A RuPaul’s Dag Race contestant performed at one of America’s most prestigious institutions as she read several woke kids’ books to Yale Law School students.
Robin Fierce made history as the first drag queen to become guest speaker at the college, using the occasion to focus on ‘the intersectionality of black and queer history’.
The next generation of America’s top lawyers sat through expletive-laden renditions of ‘Anti-Racist Baby’ by Ibram X. Kendi, ‘And Tango Makes Three’ by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ by George M. Johnson.
And the performance was topped off by a club dance musical number, which came after a discussion about the impact the ‘culture wars’ have on LGBT+ debates.
Robin Fierce, center, made history as the first drag queen to become guest speaker at Yale Law School
The drag queen chose to read three woke children’s books to the law students, including ‘Anti-Racist Baby’
The RuPaul’s Drag Race star appeared on the show’s fifteenth season
Asking the students to call her ‘Professor Robin Fierce’, the drag queen told the students: ‘To be drag is art.
‘It is expression, and it is a release of a feminine side that is oftentimes suppressed by family members or the world. How are you banning art when there are so many different forms of art out there?’
One of the books read by Fierce, ‘Anti-Racist Baby’, was almost made into a Netflix animation series for preschoolers last year before it was scrapped due to ‘creative reasons’.
The 2020 book proposes nine steps for parents to discuss racism with their children, including recognizing skin color and how to grow up as an ‘anti-racist’.
Footage of Fierce reading the book shows the drag queen telling the laughing crowd: ‘Anti-racist baby – which all babies should be, right?’
And in another obscenity-filled clip, she is seen holding open the book and remarking: ‘I haven’t seen a f***ing stamp like this in so long… I wanna be a librarian.’
Her second book reading, ‘And Tango Makes Three’, tells the story of two male penguins who try to have a child together.
And ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ is described as a ‘memoir manifesto’ by activist and author George M Johnson, where he details his journey growing up as a queer black man, touching on topics including sexual abuse, race and statutory rape.
Taking to Twitter after the profane performance, Fierce touched upon the criticisms that ‘drag story hours’ expose minors to inappropriate content.
‘For you ridiculous people out there that might see this, I was reading to adults so explicit language was able to be used,’ she wrote.
‘And when I’m not reading to adults I don’t use explicit language because I know how to act’.
One of the attendees, co-chair of the school’s diversity, equality and inclusion committee AJ Hudson, said the drag queen’s performance was a form of protest against conservative and anti-LGBT speakers that had previously visited.
‘To pay a drag queen to come speak — a directly system-impacted person whose expertise is just as valuable as a heterosexual cisgender white man, lawyer or judge, it’s historic,’ they told Yale Daily News.
Fierce’s appearance comes as debates swirl over ‘drag story hours’, which have angered some conservative groups as they invite drag queens to read woke books to groups of children.
The event’s organizers have said the drag readings are intended to ‘capture the imagination and play of gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models’.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race star, who appeared on the show’s fifteenth season this year, noted the controversy during her speech, claiming that the struggle to define drag serves as a gateway for ‘hatred’.
Ibram X. Kendi’s ‘Anti-Racist Baby’ proposes nine steps for parents to discuss racism with their children, including recognizing skin color and how to grow up as an ‘anti-racist’
‘And Tango Makes Three’, the 2005 children’s book, tells the story of two male penguins who try to have a child together
‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ is described as a ‘memoir manifesto’ by activist and author George M Johnson, where he details his journey growing up as a queer black man
As the events continue to spark controversy, one December reading descended into chaos in New York after it was overrun by protestors.
The event was billed as ‘story time with local drag performers adapted to be more accessible to kids with autism and other disabilities.’
But ugly scenes took over as onlookers hurled obscenities and slurs outside the performance in Chelsea’s Andrew Heiskell Library.
It came just a week after a man was arrested and charged at a nearby drag reading event in Midtown Manhattan.
Footage of the incident showed a protestor, who had been clutching a sign that read ‘leave our kids alone’, become embroiled in the heated demonstration with the assailant, who screamed at the event ‘you’re a f***ing disgrace’.
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