Furious backlash after boy made town’s carnival queen in ‘woke gone mad’ move
CARNIVAL bosses facing a backlash for picking a teenage boy as this year’s queen have called in the police.
They chose the lad — aged over 16 and named only as James — to lead the annual street parade next month.
But he was relegated to an ambassador after the announcement on social media was said to have been met with abusive and negative comments including threats of disruption.
Organisers in Ringwood, Hants, deleted the post and referred the row to police “for a safety view”.
Residents had threatened to boycott the event, which dates back nearly 100 years.
One wrote: “This is woke gone mad. You can’t have camp teenagers pretending to be a queen. You are ruining a tradition.”
Another raged “A queen should be a queen.”
A statement on the carnival’s Facebook page said: “There have been a series of negative comments, publicly via Facebook and directly.
“We felt it appropriate to delete the post the following morning, our primary concern being James’ welfare.
“James is well, although upset. He is still keen to be a part of the carnival but will be taking on a slightly different role as ambassador.”
It added that he would now be part of a carnival court, also including local dignitaries and a junior school carnival princess.
One poster replied: “Astonishing you are so incensed about a backlash you caused yourselves.
“If you wanted a boy to be your figurehead make him carnival king or prince.”
But another said: “Such a pity some of our locals are such bigoted, little-minded, egocentric bullies.”
And a former carnival princess added: “Anyone who has that big a problem with a lad being carnival queen (a made up, pretend title for a small town carnival) needs to seriously give their heads a wobble.”
Police were asked for a comment.