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Let’s get right to it.

Just like with Bozo the Clown and the Catholic Church when it comes to the mass, to be legitimate with Community support, a Drag Queen Story Hour must follow the general script although books can be chosen according to the local community and the Drag Queen can go by whatever name, wearing whatever has them appear fabulous in day light.

As with any story hour, whether it is being conducted by a police officer, a firefighter, a nurse, a clergy member, or the old library lady, it begins, in this case, with the children being greeted by a glamorously dressed person that the younger kids will assume is a gorgeous lady in a lovely outfit, an impression they are allowed to keep to, and older ones might have a form of Santa questioning about the reality of the reader, who then has them all gather around her as she begins reading a book.

Think of GW Bush reading that book on 9/11.

Sometimes, for a laugh from the kids, the Queen may add something, such as a pair of Dame Edith glasses to the outfit.

Depending on the Drag Queen’s budget, as the book is read, the reader either holds the book out periodically so the kids can see the pictures, or projects the book on a screen so the people in attendance can read along.

In the 1950s, because my school could not afford individual books for each first graders, my first Dick and Jane book was a large version that stood on an easel at the front of the room with Sister Mary ImmaGetYouForSomething turning the pages as we read out loud.

There are no speeches. There are no classes. This is reading without the encumbrance of all that is school. Reading for reading. Hearing a story from someone other than family, school, and that creative voice in your head that makes a stick a sword and you invincible and is fun to listen to.

For all practical purposes there is really nothing to object to as it is all the same as when any professional, wearing their uniform, reads to kids.

Mr. Tony Sinclair would only appear in Drag on a show night or where her Drag persona was asked to make an appearance at some event never just as a choice of outfit. To him, just as a police officer, a firefighter, or an NFL quarterback puts on a uniform for work but not leisure, so it was for him as a female impersonator, or in familiar, though not strictly correct terms, a Drag Queen

But, not being scary, it cannot be used by the religio-fascist, so it has to be falsely presented according to what can be useful for their agenda as opposed to what actually is.

Opposition to the reality would be a too obviously extreme, so people needed to be convinced the imaginary extreme is the truth.

Because of the false descriptions, people like Kirk Cameron have weaponized story hours to be religio-political events and not just a reading to children in a public library. He called for and got a national day of story hours to be held on the same day at public libraries all over the country where a specific book was to be read among others from a Christian publisher, Brave Books, good for sales, that seeks to promote traditional values, often at the expense of the “other”.

There are good people of faith who love this country, and most of us are not Kirk’s people.

Although it has been the way, for some reason Kirk and Company feel they are doing something new and never done before in suggesting that parents, guardians, grandparents, neighbors, pastors, community leaders, and others read to kids.

However, unlike Drag Queen Story hour that is entertaining and book and children-centric, Riley Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer who opposes Trans-Girls in girls’ sports, will be speaking at some readings and adults are being encouraged to come to the political event couched as a reading to discuss politics.

To justify this, Kirk Cameron does the usual Christian thing of bearing false witness by claiming that his having these readings are what Drag Queen t Hours are, stating,

“This is exactly what the progressive groups do. They organize their communities, they assemble all of their activists and they gather in places to push their values and their agenda,”

If he calls a simple book reading “pushing” values and agendas so he can claim he is simply doing the same thing, in his attempt to justify that he admits that his story hour has nothing to do with reading to children but all about pushing his values and agenda.

It is like running around attempting to convert people to your religion while claiming others doing the same thing is wrong because it is recruiting and grooming, as if infant baptism doesn’t initiate a life of living by another’s choice with horror stories to insure adherence to the rules.

My walking out of a store with something I paid for in my hand is not the same as kirk walking out with the same product but without paying. Some details are similar, we both walked out of the same store by the same door with the same product in our hands, but the totality is completely different.

He cannot justify his theft because some details are similar. To be the same, they would all have to be the same.

Whereas Drag Queen Story Hours are advertised locally and take place on different days at different times with most places not having any, Kirk’s readings were preceded by a call for attendance and action.

