Dries Van Langenhove shared a video on his Instagram on Thursday in which he fiercely protests during the reading moment — © @dvanlangenhove
A pleasant, albeit atypical reading moment for toddlers in Salon Arents is the subject of fierce protest by Dries Van Langenhove, activist and former politician. He shared a video on his Instagram on Thursday in which he fiercely protests during the reading moment with a drag queen organized by Musea Brugge. Alderman for Culture Nico Blontrock is disappointed with the video, which he says has been taken completely out of context and contains a lot of incorrect information. “At no point was there any mention of sexual fantasies or gender reassignment as claimed in the video,” it said.
Celina Cazzetta
Friday, March 24, 2023 at 7:07 PM
On Sunday, March 12, a whole group of small children gathered with their parents in the Bruges Salon Arents for a reading moment by a fully dressed drag queen. The event was dedicated to the arts festival ‘Queer Was Here’. “The main reason for organizing the festival was to see what the diversity is like in museums in Bruges,” says ships Blontrock. “Is diversity addressed enough? Can we adjust things? The reading moment was a great meeting where the book ‘and they were still alive’ was read to many children aged three to six.” The book is about tolerance and diversity, about ‘princesses who are finally allowed to determine their own lives’.
“Completely beside the point”
During the reading moment, former politician Dries Van Langenhove protested outside Salon Arents, together with some fellow activists against what he calls ‘indoctrination and grooming of small children’. The video that is now causing a stir on social media shows, among other things, their protest, but in between also video images of events in which drag queens and children participate and of a twerking drag queen. Images that have nothing to do with the event in Bruges.
“The video is completely beside the point of the real reason for the festival,” says ships Blontrock, who fully supports the event. “There was no mention of sexual fantasies or gender reassignment at any point. At no point was there a mistake here. The festival was one big positive story, everything sold out. What is in the video is not one but ten bridges too far.”