Marshfield Teen Drag Program Canceled After Performer's Sick Tweets Surface
Pride Watch 2024: Library Edition
Yesterday, thanks to a post submitted in the Massachusetts Informed Parents Facebook group, we became aware of a drag event being planned for teens in Marshfield at the Ventress Memorial Library.
In the spirit of Pride Watch, we decided to dig a little deeper and see what else we could learn about this event that was being marketed to minors on the taxpayer dime.
The drag queen set to perform at this event was Patty Bourree, who according to this article, is an educator named Patrick Burr (his LinkedIn profile has him working at the Cambridge Friends School, although he’s not listed on their website).
But when we went to the Ventress Memorial Library website, we couldn’t find the event at all. Nothing was posted on the teen calendar for that date, June 15th.
A google search showed something different, though. The event had been online just days before. So what happened? Had the event been canceled? Had it simply gone underground? We posed this question in MIP and suggested that someone from Marshfield look into it.
A Marshfield parent reached out to the library and confirmed that the event had indeed been canceled, but no reason was given.
This is where someone might say, okay, great! No event, no problem. But then something else unfolded. Parents with connections to Marshfield started to suggest that the event had been canceled due to highly-inappropriate tweets from the drag queen. These tweets had surfaced, then been sent to the library, and the library had canceled the event. The same tweets were in the possession of many Marshfield parents, and some of them shared them with us. The tweets in question, which (as of writing) can still be found on the performer’s public twitter profile, are below:
(For the record, we find a vast many more of Mr. Burr’s tweets to be highly vulgar and extremely inappropriate public discourse for someone who works with children. But these four tweets are the ones we were told had been sent to the library, so we’ll stick with those ones for now.)
The library, to our knowledge, still has not released an official statement on why this event was cancelled. But according to this Facebook post found in a Marshfield group, the library is telling people that the event was cancelled “due to threats.”
Now, we don’t know what the real story is regarding why the event was canceled. But according to what the community reported to us, Mr. Burr’s vulgar tweets had been sent to the library, and then the event was canceled. This makes us wonder, were actual, physical “threats” also sent? (If so, that’s not cool!) Or in our “words are violence” culture, do emails from concerned citizens expressing displeasure about the library hiring an adult sexual performer to work with minors count as “threats?”
We can’t be sure what actually happened, but this is information that Marshfield residents could (and should) access through a Public Records Request, if they really want to know.
At MIP, we like to celebrate any and all good things that happen when it comes to protecting kids from sexualization. And we think that the Ventress Memorial Library canceling an event that would have put an adult sexual performer who has tweeted gross stuff about teenagers performing sex acts in direct contact with teenagers, is good news. So thank you, Ventress Memorial Library. You did the right thing.
But that’s not the end of the conversation, because a few points still need to be made.
First, from what we can tell based on the Ventress Teen website, parental consent is not required for teens to attend these events. That means, had this event happened, parents might not have known their kids were there. And VMS isn’t the only library that has lax policies with stuff like this. That’s a problem.
(Marshfielders, you should also let your library know that some of the links on their Teen “Fandom” page take kids to websites known to contain graphic adult material, such as DeviantArt and FanPop. Ick.)
Second, libraries need to do WAY better when it comes to vetting the adults they put into contact with kids. Mr. Burr has done many past events at libraries, with children. Here’s one from last year at the Duxbury Library, that he did with a fellow drag queen, Just JP :
Mr. Burr is also scheduled to do quite a few more events at MA libraries in the near future in Boston, Allston, Roslindale, and Dorcester (and possibly more, but you get the point).
We can’t help but wonder if any of these other libraries bothered to vet Mr. Burr before they hired him. If so, are they okay with the graphic nature of his online presence? Do they believe he is a good role model for children? How do they justify this clear lapse in judgement? And if they are not okay with his posts, will he still be performing at their facility? Why is it that a library would never ask a Playboy Bunny, a stripper, or a porn star to present a program or a storytime to minors, but the red carpet is uncritically rolled out for drag queens?
A sympathetic Marshfield “ally” must have shared the chatter about his cancellation with Mr. Burr, because he took to Twitter last night to comment:
He then goes on to characterize the tweets shared with the Library as “joke tweets” and “performances that I have done in 21+ venues.”
His friend Just JP is also concerned that his old tweets might be seen by “lunatics” who mistake his “spicy posts” for “degeneracy.”
Maybe he’s concerned because he doesn’t want his event tomorrow at the Holliston Library to be cancelled? Idk.
But here are just a couple of his tweets. We don’t think “nuance” explains this away.
And finally, if Mr. Burr and JP and other drag queens want the freedom to joke and perform without scrutiny, they can have it. But they should not expect to have the freedom to perform like this for adults AND post their highly-sexualized adult content online AND use their drag persona as a way to get kiddie gigs AND escape criticism. That standard doesn’t exist for teachers, or police officers, or pretty much anyone else who wants to work with children. If they don’t want parents to complain, there’s an easy fix - stop performing for kids. Nobody would be talking about them right now if they weren’t introducing drag to minors.
But if libraries didn’t hire drag queens to work with kids, we wouldn’t have to have this conversation at all.
We think it’s high time that happened.
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Part of the ridiculousness of this whole thing is that those tweets are very typical of drag queens. It's ridiculous that anyone would think they are appropriate to have around kids, ever.