In recent news, Tigard, Oregon cancelled their Drag Queen Storytime due to threats. June is "pride month," so tensions are especially high right now. I don't like the militant attacks on libraries over LGBTQetc. agendas, whether real or imagined. That said, I also do not understand why libraries anywhere are holding "drag queen story time," either.
"Transvestite" is not synonymous with "pedophile," but "drag show" isn't exactly without explicit sensuality. Regardless of your stance on cross-dressing, surely you can see how it could be seen as inappropriate for children, right? One common rebuttal I have encountered is an assumption that the only possible problem is homosexuality, and heterosexual sensuality is A-OK, but this strikes me as a dishonest deflection. A lot of these folks also hate titty bars and Hooters, no doubt. Additionally, it's not like libraries regularly host "craft day with a stripper."
Drag Queen Story Hour is a movement less than a decade old. It is explicitly intended to "capture the imagination and play of gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models." Is it wrong to question such an agenda? If you want to attend or host either a drag ball or religious service, you should be free to do so. Is the library the place for drag queen story hour or vacation bible school? I'm pretty sure the latter would generate outrage from a different crowd. We don't push any religious or political position, and we don't try to promote any particular gender perspective, either. The library should strive to be neutral ground, promoting only literacy and freedom of inquiry.
If queerness is a natural and healthy part of the spectrum of human experience, the queer should not be persecuted. If queerness is a psychological manifestation of past trauma, these people need care, not condemnation. If queerness is a sin, get off your high horse and remember that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Further, American neo-Puritanism has a perverse obsession with sex while routinely committing idolatry through placing the civil religion above their alleged faith by celebrating warfare and calling for police action against others. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye? We are in the world, but not of it. Our kingdom is not of this world, so stop trying to seize the political power Christ Himself rejected when tempted in the desert. Our task is reaching the lost, not throwing them to the wolves.
I'm anticipating some contentious encounters with some self-appointed moral crusaders next week as tensions mount along with unfounded accusations. Pride month is escalating the drag and trans panic simmering in parts of my community. Why is drag queen story hour a thing? Why are screeching Karens outraged about things that are not actually happening locally a thing? I have no idea. Anyway, it's after 1 AM, and I have rambled on and on enough trying to sort my thoughts so I can wind down and get some sleep. Hopefully I have edited my mental diarrhea into something coherent. Feel free to challenge or correct me in the comments. I'll be glad to bicker or banter once I've had some shut-eye.
I am pretty laissez faire regarding human sexuality, but I'm not at all ok with schools or libraries introducing my kids to drag queens. If I wanted my kids to learn such adult fetishes there are plentiful venues for such educational opportunities at most crack houses in PDX, where they could also learn to manufacture crack on such a field trip, for a double whammy. As you point out, it's not a role libraries have been chartered to fulfill.
LOL Spot on.
This is one of the reasons why I homeschooled my kids, an endeavor in which libraries were a central resource.
Thanks!
Consenting adults do not need my approval for anything they do in private. People who want to impose themselves upon others are always suspect, and the government schóol system in particular is a sacred cow we need to be willing to slay. I am even open to people challenging the library, but I ask they do so honestly.
I believe the populace is being deliberately divided along supposedly liberal and conservative lines, so that we will not unite against the forces that are so clearly trying to enslave us all. This is being done in many ways, but chief among them is the destruction of the family unit, which is arguably our greatest strength. Our college students come home thoroughly indoctrinated in the latest liberal causes, and many of them come home hating their own parents for political reasons.
Ten years ago, even the drag queens would not have wanted to do their sexual thing in any library or school. The past few years have disabled many of our abilities for independent thought of the moral kind. Many of us look to our corrupt politicians for moral guidance! this is topsy turvy - our politicians should be looking to us for that.
Politicians on both (artificial) sides thrive on these conflicts. They love to get up on their soap boxes and pontificate about right and wrong. It's no wonder their voters do the same.
It is a grave mistake to allow others to decide right and wrong for you.
If the bible is not allowed in the schools because it might be offensive to some, then these shows should not be allowed on the same grounds.
The library is a bit different from a school though. In general, the children go there voluntarily, and any show there is avoidable. Are there not bible study groups for all ages and open to the public?
I'd rather have drag shows take place in libraries than in schools. Parents who object simply need not take their children to them. We would have to decide for ourselves what is good. The parents could see for themselves whether or not the shows are appropriate or their children even enjoy these things. I'll bet many of them do not. Allow it, and this nonsense will fizzle out. Battle it, and you give nonsense a structure to stand against.
There's my morning rant for you. Now I'll go make some coffee.
Divide and conquer is the real name of the game. Democracy is just the myth sold to the masses.
What consenting adults do is their own business. What people in power impose upon kids in the guise of education should have been concerning parents long before drag queens entered the picture. I know my parents chose to homeschool me for that reason long before homeschooling was even close to mainstream, and long before schools became as much of a mess as they are now.
I agree. I am something the middle on this hot button issue too. Clearly there are SOME agenda driven folks on both sides. And there are also many folks who just want to express their beliefs and feelings on both sides as well.
Personally I think the media likes stirring shit up. If people didn't bow down to the latest media stir, maybe they would all see each other as human beings again.
Television media and internet news have especially degenerated into sensationalism and naked yellow journalism. Has the attention economy made them change, or just made their nature more obvious?
I agree, libraries should be neutral.
In saying that, I do hate the way debate or argument seems to have been reduced now too shrill shrieks of grooming and pedos! from those who sell to enforce their own agenda over others