A TEEN drag queen who was banned from his school's talent show will take to the stage at a popular Birmingham gay bar tonight (Thursday).

Dudley schoolboy Lewis Bailey will perform as his alter ego Athena Heart at Eden Bar, alongside fellow drag artist Brenda LaBeau.

Garry Prentice, who owns the Sherlock Street bar, said he offered the 14-year-old the chance to perform a couple of numbers as he was "annoyed" at staff at Castle Academy.

He said principal Michelle King's reason for pulling Lewis' act from the show as "it is not appropriate for young people to perform drag acts" was "a poor excuse", adding: "Teachers should be encouraging pupils to do whatever they want to do, to the best they can."

Lewis' mum Natalie said the youngster was excited about the show and it had been a "whirlwind" few days since the story hit the headlines.

She told the News: "The support has been tremendous. Lewis is loving it and I'm very proud of him.

"He feels great about it not, it has really picked his spirits up."

Natalie said Lewis had appeared on This Morning, C5 News, Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show and has further performances lined up at Brighton Pride and DragWorld UK, alongside stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race.

He has also been gifted make-up, a wig and tickets to see the Kinky Boots and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie musicals.

"It has really boosted Lewis' confidence," Natalie said.

"He's had loads of tweets from people saying they'd love to be like him and come out as being different and Lewis has told them to follow their dreams."