A designer who announced that a nine-year-old drag queen would be the face of his clothing line woke up the day after the news to a deluge of online harassment.
Brandon Hilton, a LGBT activist and designer, announced last week that the famous drag sensation Queen Lactatia would be modelling items from his House Of Mann line, breaking the news with a photo of the nine-year-old in a sequined jumpsuit.
But the following day, Brandon awoke to threats, with some hateful users even suggesting he was a pedophile.
Striking a pose: A designer has received multiple death threats after enlisting nine-year-old drag queen Lactatia as the new face of his clothing brand
More to it: While Brandon’s brand sells performance wear for drag artists and accessories like bags and sunglasses, critics took issue with it also selling lingerie and bondage wear
Many of the trolls took issue over the fact that, in addition to selling drag costumes and accessories, House of Mann sells lingerie and bondage apparel, saying that Lactatia’s simple involvement with the brand amounted to ‘sexualizing’ a child.
Some demanded to Brandon that he ‘kill himself’ while others said he should be reported to the police.
One conservative blogger named Matt Walsh – who has previously called being transgender ‘an illusion, a sickness, and a burden’ – was one of several people to go after Brandon.
‘I don’t want you to kill yourself but I do want you arrested and jailed for the sexual exploitation of a child, you sick, deranged predator,’ he wrote.
Covergirl: Brandon stated that there is no intention for Lactatia to model anything other than the sequin jumpsuit
Made up: Trolls told Brandon that he should be thrown in jail for being a ‘predator’ after involving the nine-year-old with the brand
Rising star: Nemis Quinn Mélançon Golden from Montreal became a sensation last year for his alter-ego Lactacia
According to Huffington Post, Brandon’s life has been threatened by multiple users, with one even telling him that an anonymous Bitcoin account was raising money looking for a hitman to kill the designer.
Following the backlash, Brandon took to Twitter, writing: ‘Woke up to countless tweets telling me “kill yourself” and calling me a “pedo” after we announced nine-year-old drag superstar Lactatia as our new HOUSE OF MANN covergirl.
‘If you can’t handle a kid in a sequin onesie, maybe the future isn’t for you!’
Brandon believes that the abuse comes from an incorrect assumption about Lacactia’s role in the brand, saying that she has been enlisted to model the onesie, and the onesie only.
‘People took that as, “because this picture is here, the next ones are going to be of her wearing something worse,” and that isn’t the case. I thought that was very obvious and self-explanatory, but people didn’t get it.’
A touch up: Lactatia’s mother also stood up for Brandon, saying that it was ‘ridiculous’ to assumed that the other products on the website had anything to do with her child
Star on her own: Jessica also stressed that Lactacia had chosen the jumpsuit herself
Dolled up: Nemis has previous claimed that ‘I’ve had Lactatia inside of me since I was born’
Lactatia, whose offstage name is Nemis Quinn Mélançon Golden, chose the piece herself, with her mother Jessica Mélançon coming to quick defense of Brandon.
‘House of Mann makes burlesque and drag costumes,’ she explained. ‘They’re performance pieces. House of Mann sent Lactatia a full coverage, head-to-toe, sequined one-piece. Lactatia is a drag performer and also vogues, so that piece made sense.
‘No, Lactatia is not going to be modeling the burlesque and fetish wear designs featured on his site, and the fact that we actually have to clarify that is a little ridiculous.’
Lactatia became a star last year after appearing at shows with contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
A video of her strutting her stuff for Elle.com in August became the publication’s most-watched ever with 27 million views in just one week.
‘I think I’ve had Lactatia inside of me since I was born,’ Nemis told Elle at the time. ‘It makes me feel very happy.’