EU Funds Used For Sexually Explicit Performances by LGBTI+ Youth
A Slovakian journalist writing for the Standard has revealed that EU Funds were used to fund sexually explicit youth performances
The Slovakian newspaper, The Standard, has just published an article by Dana Vitalosova which alleges that the EU's Erasmus+ programme has funded a project which may have involved the attendance of minors at sexually explicit performances.
The EU-funded project Dragtivism 3.0 is about exploring “gender expression” through the art of drag and promoting LGBTI+ and human rights. The 2022 edition held in Spain involved young people between the ages of 16-25 from the UK, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Greece and Italy.
Questions are now being raised after a Slovakian secondary school student posted a sexually explicit video of the project’s final showcase event on YouTube. The event was held in a Barcelona nightclub known for sadomasochism and other sexual fetish activities. The video features scantily dressed teenagers, one with only black tape covering her nipples, spanking, gyrating and “ twerking” to nightclub music.
We need more honest discussion about “LGBTQI+” issues
Several issues are raised by the controversy surrounding the Dragtivism project - notably:
about what’s appropriate content for the Erasmus+ programme (primarily known for promoting youth education & exchanges)
legal issues related to exposing minors to explicit adult-themed activities
whether the Commission exercised proper oversight in approving and monitoring this project
and whether the public can continue to have confidence in how the Commission allocates funding through the Erasmus+ programme
We need MEPs to hold the Commission accountable on this issue. The European Commission must undertake an investigation, review how they approve and monitor projects, and immediately withdraw any funding from Erasmus+ projects that don’t meet expected standards.
We also need MEPs to engage in a wider public debate on LGBT issues and to reconsider the policies they are currently pushing on things like:
gender self-id with no age limits,
allowing men to access women's spaces & sports,
punishing parents and doctors who question a child's "gender identity",
and criminalising any dissent on these issues as "hate speech”.
These issues are all embraced in the EU’s LGBTIQ Equality Strategy which MEPs will discuss this week in Strasbourg as part of a mid-term review. We call on MEPs to take this occasion to have a more honest debate on LGBTQI+ issues. The general public is increasingly waking up to LGBTQI+ policies that are not as righteous as they may have first appeared. For example,
a respected youth exchange programme like Erasmus+ funds LGBTI+ projects that potentially border on child pornography
MEPs are pushing for gender self-identification under the cover of “human rights” which in practice means things like putting male rapists in female prisons
and the cuddly sounding “gender affirmative care” is setting many young people, notably LGB or autistic youth, on an irreversible path of lifelong medicalisation.
MEPs who support these policies, those who are complacent, and those who cower somewhere in the halls of power, will eventually have to answer to an outraged European electorate.
**** An earlier version of this article included images that we have since learned could have represented a minor. The images have therefore been removed.