Students at a Manhattan private school have revealed how they were forced to take part in a drag queen performance earlier this year.
Students at Grace Church High School, an independent Episcopal school with an annual cost of $57,000, were required to attend chapel on April 27 for the school’s sixth annual Pride Chapel event.
The event was sponsored by the school, Reverend as well as students and faculty advisors for Spectrum, the school’s LGBTQ club.
This year, it featured a performance by Jessie Haw as drag queen Britta Filter, who was filmed walking down the chapel aisle in bright orange go-go boots and a blue babydoll dress with a high hem.
“I actually went to church today to teach the kids,” the artist captioned the TikTok video.
Hawa then spoke to the students about drag and their pansexual identity, as the students said they were forced to dance on the pews.
‘There was a lot of social pressure to dance and pretend it’s definitely normal,’ one anonymous student told The Post Millennial, ‘whether it’s people tapping them on the shoulder and telling them to stand up or a competition looking at someone in a group. did not fully participate.’
Another student said: ‘As soon as I walked in, there was a man with Pride flag stickers saying “take one or you’re gay.”‘
A video posted online by drag queen Britta Filter shows her walking down the aisle of Grace Church Chapel in bright orange go-go boots and a blue babydoll dress with a high hem.
She was at the private Episcopal school on April 27 for the sixth annual Pride Chapel event.
Students told The Post Millennial how Havea – as Britta Filter – entered the church through a back entrance after a chaplain and faculty members made comments, one of whom referred to Havea as the ‘Queen of New York’.
The artist then walked down the aisle playing I Will Survive, and the students broke into applause.
One student said that when the wind approached the altar, he was joined by other dancing students, some of whom were gyrating to the music.
‘I thought, “Is this really happening in the chapel?” asked the student.
Hawa then went on to perform a rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, before sitting down with the school’s director of vocal music, Andrew Leonard, to ‘answer questions about tan representation and what Pride Month symbolizes’, according to the school’s website.
During the discussion, Post Millennial Report, Hawa discussed the importance of his Tongan and Polynesian ethnicity — and said he identifies as pansexual.
During the discussion, one student said, ‘This person constantly calls herself “amazing” and “talented” and “beautiful”, not just once or twice, but this person reassures her that way.
Students in the Spectrum Club also ‘shared their own stories and identities and experiences related to Grace,’ says the school’s website, which The Post Millennial reports a teacher resigned over improper pronoun use.
Pupils at the school have revealed how they were forced to dance or stared at during demonstrations, and how they had to hold up Pride flags or be called homophobic.
The event was sponsored by the school, respected as well as students and faculty advisors for the spectrum, the school’s LGBTQ club.
Students math teacher Uyen Nguyen told the chapel ‘how much they loved the gay kids at school, and how it’s been the most inclusive and accepting place they’ve ever been’.
But Nguyen — who describes himself as a gay teacher — said they couldn’t work with the school’s administration.
‘The administration does not support their identity,’ said one student. ‘They just said they were being misgendered and that people wouldn’t use their pronouns.
Nguyen has complained about the issue in the past, saying colleagues who use the wrong pronoun are a ‘stressor’ for them and that they face no accountability when they use the wrong pronoun.
They suggested in a March interview with the school’s newspaper that the Episcopalian school should provide more training to faculty members to deal with non-binary issues, saying that ‘faculty should do some anti-racism training.
‘My first week of meetings were all just anti-racism workshops,’ Nguyen told the Grace Gazette. ‘It’s great and necessary and necessary, I just wish there was also gender diversity and acceptance training – how to respect different identities and what not. That is not what the school currently does.’
Nguyen added: ‘It’s really hard for me to be supportive and create a safe space for people if I’m struggling to realize that for myself.
The school newspaper reports that Nguyen ‘wanted to be authentic [themselves]”‘ and began to seek respect and acceptance as a non-binary person after becoming a full-time faculty.
Teacher Nguyen “feels really accepted by the students” and that the student-teacher relationship feels “really great and validating and gender-enhancing.”
Hawa says how he enjoys taking innocent things and ‘messing them up’.
Hawa has previously competed on RuPaul’s Drag Race and is the national co-chair of Drag Out the Vote.
Hawa, meanwhile, has previously competed on RuPaul’s Drag Race and is the national co-chair of Drag Out the Vote.
On social media, Havea markets itself with the hashtag #AnythingButPure, playing on the name Brita Filter.
And on his Instagram and YouTube pages, he constantly uses the phrases ‘water sports,’ ‘fisting,’ ‘balls deep,’ ‘turning out,’ ‘glory hole,’ and ‘1’ to allude to a variety of kinks and high-risk sexual practices. in pink, 2 in stench.’
In an interview with Get Out magazine in 2017, Hawa said: ‘I like to take things that are very gentle, things that you shouldn’t really touch and pick them up. It’s really what I love to do.’
He explained: ‘I do this number from Cinderella to My Own Little Corner, In My Own Little Chair, and I mix it up and mess it up. But when Cinderella is in her own little corner, she’s smoking a pipe and doing cocaine to get away from her stepfamily.
‘What I do is make fun of everything else, and subvert it a bit.’
The April incident marked the first time Howa spoke at a church, he said, and comes amid a flurry of other videos showing children in drag shows at schools and restaurants across the country.
In June, a Dallas gay bar made national headlines when it threw a Pride Month event that invited kids to join.
And in New York City, officials have spent more than $200,000 on drag queen story hours since 2018. During those story hours, drag queens read books to children that promote inclusivity, creativity and self-acceptance.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has vowed to halt the efforts in his state, recently saying: ‘We said, “Wait a minute, it’s wrong to have children involved, it’s inconsistent with our state’s laws and policies. Florida, and our society, is sexualizing these young people.” It’s a disturbing trend to try.
‘That’s not the way you look after our children.’
Grace School has come under fire in the past for its critical race theory policies
But Manhattan’s Grace School has a history of vigilante policies.
The school’s website says it focuses on integrating moral awareness and academic excellence by addressing students’ moral personal and spiritual development.
It adds: ‘The Episcopal school tradition recognizes the unique, inherent value of each human being, endowed to each by a loving God.’
So school officials try to instill in students a ‘deep respect’ for sexual orientation and gender identity, not just caste or religion.
Last year, maths teacher Paul Rossi accused headteacher George Davison of indoctrinating pupils with anti-racist ideology, after the school released a glossary of terms it claimed would make the facility a more ‘inclusive’ place.
The school issued a 12-page guide to staff, students and parents encouraging them to stop using ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’, to stop asking classmates where they’ve been on holiday and not to wish anyone a ‘Merry Christmas. ‘ – or even a ‘Happy Holidays’.
Its website also has a page dedicated to antiracism where it outlines programs offered to students and parents.