#drag story time

[troythecatfish]

Credit: matt bernstein ( Instagram )

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

Organizers of a drag queen story time at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia report that several hundred attendees helped set a world record for attendance at such an event, marking the start of Pride Month in the birthplace of America. Saturday’s event, hosted by the Philadelphia Gay News and supported by Visit Philadelphia, featured local drag performers reading children’s books to an audience of 263 people. The Associated Press reports that organizers recognized this as a new Guinness World Record in this category. The drag performers entertained both adults and children with readings from books including Hello, Philadelphia! by Martha Day Zschock, ’Twas the Night Before Pride by Joanna McClintick, Elmer by David McKee, The Family Book by Todd Parr, and Kevin the Unicorn: It’s Not All Rainbows by Jessika von Innerebner.

A Guinness World Records for largest attendance at a Drag Story Time (aka Drag [Queen] Story Hour) occurred this past Saturday, with 263 people in attendance. The record-breaking event happened at the National Constitution Center in Philly. 🏳️‍🌈

[seehowsupplethespineis]

Queerphobes: *Bring bagpipes to protest drag storytime*

Me: David Tennant would hate you.

[the-land-of-women]

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

The transgender business is very lucrative, bringing in lots of money for the hospitals and doctors performing the surgeries, plus the cost of expensive hormones and the cost of counseling. Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/be-the-change/who-is-funding-drag-story-hours-at-california-public-libraries

[nando161mando]

[heathen-beast]

I would like to enlist you in helping Riverside, California's ONLY independent bookstore, Cellar Door Books. This week, the owner of Cellar Door, Linda, received an eviction notice that gives her 40 days to leave her current location. The store is profitable and well-run. But Linda has one strike against her: she is vocally and very publicly progressive.

For years now, Cellar Door has held Drag Queen Story Hour. When Jammin' Bread closed, a new owner moved in and opened a cafe called Arcade across from the bookstore. This place is owned by a very conservative member of a megachurch whose congregation can be seen protesting, yelling, and frowning mightily against Cellar Door's Drag Queen Story Hour, as well as Linda's ongoing masking policy and frequent displays of novels by minoritized groups, Black and Latinx and Queer and Asian and Indigenous and others. Linda has prominent signs in the windows supporting BLM and other progressive causes.

Cellar Door is a thriving community center where book clubs meet and local children first learn to browse the shelves. We would like as many people as possible to write to the owner of Canyon Crest. Those protesting Cellar Door have written many letters, and I'd like her landlord, the owner of Canyon Crest Towne Center to know there are just as many, and probably more, voices who support Cellar Door.

Here is the Canyon Crest Town Center's management contact information:

Canyon Crest Management,Inc.

Maggie Sarinana

maggie@canyoncrestmgmt.com

Office: 951-686-1222 Ext 10

There is also a contact form here: https://shopcanyoncrest.com/contact-us

And of course we encourage going to the store and supporting it, too if possible.

[andythecorsair]

Clowns are far scarier than drag queens.

[scooty-spice]

You know that feeling when you spend so much time thinking about a concept, never mind how basic, that you feel compelled to write about it somewhere? No matter if no one ever sees it? Yeah, that’s me right now so here goes.

TW: discussion of sexual assault

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I see and hear an awful lot of discourse and rhetoric these days about trans-ness, gender non conformity, non-binary genders, drag performance, and every little thing in between.

Specifically, people who take issue with people who live in those realities and say it’s on the basis of protecting children from:

1) sexual assault

2) being groomed in some way that leads to sexual assault

And here’s the thing- I agree with protecting children from sexual assault. I agree with protecting *everyone* from sexual assault! But it seems to me like using those arguments against everything from gender-affirming care to drag story times at libraries completely misses the point.

HERE IS THE POINT: SEXUAL ASSAULT IS WRONG NO MATTER WHO DOES IT.

If you choose to sexually assault someone, that choice has nothing to do with: your gender identity, your assigned gender at birth, your gender presentation, the gender-affirming care you have or haven’t received, your clothing choices, or even your sexual orientation.

Here’s another way to frame it: a trans woman who sexually assaults another woman is just as much of a rapist as, say, the university student who sexually assaults a fellow student. I will grieve equally for both of those victims. Neither one deserves it. Neither rapist is entitled to their victim.

