Drag Queen Story Hour - Summer Library Tour

[MidCenturyClegs]

Had a quick look and couldn't find anything explicitly related to the whole tour.

Here's the schedule:

Bristol (of course) Library posting this have switched off the comments, and hidden previous ones, but the tweet is here:

twitter.com/bristollibrary/status/1526977116314681347?s=21&t=i31eBY6l7ImlQIuvJJBUsg

Somebody asked about DBS checks etc (given incidents like this a valid question :
www.womenarehuman.com/former-ceo-of-org-sponsoring-drag-queen-story-hour-arrested-for-sex-abuse-images-of-children/

I went on to their website to find out info on their safeguarding policies, here:

https://www.dragqueenstoryhour.co.uk/files/ugd/45d42aa_ac05020f9b454032a0588c95beb7b659.pdf?index=true

Do we have a safeguarding expert who could advise on this? It seemed woolly to me.

I’m definitely not a safeguarding expert but a quick glance reveals that the policy doesn’t list the protected characteristics - it misses out sex but includes gender ID (which is NOT a protected characteristic) Suspect an expert would find more anomalies.
I’ve written to my MP, logged an official complaint on my council’s website and contacted Baroness Nicholson for good measure!

And now the North Face is hosting a ‘summer of Pride’ with yes of course a drag act. Name something like Patty Gonia (are the something to do with Pategonia brand too?).

Give me strength…

twitter.com/thenorthface?s=21&t=-qFwRuk22acgxxfrWOgQuw

although the hidden replies are a sight to behold..,

I saw a cartoon the other day, I looked for it just now but can't find it online - it was a kid in his bed lamenting that he couldn't just read a story without it having some message attached to it.

I kind of feel like that about library events these days (I work in a library, not in the UK.) Our local government authority hands down "priorities" for our programming, and this year thet are all directed at increasing engagement with a few identity related causes. They would like it if all our special programming was focused in this way, and a good portion of our new acquisitions. It's totally not serving the actual patrons who mostly are interested in other things, plus its politicized wich is wrong.

Gosh, they are all in with the performative virtue, aren't they?

I remember a friend of my sisters who was a very flamboyant gay man - he had us in stitches one evening because he had been called up for military service.

‘ooooh can you imagine me in those boots? And that scratchy underwear! And sharing a tent with all those men… would the even let me bring my makeup bag - i need my mascara (this was the 80s) ??? I can’t go somewhere humid without my special moisturiser and the damp would play havoc with my hair…’.

this reminds me of my sisters late friend.

I’m in a local gender critical women’s group on Twitter. Several of us have written to our MPs, councillors and head of Library Services for the Local Authority and are awaiting replies. I think that if there’s a considerable volume of letters/ emails, in a number of locations, it will carry more weight. It’s too easy otherwise to just dismiss the individual letter writers as ‘bigots’.

I have just discovered this is coming to my local library..I dont know how to even begin to explain to complain.
Help!

Why not just have the Librarian read the bloody stories

If they happen to be a drag queen then fair enough but no need to bring one in.

Bullshit is it 'diversity', how many drag queens are toddlers going to encounter in daily life?

There's nine characteristics, not one, and this is purely and simply about queering childhood and fashionable bandwagons with a current belief that safeguarding, appropriacy and boundaries are boring. (For adults. Who would like to use kids in their experience of lovely edgy performing.)

Fgs where are the grown ups these days.

I work at a library and all our story times are now done by volunteers ((staff were NOT happy about this). None of the volunteers have had DBS checks, despite all of them potentially coming into contact with children. There have already been some seriously concerning incidents (not involving children thankfully) where volunteers have had to be "let go" because of sexually harassing customers and staff, and stealing from both public and restricted areas of the library. It's one of the reasons I'm so glad I'm retiring soon. I really don't think that I can in all honesty tell parents that their children are safe in our library. I mean, I would never have suggested that a child should be unattended in the library, but 10 or 15 years ago you could at least guarantee that all staff were DBS checked.

