THE Vale of Glamorgan Council is celebrating diversity with a special event hosted by our Libraries Service to mark LGBT History Month.

Drag Queen Aida H Dee will read a selection of her stories, including The Threeee Goats United, with the performance streamed across our libraries' Facebook pages.

Presented by Aida's enterprise: Drag Queen Story Hour UK, the tales all promote LGBT and minority characters, covering themes of inclusivity and acceptance.

Aida is the alter ego of Sab Samuel, who moved from Bath to Cogan in 2018, and embarked on a career as a drag artist having first performed as a 15-year-old schoolboy.

Cllr Lis Burnett, Vale of Glamorgan Council Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration, said: "I'm really looking forward to Friday's event, which will deliver an extremely positive message about tolerance and celebrating our differences.

"It is these differences that make our communities such rich and vibrant places.

"There is absolutely no place in the Vale for prejudice or discrimination of any kind.

"We embrace all residents regardless race, age, gender, religion, disability or sexual orientation and I hope this event can help promote that attitude."

Sab, who is autistic, has ADHD and is gay, wants to reassure children that it's okay to be different.

He said: "Why do I read stories? I read stories to inspire people to not just accept others' differences, but to adore them by becoming an LGBTQ+ role model.

"When I was younger, I actually hated myself for being an effeminate boy.

"I never had any LGBTQ+ role models at school because of Section 28. I remember sat in my Mathematics lessons with Alan Turing's photo placed on the wall for 4 years, and never was I told that this man, the father of modern computing, a national hero who saved millions upon millions of lives, was a gay man.

"I struggled so much with who I was all the way up to when I studied Mathematics at university, and I still hold on to the pain of it all even today.

"If I had been given that role model, back when I was a child, someone to look up to, someone to inspire me to simply love myself, I would have grown up not just a happier person but a better person throughout.

"That is the embodiment of Drag Queen Story Hour UK and why I do what I do."

LGBT History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements.

Aida The Storytime Drag Queen will take place at 2pm on Friday and can be viewed by visiting Penarth Library's Facebook Page