The Library Should Stay Open!

On  March 7th, if you’ve got nothing to do around noon, why dontcha head on out to Missouri’s state capitol building and join a bunch of drag queens in protesting GOP state Representative Ben Baker’s proposed legislation to jail librarians who host the very popular Drag Queen Story Hour. Oh, and the librarians could also be imprisoned … imprisoned … if they allow young people to check out books on LGBTQ topics.

Seriously.

Luckily, as evidenced at Stonewall, Drag Queens do not back down from bullies, and are taking to Facebook to rally the troops and their allies to the protest:

“Queens, Kings & everything in between! It’s time we stand together at the Missouri State Capitol! Even if you don’t do drag, but support drag queen storytime—come support and rally with us! We will be heading to Jefferson City, MO in full drag to show senators & legislators that we aren’t the monsters here. That all we are doing is providing a space for learning and getting kids excited about reading. Knowledge is power!”

Baker denies that his legislation would ban LGBTQ+ books, but it does seek to move those kinds of book to a “restricted” area of the library; but Ben’s real target is the Drag Queens … reading stories to children:

“The main thing is, I want to be able to take my kids to a library and make sure they’re in a safe environment, and that they’re not gonna be exposed to something that is objectionable material. Unfortunately, there are some libraries in the state of Missouri that have done this. And that’s a problem. In some places … they’ve had these drag queen story hours and that’s something that I take objection to and I think a lot of parents do. That’s where in a public space, our kids could be exposed to something that’s age-inappropriate. That’s what I’m trying to tackle.”

Hey Ben? Quick. Tell me the last time you took your children to a library. Hell, tell me the first time you did it. And what is it about Drag Queens that isn’t “safe”? The big hair? The size twelve heels? The joy a Drag Queen brings? The fact that a group of people want to read to children?

It all sounds horrifying.

But, Ben, you relic of hate who clearly has nothing better to do to help the people of your state than prevent people from reading To children in a library, if you, or any of your followers, don’t want Drag Queens reading to your children, don’t take them.

It’s that simple.

If you're looking for a Drag Queen Story Time, head to their Facebook page HERE for information.