Drag storytime returns to Nelson, B.C., 2 months after cancellation over online threats

A drag storytime event is returning to Nelson, B.C., two months after it was cancelled amid reports of online threats and intimidation.

The Nelson Public Library is bringing back the event, now titled Unshushable, on May 6, this time at the Nelson United Church two blocks away. 

The free-admission activity is being hosted in collaboration with community organizations, including Nelson Pride, the Nelson and District Arts Council, and Nelson Community Services, and priority access will be given to families and guardians accompanying children up to age eight.

Nicole Purvis, longtime Nelson resident and one of the organizers of the event, said the new title, Unshushable, invites participants to freely have fun and enjoy the storytime outside of a library setting. 

Purvis, who identifies as an ally of the LGBTQ community, did not want to comment on whether she or fellow co-organizers have received similar threats over the upcoming event, although she said they are trying to be better prepared. 

"We're really just focusing on the positive feedback we're hearing from community members," she told host Chris Walker on CBC's Daybreak South.

"We want the children in our community to be able to see themselves reflected in the people that we invite into our spaces."

Cancelled due to online threats

The Nelson Public Library decided to cancel its first-ever drag storytime a few days before it was scheduled to run, citing online threats and intimidation to staff and the participating storytellers.

Nelson police say they are still investigating the threats as suspected hate-motivated incidents.

It's not the first time an event has been cancelled in B.C. over similar reasons: in June last year, organizers of a family-friendly drag show at a Victoria café cancelled the event, after the café owner said staff were inundated with homophobic and transphobic phone calls. 

The cancellations have come amid a rise in attacks on the LGBTQ community. In the U.S., 120 drag events were targeted by threats in 2022, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the world's largest LGBTQ advocacy group.

The day the Nelson library cancelled its drag storytime event, more than 100 residents gathered in front of Nelson city hall to protest the threats, and to hold a similar storytelling activity outdoors.

Birkley Valks, one of two people set to perform that day, read a story to supporters.

Valks says as a trans man born and raised in Nelson, he was shocked to see an LGBTQ-friendly event cancelled due to online hate — but he's excited for the opportunity to perform at Unshushable next month.

"I'm glad to see that my community is standing up and standing with me," he said.

"It's a really scary place out there for people that feel like they're all alone, and in doing these drag story times, you don't feel so alone."

Event organizers are also raising funds they say will go to the AIDS Network Kootenay Outreach and Support Society (ANKORS), a Nelson-based non-profit that runs a health program to support transgender, two-spirit, intersex and gender-diverse people.