Courtney Act slams grooming accusations from Australian senator: ‘Kids just see colour and sparkles’-Alistair McGeorge-Entertainment – Metro

Courtney Act has fired back (Picture: ABC)

Courtney Act has blasted an Australian Senator for accusing her of ‘grooming’ Australian kids with a recent TV appearance.

The RuPaul’s Drag Race star made an utterly wholesome appearance on Play School to read a book about a little girl who likes wearing pants, which was apparently enough to spark fury.

Senator Alex Antic said in parliament: ‘Cross-dressing. Let me ask you this, does ABC agree that transgender or cross-dressing are adult concepts?’

He then accused both ABC and Courtney of ‘grooming’ kids.

The 39-year-old star, who goes by Shane Jenek when she isn’t in drag, has addressed his comments and admitted she was shocked by the way he portrayed her reading a book on TV.

She told The Project: ‘I was really taken aback that I would be accused of such a thing ’cause grooming is really serious, right? Like, grooming is the act of an abuser, manipulating a child so they can sexually abuse them. It’s really a serious thing.

Courtney won Celebrity Big Brother UK three years ago (Picture: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

‘And to use terms of abuse when no abuse is actually happening really takes away from the occasions when it is happening. And you know, I’m on television, reading a children’s book.

‘There was nothing untoward about it. I – yeah, it was really quite a shocking thing to be accused of.’

She described Antic’s accusations as an example of how LGBTQ+ people are oversexualised due to homophobia.

Courtney added: ‘We have all agreed women can wear pants – it felt 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.

‘I think the reason that is – and the reason the term “grooming” was used – is because somebody like Senator Antic might see my identity as sexualised and there’s this idea that who I am is inherently sexual.

‘And I think the reason behind that is the thing that makes me maybe different from him is my sex life, 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.’

The drag queen quite rightly pointed out she’s ‘much more’ than her sexuality, while noting context is always vital.

She said: ‘But obviously we know what’s appropriate in different circumstances. In that circumstance I think what I was doing was completely appropriate. Kids just see colour and sparkles and fun. They’re not sexualising me. That’s something the adults do.’

She shared a clip of her appearance on The Project on twitter, and made another fantastic (and obvious) point.

She wrote: ‘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.’

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