Drag Queen Story Time Gets $175,000 of Swedish Government Funding!

Drag Queen Story Time with JP Kane (far left) a kindergarten teacher from Toronto

The Swedish government is investing $175,000, to fund drag queen story hour shows for children and those with disabilities.

The money will come from the Swedish Inheritance Fund, a state body that manages the inheritance money of Swedes who die without a written will or next of kin.

Kulturföreningen Mums, a politically independent association in Stockholm, will be the primary recipient. The organization broadens Sweden’s cultural offerings with a focus on LGBTQ issues.

Sweden’s General Heritage Foundation said,

“The project will, together with children, young people and adults with disabilities, develop available normative creative fairy tales in the form of drag shows.

Together with the target group and several organisations, the established business Among Dragons and Drag Queens will create new fairy tales that reflect the target group.”

Drag queen story shows are gaining popularity as a fun and educational way to celebrate diversity.

One Swede wrote on Twitter,

“I can only see the project as good. Children in general, and especially children with a functional impairment, do not see drag artists in the same way that adults do.
It’s not about influencing the children. The fairy tales are the [same] ones we can all borrow from the libraries.”

But not everyone is so positive. Organizers of an event in Houston, Texas (my home town) were forced to cancel following death threats from conservative Christians.

Another event in Ottawa was interrupted by an angry Christian who disrupted the reading to tell small children that they would be