The reality is, one of those scenarios is FAR more likely to happen. But if anything has become clear (to me, at least), it’s that rape has very little to do with access to a victim and everything to do with the choice to rape someone.

Larry Nassar assaulted hundreds of girls in his time as a doctor. His access to girls didn’t make him a rapist. His actions did.

Brock Turner assaulted Chanel Miller while she was intoxicated at a party on the Stanford campus. His access to intoxicated girls and women didn’t make him a rapist. His actions did.

Catholic priests all over the world have molested children in their parishes. Their access to parishioners didn’t make them rapists. Their actions did.

These examples go on and on! And yet, very few people are interested in vilifying doctors, university students and religious leaders. It’s almost as if you can’t paint them all with the same brush, or something. It’s almost as if no sane parent will refuse to take their child to any doctor on the basis of “some doctors are rapists”.

So when I hear people say they’re opposed to trans people receiving gender-affirming care or using the bathroom of their choice BECAUSE it will create an environment in which sexual assault is inevitable, it makes no sense. Those ideas are dangerously misguided at best.

If you’ve read this far, holy shit, thank you. Like- am I way off base? Am I missing the point? Probably this is sort of heavy and a bit much to be thinking about, but I don’t know.

I would love for someone to expand on this topic - my experience as a cisgender woman means I probably have some blind spots and I want to learn as much as possible so I can help my trans siblings gain acceptance in all the small ways I can. ❤️❤️

[1000-year-old-virgin]

I had discussion with some one earlier about the whole drag queen story time issue that so many conservatives seem to have a hard on for recently.

This individual used the term "Agenda" and I was like "yes of course it's an agenda. It's an Agenda to end homophobia and create decent adults in the future by teaching children from a young age that people can be different from you and still deserve the basic human right of empathy and respect."

Like, your only other option is that you want kids to grow up and hate/discriminate against their fellow citizens. There is no middle ground!

P.S. If you really don't want drag queens reading stories to your kids then opt out of the event. No one is forcing your kids to join!

[thatblondeperson]

Fun stuff happening at home.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/protests-at-drag-story-hours-across-the-county-continue/

Big yikes quotes from here:

“At one time I was very confused with my own sexual identity and God straightened me out,” he said. “We’re just here out of love. I want to respect people but at the same time, i have to draw some kind of line of moral value.”

😬😬😬

"Santa Rosa resident Orlean Koehle said she felt that drag story hours contributes to children having gender dysphoria and feels that these types of events groom children to be accepting of the LGBTQ community."

Accepting of the LGBTQ community, what a terrible thing... /s

Super disheartening but shits bad out there, even in seemingly accepting cities. Our queer coffee shop was vandalized too with anti-trans signs.

[nando161mando]

[hezigler]

Watch "Interview with Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm | The Problem with Jon Stewart" on YouTube

[holy-shit-look]

Do what you want as a parent I'm sure you feel capable of protecting your kids just be aware:

I just don't think that a power structure that needs INSURANCE for s*x*al misconduct with children is a place where children are safe to be present.

You wouldn't bring a child into a nightclub knowing age inappropriate activity happens there often enough to require special insurance

Most parents won't even let their kids play online games where pr3dat0rs are present!

And yet we walk them in all dressed up in their finest into a building that has SPECIFIC SPECIAL INSURANCE to protect itself from s*x*al misconduct charges on a WEEKLY BASIS and often times will leave them there unattended with the staff of said institution that have SPECIAL INSURANCE to protect themselves from s*x*al misconduct charges for events, lessons, volunteering, etc.

Idk.

Risk assessment is something an adult is just significantly better at than naive little kids and I think they'd have a much easier time protecting themselves if they were able to choose to be present in such a place.

A child has no protection.

The church? They have protection. They've got insurance for it.

And yet we ignore this in favor of banning DRESS UP. There is 0 difference between drag performers and party princesses or character actors at Disney Land. They are all wearing a costume. They all tell kids the same thing. "Be yourself" "find your sparkle!" "You are fantastically you!"

All of which happens under parental supervision and don't require or have insurance to protect them from s*x*al misconduct charges.

Unlike many church activities....