Surely story time in the library should focus on the story being read, not the reader. (Unless of course, it's an actual author reading their own work.) If you want to instill a love of reading into children which is what libraries should be about, you need someone unobtrusive who knows all about books to be reading the story.

So these acts are volunteers? I suspect not…

what is the educational value of this?
what is their training in education?
How is this diverse? How often does one meet a drag Queen?
What would happen if they got someone on dressed as - a Native American, in blackface, man as a ‘sexy nurse/schoolgirl’ etc etc etc.
why is an ‘act’ that is by its nature crude, rude and ‘sexy’ deemed appropriate for children?

I don't get it. How can it normalise LGBT?

You know what would?
Here's Mandy and her wife Sally. Mandy works at a zoo and Sally is a vet. They are here to read you a story, do some animal crafts and let you pet a chinchilla.

You know what doesn't?
Gay Means Glitter, Bitches!!!

It’s nothing like my gay friends and relatives - definitely not showing the L G or B.

They are people with partners, jobs and hobbies. Not exhibits in a zoo.

We need to be showing kids that women can be mechanics, pilots, firefighters and men can be nurses, dinner ‘ladies’ and nursery teachers.

A good story doesn't need accompanying theatrics for it to be compelling. At what point did it start to become all about the storyteller? My amazing Year 5 teacher kept the class enthralled just by reading us Roald Dhal. No costume or make up was required.

I would have hated all this self-aggrandising performance faff as a bookworm child.

There's a regular poster on here whose niece is a firefighter, is a lesbian, and has spearheaded some fantastic initiatives for girls. She sounds absolutely kick ass. She's the kind of person who would be an amazing role model for kids for a storytelling session but no, 'diversity' in this respect always seems = drag.

That’s my niece! She is also about 5”10, blonde haired, blue eyed and very pretty!

Okay, admit it. Kitten, you're posting from the fairytale kingdom of Far, Far Away, and your niece is the princess of the kingdom. She's working as a firefighter until her parents retire from the monarchy.

On a serious note, she sounds like a woman who make assorted toddlers' and pre-schoolers' absolute DAY if she came to read a story in her uniform.

When they need to go on a grocery run they have to go in the fire truck (incase they get a call). You should see the kids faces when she rocks up in uniform - jaws hitting the floor. Grown men get a bit wobbly too!

my sister is absolutely Queen of a universe.

We also had a rather fiesty confrontation in the Narural History museum with Mary Anning (neither would back down)

More detail please?

I really don't understand Drag Queen Story hour. What is the point?

I think the point of Drag Queen Story Hour is it's an easy way for parents to prove to themselves (and friends on facebook) that they're the Right Sort, and they Accept Diversity. A silent scream of "I can't be homophobic, here's a picture of me and my toddler near a man who might be gay!"

Full disclosure- I would probably have been all for it, aged 18, and might even have taken toddlers to it. Fortunately, I didn't have any toddlers to take, and no such thing as Drag Queen Story Hour existed at that point.

These years later, if I do ever feel the need to visually signal that I'm not homophobic, I'm sure I will be able to find better ways than taking my toddler to see a drag queen. It's rather homophobic that we're being encouraged as a society to associate drag with being gay, tbh.

Complain anyway! If they get enough letters, they may come to their senses. As a lesbian (but no longer interested in the LGBT+ Community, so called, which does NOT represent me or care for my rights) , also as a feminist, a retired teacher & a grandma, I am offended by the inherent misogyny of drag acts.

Hello! My name is Mary Anning!

Not

yes I am Mary Anning and do you know that as a little girl…

Not

oh but I am Mary Anning - don’t you see my basket for collecting fossils and my…

not

see - I have a follow here that I found….

noooo lady!

He was about 3 or 4 at the time.

i get that she was trying to stay in character (and I did guide him away, dodging Charles Darwin) but if the kid doesn’t want to play along, don’t engage… like when I went to loo at the interval of some terrible Amdram production and one of the seven brides (of the seven brothers) decided to stay in character and try to chat with me whilst I was washing my hands. It freaked me out a bit to be honest.

Thanks- I can picture the scene !