BBC hails drag queens as ‘inspirational mums' on CBeebies site
The BBC has been accused of 'insulting' mothers by celebrating two transgender American drag queens as 'inspirational mums' on its CBeebies website aimed at children under six.
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera are named among the inspiring mothers lauded online by the children's channel 'for International Women's Day'.
Other women on the list include Michelle Obama, the former first lady and acclaimed writer, Maya Angelou, the civil rights activist, and Holly Willoughby, the TV presenter.
Johnson and Rivera were transgender women and drag performers who formed a friendship while fighting for LGBT rights in the US in the 1960s and 1970s.
The pair, who both worked as prostitutes and struggled with homelessness, went on to set up a shelter in New York to help young transgender people called Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in 1970.
On the CBeebies webpage for International Women's day, readers are told that Johnson and Rivera 'were revolutionary LGBTQ+ rights activists'.
Over the hashtag 'EveryMumWelcome', it is explained that they were 'transgender drag queens and drag mothers' to the STAR house, providing a home, food, clothing and a sense of family to many LGBTQ+ kids made homeless by their biological families.
The BBC said the webpage was not current and was not published for International Women's Day on March 8.
However, the page is still on the CBeebies website and parent groups and feminist campaigners have criticised the corporation for suggesting drag queens should be celebrated as mothers.
Lucy Marsh, from the Family Education Trust, said: 'CBeebies should not be promoting drag queens as they are highly sexualised caricatures of women and completely inappropriate for children, especially for under six-year-olds who might believe that these men are really women.
'This is also deeply insulting to actual mothers, many of whom could have been featured as role models for young children.'
Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, a parent-led campaign group concerned about the rise in young people identifying as transgender, added: 'The BBC has hit a new low. There is no excuse not to fact-check information directed at six-year-olds.
'These men are neither 'inspirational' nor 'mothers'. Parents can no longer trust the BBC not to cynically push a trans activist agenda on even the youngest children. This current 'slip-up' requires urgent investigation.'
'Insult to injury'
Cathy Larkman, from the Women's Rights Network (WRN), also criticised the CBeebies page for showing 'misogynistic contempt' for women.
She said: 'By definition, a man is not – nor ever can be – a mother. It makes no difference how he identifies, what he wears or what he calls himself. He remains a man. A father. A parent.
'And to feature men who were involved in prostitution in a list of mothers for International Women's Day, adds insult to injury.
'WRN demands that the BBC stop focusing on gender ideology and adult drag culture and instead celebrate the millions of incredible mums out there.'
There has also been a backlash this week on social media to the inclusion of the drag queens on the CBeebies's page.
Diana Alistair, who identifies herself as a feminist on X, wrote that honouring Johnson and Rivera for International Women's day 'is an insult to all women'.
'To honour these men as mothers is an affront so great that it is practically a declaration of war. No man is a mother, and no man should be honored as the woman he is not.'
The controversy comes after the BBC sparked a row by including a transgender Colombian scientist in its annual 100 Women list last December.
Feminist groups branded the inclusion of Brigitte Baptiste, the trans biologist, on the list of 'influential' women as 'breathtakingly insulting'.
The BBC's CBBC channel for children has also come under fire previously for its trans-related content after broadcasting a show called 'Just a Girl', about a schoolboy who takes puberty blockers to change gender.
A BBC spokesman responded: 'This archived page was published five years ago in the 'grown-up' section of the CBeebies website to celebrate International Women's Day.'
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