Drag Queen Story Hour Comes to Small Town America [Updated June 27]
A small village in the Hudson Valley of New York is ablaze with controversy after a bookstore sponsored a Drag Queen Story Hour during Summerfest. Village leaders are now having to deal with it.
I live in a small village in the Hudson Valley, on the east side of the river. Drag Queen Story Hour has suddenly become an issue here, and Monday evening (June 26) the village Board of Trustees will be dealing with some of the issues arising (which take the guise of an amendment to the adult cabaret law, and also involved Constitutional issues, but in reality are related to the moral and sexual panic the right is currently engaged in about all issues having to do with gender and gender fluidity.)
This is a commentary I posted today on the most popular village Facebook group. I will update this after the meeting tomorrow evening. I am keeping the name of our village anonymous for now, but may cease doing so depending on what happens next.
As most here probably know, the “culture wars” have once again come to [our village] with the controversy over Drag Queen Story Hours. There will be a public hearing Monday evening over the technicalities and constitutionality of the village’s cabaret laws, but of course the real issue is whether these events are appropriate for our village and for the location they have taken place in (eg the [local bookstore….])
In looking at the letters in this weeks’ issue of the Gazette, it is clear that some in the village either are not aware of the nature and purpose of these events, and/or are deliberately spreading disinformation about them (eg that they are meant to “groom” children into adopting non-gender conforming lifestyles of various kinds, a current right-wing myth.)
In fact, there is a clear rationale for these events, whether one agrees with it or not. Basically, in an entertaining way, they help teach children that gender fluidity is a normal part of human nature and behavior, and that our fellow citizens who identify in non-conforming ways—whether because they are gay, lesbian, transgender, etc.—should not only be accepted but made to feel welcome members of society.
We seemed to have made a lot of progress in this area with the growing acceptance of gay citizens and even their legal right to marry, but the right-wing in this country is now trying to score political points by launching a war against those who do not conform (which would seem to contradict conservative values of freedom of choice and expression, IMO.) This need to engage in constant culture wars is very suspicious given the really important issues our country and society is facing, and serves as a deflection from them in my view.
As for the argument that this kind of thing should not be for children: This is exactly when kids should be exposed to these human differences, before they learn to adopt the prejudiced and even sometimes bigoted attitudes of some adults. Some of us may recall watching Flip Wilson dressing up as Geraldine on his Emmy and Golden Globe winning TV show—I watched and laughed with my parents—and I doubt that the experience was harmful to any of us.
(That said, parents still have the choice of not taking their children to Drag Queen Story Hour events; the idea that churchgoers or high school students might somehow wander in or perhaps see the drag queens as they enter or leave the Black Cow should not be the cause of anyone’s moral panic.)
For those who need to study up on these issues, I can recommend the Wikipedia entry on Drag Queen Story Hours, along with a couple of other articles linked to below. I’m sure that other members of this group can also provide reading materials that would enlighten those who have misconceptions about these events (eg, that they are somehow wildly sexual in nature, which is false.)
We should also keep in mind that the federal courts have not been sympathetic to discrimination based on sex, gender, or sexual preference, and that if a man or woman in “gender-conforming” clothes can read a story in a bookstore, those rights do not stop when they put on a dress or a wig—nor should they.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_Queen_Story_Hour
https://bookriot.com/drag-story-hour/
https://flaglerlive.com/drag-queen-story-hou
Update June 27, 2023: I’m happy to report that the Board of Trustees of Croton-on-Hudson in New York’s Hudson Valley voted unanimously to remove the phrase “male and female impersonators” from its definition of regulated “adult” entertainment, thus allowing Drag Queen Story Hours to continue unimpeded. The public hearing on the changes, in which Crotonites spoke for and against the changes, can be accessed here and begins about 16 minutes into the recording.