Drag Queen recalls being threatened with kidnap and acid attacks for reading children story books

A drag artist has been threatened with kidnap and acid attacks for visiting libraries to read story books to children. 

Sab Samuels, also known as Aida H Dee, from Cardiff, said they had to have a police escort and security with them while touring across libraries and venues with the Drag Queen Story Hour UK company.

It's after a number of "scary" interactions with protestors opposing the events.

Aida H Dee, the UK's first full-time drag queen storyteller, has read books to children and their families since 2017.

Parents, carers and children who visit a Drag Queen Story Hour UK event are promised a theatrical and fun reading of one of Aida's books, which range from a story about two hedgehogs who are in love - and just so happen to both be female - to a tale of three goats who stand up to a big bad wolf.Recalling a tour of UK libraries last summer, the 28-year-old said: "I was followed at every single event by protesters bar one.

"There was only one event they didn't attend. I had people threatening to throw my car on fire, threatening to kidnap me. It was so scary and I had a police escort and security with me more or less wherever I went."Far-right protesters, who Sab describes as victims of misinformation campaigns, made their views known throughout the Drag Queen Story Hour UK tour. 

From Reading to Cardiff, some protesters opposing the events stood outside libraries, shouting offensive slurs and holding banners with various accusations - with one even accusing Aida of "drag[ging] children into the sex industry". 

In many locations, counter-protests have taken place in support of the story hour events.Sab said: "One person said, if you come near a child again you'll get a face full of acid. All of that either gets said to me at the event itself or online. 

"Those people are the reason I'm doing what I'm doing in the first place. If it weren't for those people I'd just be a fun, fabulous story-hour drag queen who writes books and performs storytelling shows. To be fair, that's the goal and that's what we aim to do. But those people outside, those protesters, I really pity them."They are victims of a misinformation campaign that a drag queen is going in and teaching kids about sex education.

"Only just today did I have to correct somebody who said that Drag Queen Story Hour UK do sex education talks and we don't. I've never done a sex education talk in my life."

Sab, who described getting through that summer tour as "my proudest achievement" added: "I got through it. I achieved it. I've got trauma and PTSD from that. 

"Looking back and talking about it makes me quite emotional that I went through all of that. I get emotional thinking about my partner who went through that as well. Only just recently, my partner was scared I wasn't going to come back from it."He felt like he had to day, upon day, upon day, look at all these hateful comments [on social media] to see if there was a plan of action of what they were going to do. 

"My little brother said he was expecting at any random moment, and still does, to find out that we need to go to hospital because Sab's got stabbed. All this has been going on and my mum, my brother and my partner are concerned for my safety."Sab, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, was inspired to create the persona of Aida H Dee to provide younger people with a new kind of role model.

But the abuse faced both online and in person has had a massive impact on Sab's private life.

Sab admitted being afraid to use social media, saying: "I don't feel like I get a personal life in all this. I don't have the confidence in me to be a bit more open. 

"Anything and everything I do seems to be taken out of context. I'm always on trial and everything I do is always being questioned. I'm not allowed to be my own person.

"I'd love to separate my job and my personal life but I'm just not allowed to and that's upsetting."I have a very strict personal policy that I don't surround myself with people who will bring me down. I don't need to be everyone's cup of tea and there's a difference between people who think I'm a paedophile because I do what I do and people who might just not like me. 

"But with the amount of hate that I get and being called a waste of space and a disgusting human being, I really do have to be strict with who I surround myself with."

Sab added: "There's a strength in me that I didn't understand. Maybe it's an ignorance to how much danger I put myself in. I'd rather they all focused on me.

"I'll be that forcefield and you children can grow up happy. What we don't need is a repeat of what happened in Devon to Riley."Sab was badly bullied as a teenager at an all-boys school for being "camp" and "effeminate" but found performing in drag at a school play a huge source of confidence. 

They now use storytelling events to spread joy and positivity and does not view the work as political. 

Sab said: "I would argue what I'm doing isn't political. I don't politicise this. The media and the protesters politicise this.

"I don't see anything political about me writing books about two lesbian hedgehogs."