It was clearly not a simple advert for a reading that might produce discussion, but it was a call to a reading for insured discussion, discussion too heavy for the children the story hour is supposed to be for. It was just a meeting of adults in the library hiding behind children.

Anyone can attend a Drag Queen Story Hour as can be seen by the adults who attend, some yelling obscenities at the Drag Queen while describing sex acts in the presence of children because of their need for children to hear what they are yelling, but these other readings request a specific, exclusionary audience, “all families who love God and America”, because those who go to Drag Queen Story hour apparently don’t.

An invitation to “you, your friends, your pastors, your teachers and your local representatives on this date,” not including children, belies the claim it is a children’s story hour. Without an invitation to children, how is this like Drag Queen Story Hour?

Libraries, which are fully aware of the difference between a children’s story hour and a political meeting have been handling the situation as, known for not accepting reality, Kirk and crew claim refusal to allow a political gathering of adults is the same as denying children their story hour.

I live three blocks from my local public library. I has attended lectures about city history, been at political meetings, and have walked by the children’s section during someone’s reading to children and I know the difference between those meetings and lectures and what was happening in the children’s section as I passed by.

Needless to say, seeing raw meat for the base, Marco Rubio had to post on his site,

“The American Library Association (ALA) has received millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, including for the promotion of community engagement activities around libraries. However, in June 2023, the ALA provided guidance on how to prevent story hours held by Brave Books, a Christian children’s book publisher, from happening at libraries. Meanwhile, the ALA has continued to promote inappropriate “Drag Queen Story Hours” that expose minors to sexual topics.”

He misrepresented both the offered guidance and the truth about Story Hour. But he is promoting a religious viewpoint, so ignoring the Commandment about lying and Jesus being the “way, the TRUTH, and the light”, it’s okay.

He then went on in an accusatory way to show that the ALA was not doing its job and this could mean loss of funds stating,

“Over the course of several decades, the ALA has received millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars. Ironically ALA has been given federal funds for “free community engagement training.”

However, as in other things where he sounded good but revealed his lack of information, the ALA had to remind him,

“Libraries and the First Amendment’ — the presentation in question — has been presented for nearly a decade by the American Library Association (ALA) and discusses the public library’s status as a limited public forum. It is a resource that supports library professionals in providing meeting spaces that benefit and allow members of their communities to convene. Throughout the presentation, Director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom Deborah Caldwell-Stone references an interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights as it applies to meeting rooms.

“That guidance specifies that ‘publicly funded libraries are not obligated to provide meeting room space to the public. If libraries choose to do so, such spaces are considered designated public forums, and legal precedent holds that libraries may not exclude any group based on the subject matter to be discussed or the ideas for which the group advocates.’

“ALA has been very clear that, just like all other policies, library policies regarding meeting rooms should not be prejudicial or discriminatory; rather, they must be inclusive and follow a reasonable content and viewpoint policy that benefits all members, as well as ‘user behavior policies that protect library users and staff from harassment, while maintaining their historic support for the freedom of speech.

“libraries that create policies regarding meeting room use, such as the possession of a library card to reserve a meeting room, must apply them to all persons and groups equally to ensure that spaces are equitably reserved for members of the community served by the library. The Library Bill of Rights meeting room guidance further elaborates, ‘Libraries do not advocate for or endorse the viewpoints expressed in meetings by meeting room users, just as they do not endorse the viewpoints of works in their collections.

“Any statement or suggestion that ALA has advised otherwise is incorrect and intentionally misleading.”

Librarians have had it with politicians, and if it is an us/them thing and one side claims expertise, the ALA also noted,

“One additional point of clarification: The American Library Association is a non-partisan, nonprofit membership organization that has been in existence since 1876.”

Kirk claimed his motivation was so

“people will return to the idea that we must have faith in God and be self-governing enough to love our neighbor and do the right thing no matter the cost.”

Interestingly, his whole movement demonizes the neighbors who are just asking for that Christian love from what Kirk Cameron calls the “irate minority who is committed to doing the right thing and advancing the principles of liberty”, except, apparently not for everyone especially what, I assume, is the Non-Christian majority in this country.

