The former preschool teacher said children younger than 6 were “the most impressionable.” Young members of the audience at Saturday’s reading “are going to be questioning their own identities,” said Kathleen Lanfear. Two speakers said all drag queen performances are inherently sexual, appearing to conflate story time with a drag show, and others predicted the event would lead to children becoming drag queens, calling the event a “ruse” and an example of “grooming” - a term borrowed from the lexicon of sexual-abuse pathology that has been broadly applied by some conservatives to apply to any discussion of sexuality that might be heard by children. “Why are drag queens being normalized?” Mike Mahoney said. Most of the speakers, though, were more upset about the drag queen than the books. On Facebook, the library described it as a way of “providing opportunities for our patrons to participate in cultural growth.”Ī former library board member said the board had missed an opportunity by not making it clear that the books were “benign” and devoid of sexual content. The books are “All Are Welcome,” in which students from different backgrounds are welcomed at school “Just Add Glitter,” about a little girl who adds glitter to everything and “Red: A Crayon Story,” about a crayon that was made with the wrong color label.Ĭurrent board members did not defend the event during the discussion, offering no details about it or why they decided to offer it. “Our children are in danger.”Īttending an event run by a drag queen “sexualizes children and it is absolutely wrong,” Jacquard said.Īlbany drag queen Scarlet Sagamore - whose name evokes the Adirondacks - is scheduled to read three books to children at 10:15 a.m. Not letting them speak was “irresponsible on your part and it is disrespectful to this community,” he said. They completed those tasks quickly and adjourned. Those who showed up to protest about the story hour did not have “privilege of the floor” based on the agenda, but resident Josh Jacquard argued board members into listening to the public. The Rockwell Falls Public Library board had scheduled an emergency meeting Tuesday to accept the sudden resignation of the board president and choose short-term leaders before next month’s election. Protests against such events have become more common amid the current culture wars, with legislation restricting or banning drag performances cropping up across the country.
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