The toxic ideology of Gender Identity politics has been silently creeping into India. Away from the public eye, activists have been working silently to brainwash children into the ideology. OpIndia, in a series of reports, has highlighted the manner in which the ideology irreparably harms children and after we raised the issue, a certain media outlet has taken upon itself the mantle of serving as their propaganda tool.
In this report, we will focus on another manner in which our children are being indoctrinated into the toxic ideology. It has come to our notice that in a particular school, and it is again the same school, the Tagore International School at Vasant Vihar, where children were introduced to a ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’.
Drag Queens are often gay men or cross-dressers or transgender men who dress up in female clothing exaggerating female features for entertainment purposes. They often wear a lot of make-up and the whole thing is heavily sexual, although it does not always have to be that way. The identifying feature is often the heavy usage of make-up and until the advent of gender identity politics, drag queen performances have been reserved for adult audiences.
Quite clearly, due to obvious reasons, local cultural factors influence the expression and attire of Drag Queens in India and hence, Drag Queen Story Hours in India differ from the same in the West. However, the ideology that such conduct represents is extremely toxic and, as we have seen in the West, has the potential to wreck societies.
Furthermore, it also needs to be borne in mind that the Desmond is Amazing, a child in his adolescence currently, danced at a gay nightclub dressed as a Drag Artist while adult gay men threw money at him some years ago. It also needs to be borne in mind that the incident was largely ignored by the activists. Under such circumstances, we need to be extremely wary of such am ideology being imported to India.
As it so happens, it is not only in Tagore International School at Delhi that such a Drag Queen Story Hour has been conducted. The Keshav Suri Foundation organised the same at the Canadian International School Bangalore. It helped conduct a session with the school’s students where a Drag Queen called Maya addressed students last year.
With regards to the objective of these story hours, past news reports in the media regarding the same confirms our conclusions. One Drag Queen who has addressed children in one of these story hours told Times of India, “We didn’t have to lecture them — that they got to see people dressed in clothes not ascribed to their gender was itself a break in their understanding of gender and a way to take the shock value away.”
The same TOI report also mentions that Tagore International School launched the Breaking Barriers Campaign which tied up with Nazariya QFRG, the same organisation that advertised a colouring back to students with nude women wearing dildos and masturbating, to train 30-35 ‘volunteers’ every year from classes 9 to 12. These volunteers then make presentations for students in other grades.
Furthermore, the Canada Embassy in India has also partnered with Keshav Suri Foundation in the latter’s bid to mainstream gender identity politics in our country. Keshav Suri is an Executive Director at The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group which has organised Drag Queen Story Hour sessions in Kolkata as well.
Thus, it is evident that widespread efforts to mainstream gender identity politics in India is currently underway, away from the public eye. Like it was in the West, if current trends hold, the sheer harm it poses will only be evident when it is too late. We have documented the harm that gender identity politics causes to children in our article here.
Furthermore, the growing influence of organisations such as Nazariya QFRG among our children is cause for extreme concern as their form of activism is particularly toxic. Thus, while there is still time, it is of paramount importance that governments step in to nip the menace in the bud.
