VIENNA (LifeSiteNews) — Hundreds of pro-family protesters took to the streets in Vienna to protest Austria’s first ever “drag queen story time” for children.
The demonstration took place on April 16 in front of the “queer community café” called Villa Vida, where a drag queen called “Freya Van Kant” performed in front of children aged 5 to 12.
Catholic activist Alexander Tschugguel said in a speech at the protest that it is important to stop this “anti-God, satanic spirit” from the beginning.
“We will not allow this in Austria, we will not become like the United States of America, we will not become like England, we will not become like Holland, where some deformed people appear in front of small children on public television,” he proclaimed.
READ: Dutch TV show ‘Simply Naked’ exposes children to full-on transgender nudity
Participants of the protest were holding up signs reading “Close down Villa Vida – protect our children.”
Hier auf der Demonstration gegen die erste "Drag Queen story hour" für Kinder (5-12 Jahre) in Österreich pic.twitter.com/I5C8Bx4EO2
— Andreas Wailzer (@Andreas_Wailzer) April 16, 2023
The pro-family protesters were separated from the leftist pro-LGBT activists by barricades and a large police force. The left-wing extremist “Antifa” flag was displayed on a building in front of the protest. While the pro-family crowd played traditional Austrian march music, the counter-protesters blasted pro-LGBT pop hymns like Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” through their speakers.
Counter protestors guarded by police, flying LGBT rainbow flags pic.twitter.com/kaLmTQ7ye2
— Andreas Wailzer (@Andreas_Wailzer) April 16, 2023
Bizarrely, a person inside the Villa Vida was at one point holding a young child out of a window.
The drag queen show and the associated protests drew considerable attention in Austria’s mainstream media in the weeks leading up to the event. The controversial performance received support from far-left activist groups, as well as from several Austrian politicians, including the vice chancellor of the country’s current government coalition, Werner Kogler of the Green Party. Pro-LGBT activists, as well as Austria’s Social-Democratic Party (SPÖ) and Green Party, called for protective “buffer zones” around the drag queen event.
Vice Chancellor @WKogler of Austria openly supports first Drag Queen story hour for children in Vienna https://t.co/pTsfTXk5Mn
— Andreas Wailzer (@Andreas_Wailzer) April 16, 2023
The right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) condemned the drag queen reading for children. Dominik Nepp, the head of Vienna’s FPÖ, said in a press release that the show is “an unacceptable premature sexualization of young children” that should be forbidden.
READ: Drag queen who danced for kids charged with 25 counts of child pornography
“There must be an end to propagating to children and young people that transgender or gender reassignment is something quite normal,” Nepp stated. “Because there are only the biological sexes man and woman and nothing else. There is a scientific consensus about this. Therefore, any indoctrination to the contrary must be kept away from children.”
Several members of Austria’s People’s Party (ÖVP) also spoke out against the drag queen reading, including the spokesman for Christian Democracy of the Vienna People’s Party, Jan Ledóchowski.
The majority of Austrians seemed to disapprove of the drag queen event as well: a poll in one of Austria’s largest tabloid newspapers showed that around 75 percent disapproved of drag queen readings for children to varying degrees.
Tschugguel, who was a co-organizer of the event, told LifeSiteNews that the “demonstration was a great success. Not only have we managed to draw the attention of a large part of the Austrian population to this problem for weeks but we also made it clear to Austrians that it is a problem.”
“We see in polls in various newspapers an approval of 70 to 80 percent on average, which is quite impressive,“ he said.
Pro-family activist and co-founder of the German organization “Demo für Alle,” Hedwig von Beverfoerde, talked to LifeSiteNews during the protest about the problem of drag queens, who “one would normally expect to see in the red light milieu,” reading to children.
“If they now read to small children and present themselves as completely normal and nice and friendly and acceptable to the children, then, of course, this has an influence,” von Beverfoerde told LifeSiteNews.
“This is supposed to get the children used to the idea that this is normality. This is a big problem because we have a huge problem with the whole trans wave at the moment. There are an incredible number of young people who have suddenly come out as transgender in the last 10-15 years and want to change their gender with terrible consequences.”
Von Beverfoerde continued: “A whole generation is being destroyed by this completely crazy idea that you can freely choose and change your gender and so on.”
“We really have to protect the children from the beginning and that’s why it is very important to stand up against such drag queen readings, in addition to the whole sexualization via an inappropriate sex education that already takes place in schools and daycare centers everywhere.”
Von Beverfoerde added that it is important to show opposition to these drag queen events because “everyone realizes in his heart that this cannot be right and good for children.”
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