New Conservative candidate's social media post about 11yo girl labelled a 'smear' campaign by parents

New Conservative deputy leader Elliot Ikilei shared the post online but says he's done nothing wrong. Photo / Richard Robin

The parents of an 11-year-old girl say a photo of their daughter dressed up for a children's show has been used by a New Conservative candidate as part of a "smear campaign".

Elliot Ikilei, deputy-leader of the party, shared a social media post including a picture of the child included in a recent Stuff article going behind the scenes of Circa Theatre's The Glitter Garden.

The new, first of its kind drag musical for kids opened at the Wellington theatre in September and promotes self-acceptance.

A picture of 11-year-old Charli Bickerton wearing stage makeup was included in a Stuff article, showing behind the scenes of the show.

Ikilei then shared the story on social media with Bickerton's photo, saying it showed "highly sexualised, heavy make-up on a child".

"This is gonna be the grooming of the next generation US Drag Queen on Drag time story hour," the post said.

"And now it is here..."

Charli's furious parents told Stuff the story of their daughter having fun in a theatre show has been instead used in a smear campaign against the rainbow community.

Her mother, Natasha, told the outlet the purpose of the story was to support the rainbow community.

Ikilei told the Herald he had never mentioned "anything around any sexual orientation whether heterosexual, homosexual, transgender or otherwise" in the social media post.

"I have only and ever spoken about adult entertainment, in this case drag queen entertainment which is uncontroversially a sexualised style of adult entertainment, being presented as acceptable to children," he said.

Ikilei didn't ask the Bickerton's permission to use their daughter's photo - and the pair said they wouldn't have given it anyway, Natasha told Stuff.

Ikilei told Stuff all he'd done was put a link to the story online - that it was the outlet that "thought it would be a good idea to plant a child with drag makeup right on the cover".

George Fowler, aka Hugo Grrrl, creator of the show, shared that the cast had received death threats and abuse following Ikilei's posts.

View this post on Instagram

Good morning ☀️ In fun news, this week The Glitter Garden was the target of death threats and other abuse after the New Conservative Deputy Leader shared some dizzying misinformation about the show. Do us a favour - if you’re coming to see us this weekend, cheer ya little gay hearts out? We’re tired. Love, an exhausted show boy.

A post shared by Hugo Grrrl: Drag King (@hugogrrrl) on Oct 8, 2020 at 4:50pm PDT