Tea Party group plans protest of Drag Queen Story hour in Mobile

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Drag Queen Story Hour
[Photo Credit: Drag Queen Story Hour via Facebook]

An Alabama Tea Party plans to host a demonstration on Saturday, September 08, 2018 in order to protest the Drag Queen Story Hour being hosted at the Ben May Main Library in Mobile, Ala.

The event as described by Rainbow Mobile the group hosting it, “is exactly what it sounds like; drag queens reading stories to children in a library, bookstore, or school.”

According to their website Rainbow Mobile is a relatively new group and they are promoting this event as the first of its type in the area.

Founded in January 2018, Rainbow Mobile is a local nonprofit organization based in Mobile, Alabama, with the mission of building a stronger, happier, healthier and more connected community for LGBTQ people throughout Southwest Alabama.”

Our goal is to create a physical LGBTQ Community Center in Mobile that will help build a strong, healthy, vibrant community and be an agent of change in the world movement working toward the liberation and empowerment of all LGBTQ people.

The event’s description on Facebook: “Khloe Kash will be our drag queen storyteller, trained and assisted by a local elementary school teacher. We will be reading two books: Stella Brings the Family, by Miriam B. Schiffer, and Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. We will also have movement breaks between each book. Towards the end of the hour, kids will be able to participate in a fun arts and crafts activity.”

The organizers noted on their facebook event page that the event is not being hosted by the library itself. The space they have reserved is the Armbrecht/Briskman Meeting Room which holds 60 people. According to the application the library’s policy is “The library welcomes the use of its meeting rooms by community businesses, groups, and organizations. As an institution for education and free speech and in accordance with Article 6 of the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, the library makes its meeting rooms available on equal terms to all groups regardless of the beliefs and affiliations of their members. Permission to use a library meeting room does not constitute library endorsement of any group’s policies, objectives, goals, or beliefs.”

The Common Sense Campaign TEA Party has planned a protest against this event, and will be holding up signs in front of the library Saturday.

“Drag queens reading kids stories about homosexuality and transgenderism appears to be the latest craze sweeping public libraries in the United States and Canada,” says an e-mail sent by the party.

“Kids love to play dress up, so they will be pulled in by this person,” the e-mail continued. “We need to go into Mobile respectfully holding signs in opposition of this.”

The TEA party is not the only group in opposition of these types of events. According to AL.com, Drag Queen Story Hours across the nation have drawn scorn from several conservative groups, and Alabamians on Facebook.