Drag storytime pioneers Fay & Fluffy are not backing down

Few queens have been doing drag storytimes for as long as Fay Slift and Fluffy Soufflé. We first covered their journey back in February 2020 for an episode of Canada's a Drag; at that point, they'd already been doing their now-iconic "Fay & Fluffy's Storytime" regularly since an event at Toronto Pride in 2016.

Obviously, the society Fay & Fluffy exist within has evolved dramatically — for better and, in some ways, very much for worse — in their seven years of performing together. But their mission remains as necessary as ever, if not even more so. 

"I think that it's really important for kids to know that we're here for them and we're here for their families," Fay told me back in 2020. "We're here to support them and to try and ... not necessarily protect but to show them that you're going to be meeting a lot of adversity and challenges with being authentically true, because that in itself is an act of resistance."

This weekend, the recently minted Canadian Screen Award winners will be bringing that mission to JUNIOR, which takes place at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre and is one of Canada's largest children's festivals. The event will mark a homecoming of sorts for the duo.

"The very first time that we did JUNIOR was in 2018," Fay says. "And even through the pandemic, we have done the festival in some capacity or another, whether we've either filmed something for it or we've done a live storytime."

"Harbourfront and the festival itself are completely an inclusive space. It's welcome to everybody in the community. The entire event is free. There's a lot of wonderful and creative things that are happening there. There are artists coming in from all over the world."

But of course, as welcoming as the festival itself might be to Fay, Fluffy and their many young fans, the world outside has found certain segments of its population become disturbingly hostile toward their collective joy. Protests specifically against drag queen storytimes or similar events have accelerated dangerously in the past year or so, with over 30 examples occuring in Canada alone since the beginning of 2022.

Fay and Fluffy have yet to really experience this firsthand — but they know it may be coming.

"We haven't had [the protestors] come out to our events, though we haven't had any public events in a long time," Fluffy says. "Fay was in [East Toronto neighbourhood] Leslieville having a gorgeous storytime while that whole protest was happening at Fort York."

"I feel big emotions about the fact that we have gotten this attention and are doing really well and getting all this support. But then the people that are getting all the attacks are just drag performers that just want to go do a drag story hour. They're not on TV spreading their message. They're not doing articles like this. They're just some people that love dressing up and want to go read stories to kids, which ultimately is what we do."

They've discussed how they'd approach the possibility of protesters, and said they'd prefer their supports not subject themselves to counterprotesting. 

"We don't want kids and their families to be confronted with that depth of hatred," Fay says. "I mean, we're talking about literal Nazis. That's what's showing up inside of public spaces and protesting."

Our message is about literacy, supporting community and family diversity. And what's their message — that we shouldn't exist? It's all hate.- Fluffy Soufflé

"We've decided that we really don't want to put any of our people in harm's way," adds Fluffy. "I also don't want the Nazis to have more cameras on them to have publicity. I don't want them to have a voice. So if we shut down counter-protests, then hopefully [protesters] just realize they're not getting attention for it."

The duo says that no matter what happens, they'll be moving full steam ahead with their mission.

"We are going to continue doing what we do because we believe in our community and we are not backing down from it," Fay says. "We are not backing down. And the fact that we go in and occupy spaces and make spaces queer and safe for the people that are in those spaces — that's what we're going to continue to strive for. We are not going to get caught up in this rhetoric and this vitriol."

"Our message is about literacy, supporting community and family diversity," Fluffy adds. "And what's their message — that we shouldn't exist? It's all hate."

Even as they come up against this hate, they say they will not back down.

"I mean, we're not hiding," says Fay. "We're not going back into closets. We're not doing any of that. We are here. We've always been here and we're going to keep being here." 

You can see Fay and Fluffy at JUNIOR at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre May 20–21 at 2pm and May 22, 2023 at 2:30pm. More information can be found here.