Drag Queen Story Time

[LizzyStrata]

First time posting here, so not sure of the etiquette. My apologies if this is the wrong place to raise these concerns.

Reading Borough Council is planning to hold Drag Queen Story Hour events in our libraries during the summer holidays. I’ve written to my MP, my councillors, and the Head of the Library Service to raise concerns. I think drag is entirely inappropriate for children, as it is a form of adult entertainment, highly sexualised and misogynistic, that blurs boundaries and undermines safeguarding.

The response Ive had is simply that they have received very few complaints so no reason to cancel.

Has anyone had any experience of tackling their local library over this issue? Grateful for any tips.

Also, if you live in Berkshire ,would you be willing to write and share your concerns?

thanks!

I’m also in a racial demographic that Patriotic Alternative would protest against. It is a great shame that the left’s refusal to listen to women raising safeguarding concerns has led to a position where there is a vacuum these groups can exploit. Just as in Rotherham where anyone raising concerns was vilified for a long time and the girls in the Asian community who were exploited are still being ignored.
I hold people like Stella Creasy responsible for this and for the now inevitable backlash against LGB people this will create. A group that I belong to.

It's a leap that there are "good" protestors (the women, probably GC, who must not be silenced!) vs the "bad" protestors (the men shouting outside). They could be well part of the same group -- there was a vaccine site protested on my road where most protestors were women, and plenty of women are involved in alt-right/white supremacy/conspiracies about jews and paedophiles being the new world order.

The group of protestors was small and I do not believe that there's any chance the "good" protestors were unaware of what the "bad" protestors were shouting, which included well known far-right dog whistles.

Exactly this
Plus the "bad" protesters no doubt think they're the "good" protesters too.

Husbands could also write

This is because you don't generally publish images of other people's children on the internet.

Unless, of course you are a gender critical activist who goes into a library to film a video of yourself shouting about "paedophiles" at children. Then you would publish images of other people's children on the internet.

Oh, GJBJ, while you're here....rights?

It is less strict than orthodox judaism; it is liberal and my synagogue has had mixed seating since the early 1900s. However, without going too much into it, my synagogue only seems 'progressive' because the dominant denomination in this country is orthodox judaism (even though the majority of jewish people in this country do not keep strict kosher and would use electricity on shabbat; the majority do still affiliate with an orthodox synagogue because that is the dominant stream and those would have separate seating). In the USA, around half of Americans identify with non-orthodox judaism; i think this is partly historical as Reform Judaism originated from Germany and the Jews who fled Nazi Germany ultimately often chose America as their final destination (or had little choice in the matter since the British did not allow many Jewish refugees to enter) if they survived. Many of the people in my synagogue are Kindertransport refugees/descended from Kindertransport refugees. However, I would say a large percentage of British Jewish people (like my DH's paternal side) came here pre WW2 and they therefore are more likely to identify as orthodox (even if they drive on shabbat). The Liberal Jewish movement was homegrown in the UK but I still find a lot of the congregants in my synagogue are American or French or converts like myself (in addition of course to the British families who have been liberal for 4 generations) so its very diverse; and hence I am not surprised trans people would feel comfortable there.

The majority of converts in the UK are non orthodox. I remember reading a stat that said there are only 25 orthodox converts and over 200 Reform/Liberal converts. Not sure how many there are from the conservative denomination (they are more strict than reform but less strict than orthodox. my MIL was an orthodox convert, it took her 3 years and she had to live with an orthodox family (they rejected the first person she lived with because she was a single woman). my MIL ultimately became so religious that she sent my DH to a ultra orthodox primary school in stamford hill; but she has mellowed over the years and is now more 'mainstream orthodox' and occasionally even goes to a partnership minyan (which is where women read from the torah). She is still very observant- doesn't' use electricity on shabbat, keeps strict kosher, and she wears long sleeves and long skirts even in 40 degree heat. In contrast, it took me 1.5 years to convert to Liberal Judaism, I had to learn hebrew and take 2 hours of classes every week, as well as appear before a jewish court (though I wasn't rejected 3 times like my MIL). I would say it is harder to convert to any form of Judaism as opposed to Christianity and Islam. I suspect trans people who convert to Judaism 'as a woman' do not need a circumcision, though I can't be sure because I find it weird asking such questions! Most converts to Judaism are female (and my DH thinks thats because of the circumcision requirement for men-which applies across all denominations). Traditionally, the stereotype was that converts were people like me- female with a Jewish spouse but apparently this is no longer the case- many converts nowadays don't even have a Jewish partner!

www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/conversion-not-just-for-marriage-anymore
'There were other revelations from our survey. Sexual and gender minorities now seem to make up an outsize number of today’s converts. “One population that has increased the most is trans people,” said Yanklowitz, of Valley Beit Midrash, in Phoenix. “I don’t know if that’s because they think of me as an ally, so they reach out to me, or because trans awareness and public awareness has increased these past few years, or something about trans people who want to transition, they want to transition religions and genders.”

