European Union funded 'drag queen' events for children and teenagers

AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky

Miss Understood Merch

Use code MISSUNDERSTOOD10 for 10% off your first purchase of Miss Understood merch.

Buy Now

The European Union has provided more than €220,000 ($224,000 USD) in taxpayer money to fund and promote “queer” drag queen projects aimed at European youth.

The push to normalize drag queen lifestyles has come to the forefront of public attention thanks in large part to conservative social media accounts like Libs of TikTok, who continues to document the push by left-wing organizations, educators and politicians to normalize the lifestyle to children.

The EU youth program, Erasmus+, is funding the promotion of drag queen lifestyle, as shown by German MEP Nikolaus Fest. On social media, Erasmus+ proclaimed in June that “the future is queer.”

No two people are the same, we are all unique. Each one of us is the result of our own values, dreams, ambitions and talents.

In this Pride, we want to assert our singularities because, when combined, they make us stronger.

This month follow #TheFutureIsQueer.
And be proud. pic.twitter.com/iQt5nHoETO

— Erasmus+ (@EUErasmusPlus) June 1, 2022

ReMIX reported:

The EU money has been disbursed for different “drag” groups, often associated with pro-transgender views. For example, public records show that a “Drag It Up” workshop by the Berlin group Critical Queer Solidarity received €21,797 in taxpayer money. In November 2021, the group hosted the “Drag It Up” seminar, which the EU describes as a “youth exchange” in Berlin with 38 participants aged between 18 and 30.

As detailed by the European Commission grant website, the “Drag It Up” event, which takes place on the November 1-9 will include “38 queers (and allies) between 18 and 30 years living in Germany, Greece, Romania, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain will get to celebrate, try out, and perform drag.”

“The amazing @queenofvirginity will be the main facilitator of the project. No previous experience with drag needed!”

The program, which is funded by the European Commission and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, explains on the grant website that the event is designed to “[increase] the self-confidence of young queer people” and to “create a safer space for queer youth from around Europe to be themselves, both at the youth exchange and in their daily lives after the project.”

Other events, which have also received public funding include the “What’s Masc” program in Oldenberg, Germany, says that participants  “will get to know the queer scene in Berlin by interacting with sexual health activists and drag artists and they will learn about how to deal with toxic masculinity, but also how to foster positive and constructive approaches to masculinity and gender expression in their everyday lives.”

ReMIX reported:

For the “TransYouth,” event marketed to children, which received €28,000., organizers state the event will “offer space for expression for participants by organizing [a] drag queen show and workshops accepting and facing emotions through theater education. We will make a Drag Queen Show first just for participants and if they feel comfortable enough, they can repeat it also in the city centre as an awareness raising activity. The idea behind this is to promote creativity and make it a fun experience for all to see themselves transformed into their alter egos.”

The EU also subsidized the “Beyond Gender Summer Camp” near Göttingen with €62,690, where 75 participants, namely “trans*, inter*, non-binary and gender-questioning young people” attended a one-week camp. The EU Commission offered nearly €40,000 euros in tax money for the project “EUROPE – identities under (trans)formation: GENDER*X,” which took place in Salzburg.

In Spain and Slovenia, Erasmus+ also supports various “Drag Queen” and LGBTQ projects. The EU paid €24,597 to the LGBTQ group “Dragtivism” for seminars in Barcelona and Girona and €21,770 to the Slovenian “United with Pride” project, which also featured drag acts.