Far-Right Groups Fail To Disrupt Melbourne Drag Expo
Image: Protests and counter protest6s outside the Melbourne Drag Expo on Saturday August 12, 2023.
LGBTQI community members and allies routed an attempt by far-right Christian groups to disrupt last week’s Drag Expo at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.
The far-right and neo-Nazi groups that have been targeting drag and LGBTQI events in Victoria over the past year, had plans to protest outside the venue.
Trans Queer Solidarity, which organised a counter-protest, said that it was “a gloomy day for anti-trans bigots and fash (fascists).”
Protesters With Rosary Beads
According to TQS, counter-protestors forced “the anti-trans bigots and fash ‘cookers’ off to a sad sidewalk on the other side of the road, well away from the corner they expected to spew their bigotry.”
“We then danced away their vile speeches to a playlist of bangers. This is despite these networks using transphobic wedges to recruit, mobilise and disrupt the Drag Expo for months,” TQS said.
According to TQS, the protests witnessed comical scenes when a “group of Christo-fascists… clung to their rosary beads, muttering Hail Marys in a fruitless attempt to pray away the Gay. Seemingly immune to their ancient incantations, the Gays invaded the prayer circle and danced in blissful defiance.”
“This was a win that shows we have power in solidarity together,” said TQS. The group slammed the role of the Victoria Police.
Victoria Police Slammed
Over the past year, a coalition of far-right figures, conservative Christian groups, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists have threatened to stop drag storytime and queer events across Victoria, leading to their cancellations.
“The protests at Drag Expo have occurred after several councils across so-called Melbourne and regional ‘Victoria’ cancelled their Drag Storytime events, under the anti-trans anti-queer dog whistle of “protecting” children. Victoria Police has repeatedly advised event organisers that kids’ Drag Storytime events cannot be protected,” said TQS.
“Curiously, Victoria Police were able to protect nazis from antifascist protesters at their ‘White Power Lifting’ event in Sunshine West last month. One organiser of the ‘cooker’ rally is an associate of the forerunner to the nazi National Socialist Network—the Lads Society—where he taught them martial arts”.
