Drag Queen Story Hour sparks protests in conservative towns
Once upon a time, in 2015, a writer in San Francisco named Michelle Tea got the idea for “Drag Queen Story Hour:” men in full drag reading children’s books to kids and parents in programs aimed at providing “positive and unabashedly queer role models.” Since then, Drag Queen Story Hours have been held at libraries or book stores in big cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and costume-loving New Orleans — where over-the-top hair, makeup and gowns and stories about gender fluidity aren’t exactly new. In some smaller communities, however, the programs have sparked protests from conservative and religious groups. In Lafayette, Louisiana, west of New Orleans, the president of the local public library board resigned amid debate over plans to hold “Drag Queen Story Hour.” Mayor Joel Robideaux has indicated he may seek to cancel the Oct. 6 program. A handful of protesters showed up in the rain outside an August event at a library branch in Columbus, Georgia, according to the Ledger-Enquirer. And, on its Facebook page, a group called Common Sense Campaign Tea Party is calling for protests of a planned Sept. 8 event at a public library in Mobile, Alabama. That’s where drag queen Khloe Kash is scheduled to read “Rainbow Fish,” a 1992 story about the value of sharing, and “Stella Brings the Family,” about a little girl fretting over what to do about her school’s upcoming Mother’s Day celebration because she has two fathers. “It’s growing all over the nation, including the South,” Jonathan Hamilt, a New Yorker who provides help in organizing the story hours nationwide, told The Associated Press. He said there are DQSH chapters in 40 states and in other countries. Hamilt performs as his drag alter-ego, Ona Louise, at charity events and at Drag Queen Story Hours. He acknowledges that the story hours draw protests in some cities. But he has also been surprised at the acceptance it has received in some rural areas and conservative states such as Wisconsin and Georgia, where he grew up. “You never know how the community is going to react to the programing,” Hamilt said. “It’s kind of a toss-up.” Critics see something sinister: “The program is designed to purposely target children so as to make sexual perversion acceptable through repeated exposure,” a poster on the Common Sense Campaign Tea Party page wrote. AL.Com reported that opponents at a Mobile County Commission meeting described the programs as a “plan to indoctrinate children.” But, so far, the reading sessions are still on. At a Mobile City Council meeting, according to news accounts, some members expressed sympathy with opponents but also cited First Amendment concerns that made them reluctant to try to block the program. Scott Kinney, executive director of the Mobile Public Library system, said the system’s policy on use of meeting rooms stresses maximum availability to the public, and he noted that library facilities have been used by faith-based groups. In Lafayette, the planned October story hour is being coordinated by members of the Delta Lambda Phi Social Fraternity at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. The national fraternity, founded by gay men in 1986, issued a news release supporting the chapter as the controversy erupted last week. “This program teaches love, diversity and acceptance — powerful and positive messages from which all can benefit,” it said. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Can’t we all agree: Regardless of your position on LGBTQ issues drag queens reading to toddlers is ridiculous?
In today’s, “What in the world are they thinking?” we have the Drag Queens Reading Hour in Mobile coming up. Organizers with Rainbow Mobile, a LGBTQ rights group, is hosting the event. Though their original invitation encourages parents with children as young as three years old to come and hear a drag queen read at story time, there are parents asking if they can bring children even younger than three. I don’t care what your stance on alternative lifestyles is, this is absurd. The Centers for Disease Control hosts a website on developmental milestones. At the age of 4 children often still can’t tell real from make-believe. How does introducing them to a drag queen do anything but confuse them about what to expect in society? In a society where drag queens’ main purpose historically has been to promote a type of personality within the homosexual community (see below study for more on that.) By the age of 5 children are just starting to understand gender, for the purposes of staying on topic I won’t go into my position on the national transgender movement among young kids, except to say I don’t believe science backs up the emotional and developmental ability of young children or early teens to choose their gender identity. Life is already confusing enough to children who are learning basic life skills and basic facts about the world around them why add to it? How is that healthy for the child? I get it if your personal agenda as an adult is to support the LGBTQ community and you want to teach tolerance and acceptance to your children, but to force it upon them before they understand the basics is just plain wrong. To confuse them with the idea that drag queens, or men dressing as women with full hair and makeup, is normal in conventional society is asinine. Cross-dressing is not normal for adult males. Period. We should not raise kids to think something that only happens rarely is the norm. For the purposes of this discussion and for my own general knowledge I spend some time doing research on drag queens. One of the most detailed studies I could find on their lifestyle was published last year in the journal of Evolutionary Psychology (April-June 2017: 1–14). Studying, A Natural History of the Drag Queen Phenomenon Michael Moncrieff and Pierre Lienard noted a few point I think are relevant for this discussion: Drag queens, or female impersonators, differ from transsexuals and individuals with transvestic fetishisms1 in that they are gay individuals who don female clothing with the explicit goal of performing in front of audiences (Schacht, 2000). Drag queens don their costumes primarily to perform at gay bars, nightclubs, and organized competitions (Berkowitz et al., 2007; Schacht, 2002). Their apparel is not intended to depict ordinary female attires like that of transgender women but portray purposefully outlandish, often vulgar, and exaggerated stereotypes of womanhood (Harris, 1995; Tewksbury, 1994). Again, if you’re a progressive parent, I can understand wanting to teach your worldview to your child but that should be done in a way that’s developmentally appropriate. Reading the history and facts about drag queens how can anyone say that a child should be exposed to such a sexually charged subject? We can and we should do better by our children.
Drag queen is suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore’s nightmare
Wearing big hair, loads of makeup and high heels, small-town drag queen Ambrosia Starling is the new worst nightmare of suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Moore has called out Starling twice by name in recent days while defending himself against allegations of violating judicial canons with his opposition to same-sex marriage. During a news conference and in a written statement, Moore cited the cross-dressing entertainer as a reason he’s at risk of losing his job for the second time since 2003. That’s fine with Starling, who helped lead an anti-Moore rally on the steps of the Alabama Supreme Court building in January. Opponents that day filled out more than 40 complaints against Moore, who already was the subject of other complaints and now faces removal from office if convicted of violating judicial ethics. “If it takes a drag queen to remind you that liberty and justice is for all, here I am,” Starling said Tuesday between sips of coffee. Moore contends the effort to oust him is unfounded and politically motivated. Born and raised in the southeast Alabama city of Dothan, Starling is a gay man who dresses up like a woman to perform drag shows. Most days, the 43-year-old Starling dresses like a male and goes to a regular job, referring to himself as “he.” But the entertainer prefers the pronoun “she” when dressed as Ambrosia Starling, a stage name for drag shows. Fearful of losing his day job or endangering others in a Deep South state where many gays still fear violence or discrimination, Starling agreed to an interview on the condition that only the stage name was used. “I have a 71-year-old mother who lives with me that I have to worry about,” Starling said. “Her well-being and safety is No. 1 for me.” Starling wore her drag outfit to that demonstration against Moore outside the Supreme Court five months ago. In a long blue dress and light-colored coat, Starling referred to Moore as a bigot and asked crowd members to submit complaints against Moore to the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission, which accused the Republican Moore of wrongdoing on Friday, resulting in his suspension. The complaint filed by the Judicial Inquiry Commission accuses Moore of willfully failing to respect the authority of federal court decisions that cleared the way for gay marriage, which Moore opposes on the basis of faith and the law. He issued an administrative order to state probate judges in January that said state laws against gay marriage remained in place months after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage nationwide. An attorney for Moore, Mat Staver, said Moore issued the order because probate judges were asking questions about how to proceed. Staver said Moore will file a response within 30 days asking the Alabama Court of the Judiciary to dismiss charges against him. Moore has been tossed once before from the office of chief justice. Thirteen years ago he refused to abide by a federal judge’s order to remove a Ten Commandments monument Moore had erected in the rotunda of the state judicial building, resulting in judicial ethics charges and his removal by the Court of Judiciary. During a news conference last week in that same rotunda, Moore said Starling and similar people would have been classified as having a “mental disorder” just a few years ago. Moore also accused Starling of performing a “mock wedding” in violation of a state court order against same-sex marriage, a claim Starling dismissed as untrue. Describing himself as a churchgoing Christian who lives a normal life when not dressed in drag, Starling said he doesn’t mind being singled out by Moore. Many more lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgender people also oppose Moore’s tactics, Starling said, it’s just that not everyone can speak out. “I’ll take the hit for the entire LGBT community if it gets the message across,” Starling said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
