Pride beauty pageant contestant performs ‘striptease’ in front of children
A “striptease” was performed in front of young children at a seaside town’s Pride beauty pageant, as a performer dropped their trousers and danced around a bandstand in their underwear.
A video posted on social media shows a contestant dancing while simulating a sexual act on a cane in front of a group of minors at the festival in Kent on Aug 12.
The crowd can be heard cheering as the performer dances in a bra and underwear to the song Pony, by Ginuwine, featuring the lyrics: “If you’re horny let’s do it. Ride it, my pony. My saddle’s waiting. Come and jump on it”.
The footage posted on X, formerly Twitter, shows around a dozen girls and boys watching the display.
It is believed the event was part of an all-day contest in which contestants vie for the title of Mx Margate. Applications from “all genders, ages, race, LGBTQIA+ people, long term Thanet residents and those with disabilities” are encouraged, according to the Margate Pride website.
‘It belongs in a nightclub’
The event was hosted by Jonny Woo, a British comedian, and judged by artist Tracey Emin, actor Russell Tovey and Robert Diament, the director of the Margate-based Carl Freedman Gallery.
The competition’s rule book states that “obscenity, indecent exposure or sexual acts” by participants in public are prohibited.
Campaigners said the “sexualised adult entertainment act” should not have been performed in front of children.
Kellie-Jay Keen, the founder of Standing for Women, said: “When it comes to the protection and safeguarding of children and the vulnerable, we should have learned by now that groups such as Pride, Stonewall, Mermaids, Educate and Celebrate, No Outsiders, any organisation set up around the sexuality and made-up identities of individuals, cannot be trusted.
“At this point we have to ask, where were the parents? And what sort of parents sit their children in front of a sexually explicit adult entertainer? This person performed a striptease and simulated performing fellatio on a wooden walking stick. If this sexualised adult entertainment act belongs anywhere at all, it belongs in a nightclub.
“You have to be completely stupid to ever let your children anywhere near any of these events.”
The row comes after a children’s book about Pride featuring men in bondage gear was shown to four-year-olds in a pre-school in August. Parents raised concerns with staff at Genesis Pre-School, in Hull, after it was brought to their attention that children were being exposed to the images.
A member of staff defended the images, arguing children would not understand the erotic and sexualised depictions. The safeguarding lead at the school claimed the book showed people wearing costumes and rebuffed concerns that the pictures were inappropriate. Trustees of the nursery later confirmed to parents that the book had been removed from the nursery while it carried out a safety audit.
Margate Pride was contacted for comment.
