A 14-year-old boy who wanted to perform a drag act at his end of year talent show was banned from doing so — one day before the performance.

Lewis Bailey, who goes to Castle High School and Visual Arts College in Dudley, had been working on his RuPaul's Drag Race-inspired routine for weeks. It included songs by Little Mix, Ariana Grande and Ru herself.

School principal Michelle King is quoted by SWNS as saying: "We made the decision that it was not age appropriate for either the learner and for the intended audience, his peer group, for Lewis to appear as a 'drag act'.

SWNS

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"We understood Lewis wanted to appear in the style of Rau Paul [sic], whose style of performance is characterised by strong language and sexual innuendo... our belief [is] that it is not appropriate for young people to perform drag acts. Rau Paul's own TV show requires contestants to have a minimum age of 18 years old."

Lewis' mum Natalie disagrees with the comments, stating: "There is no swearing, no raunchy behaviour, nothing over the top. It's just him dressing as a female doing a dance."

It's also reported that Lewis had been practising his act, as alter-ego Athena Heart, both at home and at school with a teacher.

SWNS

Natalie also adds that being removed from the show has "knocked his confidence to zero", after the last year has seen him come out as gay and also come out of his shell.

He's seen support from professional drag queens on social media, who have invited him to perform at proper drag shows:

And he's already got himself a performance booked:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. We can officially announce Athena Heart (Lewis David Bailey), will be slaying the stage in BIRMINGHAM on the 8th of August at the 10’s Across The Board @O2InstituteBham Give her a follow on Twitter @Athena99105583 #dragisnotillegal pic.twitter.com/jyYN9EAzsl — HOLY T (@Holy_TEurope) July 22, 2018

Plus a lot of support from a Drag Race favourite:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. So this happened 😭😍❤️ @charliehidestv x pic.twitter.com/rxUTWiw13p — Athena Heart (@TheAthenaHeart) July 23, 2018

RuPaul's Drag Race airs on VH1 in the US, with new episodes available on Netflix in the UK.

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