Not everthing that criticises this sort of stuff is "gender critical", even if there are women members. I sincerely doubt that an organisation calling itself 'Patriot Alternative' is.

It's a leap that there are "good" protestors (the women, probably GC, who must not be silenced!) vs the "bad" protestors (the men shouting outside). They could be well part of the same group

It's also a leap that everyone who protests must be doing so for the same reasons.

Your assumption seems to be that everyone who protests is part of the 'bad', homophobic, transphobic group. You need to get out of this mindset that everyone who wants to protect children must be homophobic and transphobic. Most of us just want to protect children. This is nothing to do with people who are gay or trans.

Yeah...this is not the way! I do not support this in any way, shape or form.

it is ok to be who you are

Never understood it when people say this about drag queens. Most people are who they are. Drag queens are among the minuscule number of exceptions.

This is the sad result of GC radicalisation when trans people/gender non-conforming men are viewed as a threat to society.

A very sad echo of what gay men went through in the 70s and 80s when the press and society demonised them as a threat to children.

Don't know if anyone else has seen this - might be of www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11052687/Police-forced-escort-Drag-Queen-safety-protesters-storm-childrens-event.html

Don't be ridiculous. Do you really think a drag queen just is a 'gender non-conforming man'? Drag queens are highly sexualised and grotesque parodies of women, and a form of adult entertainment. They are not a 'threat to society', but they are unsuitable as children's entertainers.

FWIW I think it was a very ill thought out protest. In terms of optics but also in other ways.

However I am in some ways not surprised it's come to this. These events are controversial and always have been, because anyone who knows anything about drag knows that it is fundamentally about sexuality. That's the point.

Any time you mix kids and sexuality, especially at a place like a library, you are going to make people very upset. Libraries are not meant to be places where the envelope gets pushed, that's just not their role.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/26/protesters-storm-first-drag-queen-storytime-primary-school-children/

onthefencesitter · Today 12:06
Thank you very much. onthefence for such a full answer, which is much appreciated.

It would be interesting to know if a transwoman ( who has not had surgery) would be required to be circumcised, or if their new female gender means they would be exempt. Not that I am asking you to answer, or ask, as that would be a private, and a religious matter.

From what you say, many synagogues are very welcoming in general, and open to new converts to a greater degree than I had realised.

“One population that has increased the most is trans people,” said Yanklowitz, of Valley Beit Midrash, in Phoenix. “I don’t know if that’s because they think of me as an ally, so they reach out to me, or because trans awareness and public awareness has increased these past few years, or something about trans people who want to transition, they want to transition religions and genders.”

This seems a fascinating question. I wonder if this is also a phenomenon in the USA among born again Christians, or converts to Catholicism.

"Drag queens are highly sexualised and grotesque parodies of women, and a form of adult entertainment."

Such nonsense. Dame Edna has been on daytime television for years. She even introduced the Queen at an event for her Jubilee:

www.dailymotion.com/video/x2otx6e

You clearly have a warped and dirty mind if you think there is something automatically sexual about a man in a dress.

Such nonsense. Dame Edna has been on daytime television for years. She even introduced the Queen at an event for her Jubilee:
Yes, drag acts have been entertaining for years, I used to love Widow Twanky as a kid at the pantomime

Yep. Not a protest I support, not the right way of doing it at all.

Feminists have been warning for years that trying to 'queer' childhood would have this exact effect, though.

It's not feminists doing these protests.

There is such a thing as transphobia, of course, and homophobia is still a thing too. But trans activists have cried wolf, abused the systems and processes put in place to try and protect them, and spent too much energy trying to fight women, lesbians and feminists when the people who were always going to be the real danger are ... well, they're not discussing feminist theory on Mumsnet, put it that way.

The women protesting in the library were gender critical, you can quite clearly hear them saying "men cannot be women" etc.

"Feminists have been warning for years that trying to 'queer' childhood would have this exact effect, though."

Not feminists; homophobes and transphobes have been opposing children being made aware that LGBT people exist.

I don't think trans people would be very welcome in an evangelic christian or catholic setting! There were only 4 religious groups who supported the equal marriage act in the UK (which has support in the mainstream uk population)- The Movement for Reform Judaism, Liberal Judaism, Quakers and Unitarian universalists. Given that the trans debate is a step further (and i think still doesn't have mainstream support), I would hazard a guess that if you are a trans person in the Uk and looking for a religion, you should not try anything other than those 4 religious groups. Ditto for drag queens.

I was talking about Patriot Alternative or whatever they are called. It's right there in my post.

And anyway anyone can say "Men are not women". Matt Walsh does and he is certainly not gender critical. Now our message is out there, anyone could.pick it up.

I'll reserve judgement on the affiliations of the women protesters until I know more: I follow LOADS of GC people on twitter, and nobody has claimed responsibility. Nobody has come forward on here either, and we normally hace our finger on the pulse.

I will be extremely disappointed if these qomen are GC in the strict sense of the word, and would like to have a wee word with them about their tactics.