS Alliance.
"I think it does a lot of damage to the community as a whole," he said.
Not as much damage as holding Drag Queen storytime for little children! This is typical of CBC's far-left bent as they interview people who think these events are positive for little children. They avoid talking to anyone who is interested in protecting children from such perversity.
"This type of harassment is unnecessary and the type of programming that's made for the youth is right, and it's good for them at the end of the day."
Good grief! Are you a child psychologist? Do you even have little children?
Alan said there are mental health supports available for performers and community members facing harassment, including Our Landing Place, which offers fully funded mental health services to the LGBTQ2IA+ community on P.E.I.
"We're all here to help these individuals through these situations and offer them support that they need," he said.
These performers need serious mental health support long before they face harassment.
The show must go on
If you are determined to bring society to the edge of Sodom and Gomorrah, then yes, the show must go on. But you should consider what happened to those perverse cities.
Meanwhile, Yeo said he's received support for past events and performances on the Island, and will carry on with other upcoming shows.
"I am working very hard to bring an inclusive environment here on P.E.I. for people who don't fit into the norm around here," he said.
"I'm still going to go, if not harder now, to be present here on P.E.I., especially as a queer person, as a drag entertainer."
Yeo has made his social media accounts private but said he's been doing his best to not let the hate get to him.
Trey Yeo's character Treyla Parktrash was set to read to families at a drag storytime at the Kings Playhouse in March. (Submitted by Trey Yeo)
"The whole point of these events are to show people that the 2SLGBTQ+ community are not evil and that to demonize this group is not the right thing to be doing," he said.
"We as individuals only want to inspire everyone, to live their authentic life and to just, you know, we just want to spread joy and love. That's all it is."
In reality, you just want to justify your own behaviour and that of others like you. You have no business targeting little children in such a pursuit.
Canada considers allowing assisted suicide for children
without parental consent
By Samantha Kamman,
Christian Post Reporter
A parliamentary committee has called for expanding Canada's assisted suicide program so that "mature minors" whose deaths are "reasonably foreseeable" be allowed to hasten their deaths without parental consent.
The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying presented its report last week for discussion in the House of Commons, recommending that minors should be eligible for doctor-assisted suicide.
Minors "deemed to have the requisite decision-making capacity upon assessment" should be eligible for the country's Medical Assistance in Dying Program (MAID), the report states in a list of 23 recommendations.
The committee urged the Canadian government to "undertake consultations with minors on the topic of MAID, including minors with terminal illnesses, minors with disabilities, minors in the child welfare system and Indigenous minors, within five years of the tabling of this report."
The report also recommended that parental consent is not always necessary in certain cases if a minor is eligible for assisted suicide.
"That the Government of Canada establish a requirement that, where appropriate, the parents or guardians of a mature minor be consulted in the course of the assessment process for MAID, but that the will of a minor who is found to have the requisite decision-making capacity ultimately take priority," Recommendation 19 in the report reads.
While the report recommended expanding MAID to minors, it called for restricting it to only young people whose death is "reasonably foreseeable."
The report did not propose an age limit for assisted suicide, stating "eligibility for MAID should not be denied on the basis of age alone." Regarding parental consent, the final report recommends parents be consulted "where appropriate."
The majority of the committee's members called for the government to hold formal consultations with Canadians under 18 within the next five years and to provide funding for research into the issue of minors being eligible for MAID. In addition, the committee called for the creation of an independent expert panel to evaluate the criminal code provisions in MAID for "mature minors" within five years.
Recommendation 22 calls on the Canadian government to "work with provinces and territories, regulatory authorities, provincial and territorial law societies and stakeholders to adopt the necessary safeguards for advance requests."
Conservative members of Parliament objected to the proposal to expand MAID eligibility to minors, highlighting how decision-making capacities, even for mature young people, remain questionable.
Citing Dr. Maria Alisha Montes, a clinical associate professor of pediatrics, the report states: "I would argue that MAID for mature minors carries the highest amount of risk, as the consequence is death."
"It's irreversible," Montes wrote. "We need to ask ourselves if we should be legalizing this for mature minors when biology shows us that the ability to balance risks and rewards is one of the last areas of the brain to mature."
As The Christian Post reported, Canada legalized doctor-assisted suicide in 2016 but was limited to citizens or permanent residents at least 18 years old with "a serious and incurable disease, illness or disability" that included "enduring and intolerable suffering."
Canadian Parliament expanded the law in 2022 to patients with non-threatening physical disabilities, intending to offer assisted suicide to people with mental illness by March before the Canadian government announced a temporary delay in December.
MAID provider Dr. Madeline Li, who has overseen hundreds of patients hasten their deaths through the program, recently expressed concerns that MAID has gone too far and is "missing fundamental safeguards for vulnerable people."
In an op-ed published earlier this month by the Canadian magazine Maclean's, Li voiced disapproval towards offering assisted suicide to people with mental illnesses or patients with curable conditions that refuse care.
The provider recalled a cancer patient determined eligible for MAID despite his condition having a 65% chance of a cure. The MAID assessors approved his case just because the patient declined care and had a "grievous and irremediable condition."
"[I]t was irremediable because they didn't want the treatments available. That's what the law currently states: as long as the patient doesn't want the treatment, their condition is considered irremediable — even if there are effective treatments," she wrote.
"But not treating a cancer with such a high chance of cure goes against medical practice standards. The doctors involved had a lot of moral distress about this person's request for MAID. This person signed consent for me to share their story, but I feel differently about it than they did. They saw it as an expression of their autonomy; I saw it as dystopian."
Canada wouldn't be the first country to legalize assisted suicide for minors, as the Netherlands and Belgium have allowed the practice. In the Netherlands, children 12 and older can request assisted suicide but must have parental consent unless they are 16 and older. In Belgium, children must have a terminal disease or be near death. They must also have the consent of their parents.
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