This is the moment 16-month-old Willum saw a drag queen for the first time.
Mum Monica took her son, Willum, to see the drag show inside a Wholefoods store in Texas – but she never expected his incredible reaction (video below).
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“No way! I did not expect this reaction at all,” she told PinkNews.
“It was the first time I took him to one of these so I had absolutely no clue how he would react, or that he would run all the way up to her.
“I’m a big fan of drag queens and love to support local drag as well as world wide drag.”
Monica, from Houston, said she was delighted to see Willum’s face light up as drag queen Naomi Capri performed.
Drag queen Capri told PinkNews: “I do remember the child – it made my heart jump because I remember a time when our parents tried to hide ‘gay’ things away from us.
“To see a beautiful little boy run up to me with the dollar, I felt honoured.
“It proves that times are changing and the fact that these little kids are being exposed to our culture will help with the treatment of younger generations of the LGBT community.
“People need to see this – it proves we are human too!”
Willum with his mum and dad (Danny Nguyen Photography)
She had taken her son Willum to see the monthly Drag Queen Bingo performed at a Whole Foods store in Bellaire, Texas, organised by DeManDuh W Strutts Production.
He’s since met other drag queens, too.
Willum with drag queen Vitamin B (Instagram/monicatx76)
But Willum is not the first child to have an adorable reaction to drag queens – last year, PinkNews spoke to this amazing group of queens who Drag Queen Storytime.
Thomas Canhum set up the initiative in response to seeing the decline in public library spaces, and as a way of helping young people understand what it means to be LGBTQ.
Canhum told PinkNews: “Reading is one of the most fundamental things we can teach our children.
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“Considering the amount of libraries that are closing down all across the country, and the declining educational attainment, I believe now more than ever we should be pushing to increase the reading ability of our youths.
“Growing up as a gay man, throughout my entire educational experience, I never encountered a single book, author, or lesson which acknowledged homosexuality.
“I’ve never been in a classroom in which transgender issues are discussed, and I think that’s damaging to young people.
“If you don’t see yourself represented within society, how are you supposed to come to terms with who you are as an individual within it?”
Credit: Facebook/Drag Queen Storytime
Canhum is hoping the project will tackle homophobic and transphobic bullying among young people.
“I would suggest that the issues we’re discussing will very definitely be playing a role in these children’s lives as they get older,” he said.
“Some of them will grow up to be LGBT, they might be transgender, or have friends at school who are, or whose parents are in same-sex couples.”
Inspired by similar initiatives in the US, Drag Queen Storytime has taken place in Bristol and London, in the UK, but Canhum hopes the project will spread nationwide.
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