A crowd gathered inside the Dowd Center Theater in Monroe on Friday evening, March 22, to see an encore presentation of “Hello Daddy.”
The dramatic musical/comedy one-person stage show is the brainchild of actor Clay Smith, a popular drag performer also known as Delighted Tobehere. Produced in conjunction with Union County Pride and Queen City Performing Arts, the show attracted an enthusiastic and supportive audience.
Outside, however, protesters lined the rainy streets in relatively small numbers, but holding a variety of virulent protest signs with a myriad of fictitious claims such as: “Grooming Event Held Here Today,” “Stop Sexualizing Children,” “This is Child Abuse,” “Here Today: Men Wearing Lingerie Dancing in Front of Children,” and “Stop Grooming Children.”
The crew involved with the production insists there’s nothing in “Hello, Daddy” that is inappropriate for youth.
According to an interview with Union County Pride president Cristal Robinson on WBTV news, the show is “a heartfelt exploration of self-discovery for an aging drag performer” and is told through the character’s experiences as a young gay man, a performer and being gay in the south.
Robinson confirmed plans for the the staging of the show in Monroe began in November of last year when Union County Pride organizers arranged to host “Hello, Daddy” at the theater and a contract was signed with the city of Monroe for rental of the facility. Plans were reportedly moving along smoothly until protest posts began to appear earlier in March. That led to extensive debate between the Monroe Town Council and organizers of the production, with Monroe ultimately honoring the previously signed contract.
Among the residents of Union County protesting the event was Monroe Mayor Robert Burns, who has spoken out against drag shows on multiple occasions and reportedly pleaded with the council to shut down “Hello Daddy” completely.
“I support the parents right to choose, yes, as long as it doesn’t harm our children,” he said to a reporter covering the story for the news department of the local television station WCNC.
When asked why he wanted to prevent youth from watching the show along with their consenting parents or guardians he appeared to momentarily stall while trying to justify his actions.
“That’s a good question,” he replied. “Uhm, because, I’m a protector, man. I believe our children are our future.”
Following what amounted to discussion about the role LGBTQ+ youth of today would play in tomorrow’s future, Burns attempted to backtrack, albeit unsuccessfully.
“I don’t want anybody to feel marginalized by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “This is not about communities fighting against each other. This is standing for what is right. This is standing for the protection of children.”
Kara Murphy, who is also a member of the Union County Pride committee shared her thoughts about the play.
“It’s about as tame as it gets,” she said in an interview with WBTV News. “There is a segment of the populace that thinks if we present a positive or even neutral presentation of people living their lives in this way that it’s bad for children.”
Said Michelle Ball, one of the protest organizers in Monroe in response to the program’s lack of scandalous content: “I haven’t looked into it to see if it was tame or not because, really, that doesn’t matter to me. That’s even more so like ‘let’s get them in the door and offer them something tame so they get used to drag.'”
Much of the response on social media to anti-LGBTQ comments and the protest itself were practically tailor-made in response to Ball’s comments.
“This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read and yet, this stuff continues to come up. How can you judge anything when you haven’t even seen it,” Anderson resident Patty Finley wrote on Delighted Tobehere’s Facebook page. “Here’s a thought,” she continued. “Teach your children to be open-minded and develop critical thinking skills so they can think for themselves.
Despite the negative response from some Union County residents, the Queen City performing arts and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Charlotte has called the event a boom.
They posted on social media the following: “Honestly, we’ve never done anything that garnered us so much media attention. All the protesters did was sell more tickets for us. Oh, and they got soaked to the skin and cold as frogs. I’d have to say this joint production of Queen City Performing Arts and Union County Pride was a huge success.”
Supported in part by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, “Hello, Daddy” has one remaining encore performance at the Fullwood Theater in Matthews on March 29.