As the 2024 election cycle spins on, certain players are relying on the same old scare tactics, trying to drum up fear by attacking our community with lies and misinformation.
In recent years, as we’ve seen an alarming spike in anti-LGBTQ+ hate and intolerance—directed especially toward our trans siblings and the drag community—Drag Queen Story Hours have become an unlikely political battleground.
That’s right, story-times typically held at public libraries, where chipper drag artists read age-appropriate books to children about love and acceptance, have been painted by some right-wing factions as sinister events.
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Do these people have any idea what a Drag Queen Story Hour even looks like?
Well, that’s where It’s Okay comes in, an impactful short film that “presents a quiet take on a very noisy subject,” following one young family as they head to a neighborhood pre-school where a queen, Shelita Bonet Hoyle, reads children’s books like It’s Okay To Be Different.
As Out reported late last month, the short is a collaboration between Emmy-nominated and Tony-winning actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family), his husband and co-producer Justin Mikita, and acclaimed documentary filmmaker David France.
France, of course, is behind a number of powerful films delving into the past, present, and future of our queer community, from harrowing account of anti-gay purges in southern Russia Welcome To Chechnya, to a chronicle of the mothers of our libration movement The Death And Life Of Marsha P. Johnson, to the Oscar-nominated How To Survive A Plague looking back on the impact of the AIDS epidemic.
And though the 11-minute short It’s Okay may seem like a smaller-scale effort compared to France’s previous works, its central message feels just as big, just as crucial.
Filmed in Charlotte, NC a week after local lawmakers introduced a bill that would make it illegal for drag artists to perform for minors, It’s Okay boldly presents Drag Queen Story Hours as they always are—at least when fear-mongering protesters aren’t trying to disrupt them with anger and violence: They’re peaceful, joyful, and a real opportunity for kids to just be themselves.
In a statement shared exclusively with Queerty, producer Jesse Tyler Ferguson has this to say about the short:
“It’s Okay is a powerful rebuttal to the very real threat of government interference in our performance and making of art around our country. At a time when book bans and performance bans are popping up around our cities, It’s Okay reminds us that it is, in fact, going to be okay.”
That’s a reminder many of us could use right now, so thank goodness this heartwarming documentary short will soon be available for everyone to see.
It’s Okay will premiere this Sunday, August 11 on MSNBC at 9pm ET (following the premiere of the book-ban documentary To Be Destroyed) and will simultaneously begin streaming on The New Yorker’s digital platforms.
In advance of premiere weekend, Queerty is honored to share an exclusive first-look clip from It’s Okay below:
