But “being gay or a drag queen is statistically not the norm. “I don’t have a problem saying the word ‘normal,’” she said. Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir “Gender Queer” became the most banned book in American schools, drawing the Northern California artist and writer into the nation’s cultural wars. World & Nation How ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ became America’s most banned book Gays Against Groomers, which launched last year, has a few dozen representatives in several states who appear on radio and TV to speak out against drag story events. “Now the schools are pushing this onto school children, and bars like yours hold ‘drag queen story hours’ for KIDS? What is WRONG with you?”Ī small LGBTQ group formed to protest story hours and all-ages drag shows also chimed in. “When I was a girl in the 60s, we weren’t even allowed to SAY the Q-word (queer)! Our parents loved us and did not want us to know what that word meant!” wrote Cindy Bin, who described herself as a grandmother in Illinois. Podcasts The Times podcast: The war against Drag Queen Story Hourĭrag performers are more visible than ever after decades in the underground, but will recent protests, threats of violence and restrictive laws set them back?ĭuring a Facebook livestream of the event, someone scrawled: “Look at all the parents who can’t even be bothered to read to their own kids.”Įmails, many of them hostile, poured into the bar’s inbox before and after the get-together. According to the advocacy group GLAAD, there were 141 protests and attacks on drag events last year nationwide - most of them against story hours or brunches. Recent threats of protest and violence resulted in cancellations at an elementary school in Columbus, Ohio, and a LGBTQ center in Orlando, Fla. Armed Proud Boys members have stormed productions in San Francisco and New York. The books range from run-of-the-mill children’s titles to those with LGBTQ themes, like “Santa’s Husband” and “If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It,” written by a performer named Lil Miss Hot Mess.īut the story hours are increasingly attracting the attention and ire of right-wing extremists and conservative parents and politicians, some of whom insist that the events appeal to pedophiles. Some of the story times feature drag kings, or women performing as men. Over the last two years, drag story hours - featuring men who dress as caricatures of women - have expanded into libraries, bars and schools in almost every state. “What do they hate so much about reading to kids?” O’Stayformore asked before the reading.
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