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On Tuesdays, the Philadelphia Zoo presents “Story Time Tuesdays: Animal Tales.” A special guest reads a book about animals to kids. And a zookeeper brings along one of the zoo’s animals to show to the tots. It’s a lovely affair. On June 3rd, to kick off Pride Month, the Philadelphia Zoo was set to partner with local non-profit Philadelphia Family Pride, and the group engaged drag queen Christina Bangz to read to the children. Well, that was the plan anyway.
According to Philadelphia Family Pride spokesperson Michael Galvan, the Philadelphia Zoo’s director of school and community partnerships, Bethany Housman, reached out to the organization on Friday to set up an urgent phone call before the holiday weekend. And on that call, says Galvan, Housman pulled the plug on any drag queen involvement with the event.
It didn’t take Galvan long to decide that if there would be no drag queen, there would be no Philadelphia Family Pride involvement with the zoo.
“I appreciate concerns about safety,” says Galvan. “But if they can’t keep one drag queen safe, then I don’t feel comfortable having queer families in that space. Additionally, in this ‘modern era’, drag artists are being vilified and attacked. We need to stand in solidarity.”
Housman and a Philadelphia Zoo spokesperson did not return messages seeking comment. But one Philadelphia Zoo employee, who is queer, had this to say about the cancelation, which they were unaware of until I told them about it: “There are Trump people that come to the zoo. Our public safety department can’t respond immediately, because there’s only a few patrolling staff. It could take three-plus minutes to respond.” (I agreed not to name the employee, since they are not authorized to speak to the press.)
Sure, I get that. But also, this feels a little bit like the town outside of Philly that just canceled its longstanding Fourth of July parade because terrorists might attack it. And if the Philadelphia Zoo is committed to being an ally of the LGBTQ community, maybe hire a bodyguard for the one hour that the drag queen would have been on the premises, assuming that safety concerns are really at the center of this decision. I’m not certain that they are.
On Tuesdays, the Philadelphia Zoo presents “Story Time Tuesdays: Animal Tales.” A special guest reads a book about animals to kids. And a zookeeper brings along one of the zoo’s animals to show to the tots. It’s a lovely affair. On June 3rd, to kick off Pride Month, the Philadelphia Zoo was set to partner with local non-profit Philadelphia Family Pride, and the group engaged drag queen Christina Bangz to read to the children. Well, that was the plan anyway.
According to Philadelphia Family Pride spokesperson Michael Galvan, the Philadelphia Zoo’s director of school and community partnerships, Bethany Housman, reached out to the organization on Friday to set up an urgent phone call before the holiday weekend. And on that call, says Galvan, Housman pulled the plug on any drag queen involvement with the event.
“She was apologetic and said she wished she were calling with better news,” says Galvan, the person who had set the event up with Housman in the first place. “But she said that ‘senior leadership’ had requested that we continue the event without a drag queen story hour. She said specifically that her leadership was ‘concerned they could not guarantee the safety and security’ of our drag artist.”It didn’t take Galvan long to decide that if there would be no drag queen, there would be no Philadelphia Family Pride involvement with the zoo.
“I appreciate concerns about safety,” says Galvan. “But if they can’t keep one drag queen safe, then I don’t feel comfortable having queer families in that space. Additionally, in this ‘modern era’, drag artists are being vilified and attacked. We need to stand in solidarity.”
Housman and a Philadelphia Zoo spokesperson did not return messages seeking comment. But one Philadelphia Zoo employee, who is queer, had this to say about the cancelation, which they were unaware of until I told them about it: “There are Trump people that come to the zoo. Our public safety department can’t respond immediately, because there’s only a few patrolling staff. It could take three-plus minutes to respond.” (I agreed not to name the employee, since they are not authorized to speak to the press.)
Sure, I get that. But also, this feels a little bit like the town outside of Philly that just canceled its longstanding Fourth of July parade because terrorists might attack it. And if the Philadelphia Zoo is committed to being an ally of the LGBTQ community, maybe hire a bodyguard for the one hour that the drag queen would have been on the premises, assuming that safety concerns are really at the center of this decision. I’m not certain that they are.
