Courtney Act Hits Back At Liberal Senator Alex Antic’s Offensive ‘Grooming’ Slur

Drag performer and television personality has hit back at South Australian SenatorAlex Antic over his deeply offensive “grooming” slur. 

“Showing queer kids straight content won’t turn them straight. Showing straight kids queer content won’t turn them queer,” Act said on Twitter and posted a video of her appearance on The Project. “Your queer kids will be queer regardless of whether you show them examples. It just depends on how much shame you want them to carry into their lives.”

The Drag Race star was responding to the Liberal Senator using the anti-LGBTQI slur during Senate estimates while opposing an ABC show hosted by Act.

‘I Was Really Taken Aback’

Showing queer kids straight content won’t turn them straight. Showing straight kids queer content won’t turn them queer. Your queer kids will be queer regardless of whether you show them examples. It just depends on how much shame you want them to carry into their lives. https://t.co/VxUN7mGcgM

— Courtney Act (@courtneyact) November 20, 2022

“The program was rated G and has been heavily promoted on TV and on the app. Why is the ABC grooming children with this sort of adult content,” Senator Antic asked ABC managing director David Anderson about the show Play School. The show featured Act reading from The Spectacular Suit by Kat Patrick. The story is about a young girl who discovers that she loves wearing pants. 

Act told The Project hosts that she was at a 10-day silent meditation retreat without access to phones and was “appalled” when she learnt of the Senator’s comments when she came back from the retreat. 

“I was really taken aback that I would be accused of such a thing because grooming is really serious (allegation),” said Act. 

“Grooming is the act of an abuser manipulating a child so that they can sexually abuse them. It’s a really serious thing, and to use terms of abuse when no abuse is actually happening, really takes away from the occasions when it is happening,” said Act. “I’m on television, reading a children’s book, there was nothing untoward about it. It was really quite a shocking thing to be accused of.”

‘Adults Sexualise Me’

Act said Senator Antic’s comments were less to do with the content of the book and more to do with the fact that she was dressed in drag. 

“We’ve all agreed that women can wear pants, so it felt like a very peculiar thing for him to zoom in on. I think it was probably more to do with the fact that it was me reading the book,” said Act. 

“The term grooming was used because somebody like Senator Antic might see my identity as sexualized. The thing that makes me different from him is my sex life or who I have sex with. And because I’m attracted to men, and I’m a male person who’s attracted to men, that sort of reduces my whole identity just down to who I have sex with. Obviously, I’m much more than just that.”

“Kids just see colour, sparkles and fun. They’re not sexualizing me. That’s something the adults do,” said the drag performer, adding, “I think maybe what those detractors are trying to say is, we’re scared of trans people, or we don’t want our kids to be trans.”

Act said that having more diverse stories “even as an adult helped me to understand my own gender identity”.