Another drag Queen in the library question

[DoYouSeaWhatISea]

Apologies for the really, really long post. I’ve name changed for this, I’m not a newby. I’m British, and live in Las Vegas, NV. Despite the reputation Las Vegas has on the strip, the city of Las Vegas has been a great place for us to live, with good parks, schools, and great weather for year round outdoor activities.

Anyway, my 11 yr daughter received this in her email, from our city/county library, attached. It’s for Teen Drag Workshops, and Drag Competition.

lvccld.bibliocommons.com/events/614ce90829050241008ba571?_ga=2.44190439.2145938912.1634338872-1536380980.1634338872

lvccld.bibliocommons.com/events/search/q=Drag/event/614ce80cd0e33f3600d52e95

With the help of mumsnet, I put together this email, and got the following infuriating reply from them. Basically them telling me if I don’t like it, suck eggs.

My Email…………….
Hi, Please can you tell me how you have come to the conclusion that a teen drag workshop, ie copying an adult man dressed in hyper sexualised female clothing is appropriate education & entertainment for children/teen?

You have a public duty to safeguard children and this shows a wanton lack of concern for this duty. 'Drag' as entertainment is based on adult sexual innuendo and is not appropriate for children/teens.

Drag queens are associated with 'adult/late night entertainment'. Their humour and dress is frequently bawdy and they naturally are seeking 'attention'. I don't think that it is appropriate to use their desire to entertain/own vanity to impose upon children under the guise of 'educating' them. Misogyny, sexism and grooming of children has no place in libraries.

You also may be interested in this news article. Libraries hosting ‘drag-queen story hours' for children could be fined under new bill. Public library employees in a US state could face a fine or jail time for providing “age-inappropriate sexual material” under a bill proposed by a local politician. Read in The Independent:apple.news/AfFfQpMiWT2u23vBetyuxDw…

I am not the only person concerned about safeguarding children and teenagers.

Please cancel these events immediately. You may want to review whichever staff members consider adult sexualised entertainment appropriate teaching material for children/teens.

Their response……………. Greetings,

Thank you for contacting the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District regarding an upcoming teen drag workshop. The Library District strives to offer diverse programming that appeals to a wide range of customer interests. We’re sorry that this particular program may not appeal to you, but we hope you will find other program offerings that you’d like to attend at LVCCLD.org/events.

The Library District adheres to the Library Bill of Rights, which in part states that a person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views. The Library District performs a background check on any adult prior to providing a youth program. Parents and caregivers may exercise their individual choice and responsibility over minors with regards to selecting materials or attending events.

I’ve deleted the name of the respondent from the Library, just in case it gets my thread pulled, but it’s the Community Engagement Director. They also referred to the American Library Assoc.

www.ala.org/advocacy/libraries-respond-drag-queen-story-hour b

This isn’t an area I’m comfortable with, but I do know that kids and teens don’t need drag queens as role models. I need some help to respond, if anyone can help me string a sentence together. Also I’ve got no idea where to go from here. Are we simply supposed to just shut up about this?

The world has gone mad- hard to believe they think their actions show any sound judgement.

I’m not much use at writing but sending a supportive hug. Totally agree with you. And your definition of drag. Shocking that it should be encouraged.
And where’s the workshop where ladies dress up as grotesque parodies of blokes?

What am I missing. Why drag Queens. Why libraries. What is the connection and is this something people actually want to do? Are parents really taking their kids along to this stuff? Very confused here.

"This is deeply fucked up."

Probably not what you're looking for as response but it's all I could muster.

OP and good luck.

I would use this comparison from a feminist perspective: would it be considered acceptable for a library to run workshops teaching only [girls] as young as 13 how to apply heavy makeup, wear sexualised, uncomfortable clothing and perform sexual dance moves in public?

If that were to happen then people would probably suspect a dodgy motive: at the least pro-consumerist, at the most noncey. Weirdly enough I [was] a fan of Drag Race at the age of 13 when it started marketing to teen girls, I now feel I was exposed to sexual innuendo far too early due to that show and subculture. Way too young.

Why does the concept of age-appropriateness fade away when it's boys dressing as girls? Like look at Desmond is Amazing etc - surely nobody would be happy with their 9 year old daughter wearing makeup and dancing in nightclubs near screaming men...a KF thread on his mum exposed a lot of noncey people following the two on social media

BTW where are the 13-19-year-olds even going to find an outlet for their 'drag persona' considering the drinking age in America is 21?? Most of these performances take place in bars right?

We've had lots of these workshops at my university (SU-funded ) but at least everyone taking part is an adult. There's an odd emphasis on drag over actual student welfare and support.

I suspect that what's happens is you have a bunch of library types, who can be very well meaning and slightly naive people (I work in a library, fwiw) and they think - how can we have programming to welcome this marginalized community into the library? And how to we get kids involved, because they always see that as part of their mandate. SO you have a black man come in and do a drumming workshop, or something like that. Kids like drumming, they get exposed to another culture, presumably the black community feels like it's being represented. I'm not actually convinced that this is what making everyone welcome in the library really means, but people like it and it's nice.

So, next they are thinking, how do we make the gay community feel welcome? Have a gay book club, or host Pride events. And how to get kids involved? Diversity in books is a big deal now, though TBH most of them aren't very good, as there is no story as such. But there isn't really a gay equivalent of a drumming class, much less one appropriate for kids. Somehow what they land on is drag queens, because that's culture, and kids like to dress up and it even seems to dovetail in nicely with trans identity (they imagine.). And many of them are so unaware they don't realize the extent to which drag is really about elements of sexuality that aren't relevant to or appropriate for kids.

They seem to be quite unaware in all this that while no one or almost no one cares about the man and the drumming workshop, a lot of people are made rather uncomfortable and feel unwelcome when the library seems to be pushing stuff that seems at best, marginally appropriate for children, and they become disinclined to come to the library.

Following with intrigue