Adding the timing of the reading to the code words, this whole thing is an attempt at baiting.

Usually the only readings at libraries that have garnered attention as opposed to readings by Firefighters, nurses, clergy etc. have been those at which the religio-fascist groups show up to protest a Drag Queen Story Hour, and some people object to their presence.

To expose the imaginary hypocrisy, although a reading on its own and one as a prelude to a political rally are not the same, the intent is to be as loud as possible, emphasizing what is known to be offensive to get a reaction in order to draw protesters so the claim can be made that support of Drag Queen Story Hour is not a matter of Free Speech rights or they would not be protesting an opposing point of view doing a reading.

They sort of muddied their own water in the eyes of the thinking by adding a speech and an invitation specifically for adults, voters, to attend.

At Drag Queen Story Hour the adults are the accessories, the Plus Ones, while at these religio-fascist ones, the children are.

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It is one thing to make an error in judgment and then modify future behavior because of new knowledge, and another to make an error in judgment and stay with it protectively, ignoring new information, and continuing on the wrong path. The person may have heard the truth, but acting accordingly would mean accepting a previous perception and a previous judgment based on it was in error and, although it could now be corrected for the future, the person stands firm rather look bad even for a fleeting moment. Sticking to your guns with everyone knowing your error and how wrong you are for the rest of your days is preferable to a moment’s embarrassment and a future of truth.

We see this in the present political climate where a man is being propelled into office or at least candidacy for the sole reason of refusing to acknowledge a previous error in judgment by clamping down on it.

The mettle of a person can be gauged by which track they take.

In an earlier blog I recounted how the Gay Community in Oklahoma City was not only the first Gay contingent to march in any St. Patrick’s Day Parade, but, unlike other cities’ Gay communities throughout the country did not have to ask, petition, or sue to participate because it was invited to.

On the morning of the parade as we “Irished up” the train float with plenty of green and pots of gold at the ends of rainbows, there was to be a Rainbow Pride Flag on a pole in each corner so who we were would be unmistakable, but the person who was in charge of the Pride Flags was a no-show. She had been going through a period of passive-aggressiveness, and because her most recent suggestion had been rejected by the committee, she just did not show up nor would she answer her phone. It was reported by a neighbor that she had been mowing her lawn.

This meant that, as we were bringing the parade float to the parade staging area, passing the large, local weekly flea market and seeing a Pride flag flying along with MIA-POW, Harley- Davidson, and Confederate Flags on poles above a flag vendor booth we had to stop.

It was the usual type of such a booth with flags and banners of many kinds and, with this being Oklahoma, a good mix of pointed conservative political, red-neck style, extreme religious banners, and those that got pretty close to simple, overt racism. With a Pride Flag waving on a pole like the others that represented groups decidedly against it, we assumed the vendors were very brave Gay people in enemy territory, but they were Country boys “all growed up” dressed the part of the red-neck conservatives they were. The Hells Angels, ZZ Top looking guys who manned the booth were surprised when we told them why we needed to purchase four Rainbow flags, and got a good laugh at their own unknowingly flying the Gay Flag along with those others for the years they had that weekly booth.

And no one had said anything.

Weeks later I returned to the flea market because one booth there sold a certain style of shirt I liked, and saw the Rainbow Flag still flying among the others. Curious, I spoke with the vendor who had sold us the flags and he told me that they had simply hung the flag originally because it was colorful and subsequent sails were plenty while having no idea of its meaning. They may have taken some ribbing for it, but business was business, their prices were cheap, and apparently because there was nowhere else to buy a flag unless you went to Dallas or, maybe, Tulsa, as shopping on the internet was not a thing yet, the convenience for the Gay Community meant they were making money. He admitted that none of the Hagreds in levis, plaid shirts, leather vests, with large black leather belts with an oversized belt buckle, larger than normal but smaller than a rodeo prize buckle behind the counter really didn’t liked Gays basically because they were not supposed to. Their first impulse may have been to take the Pride flag down when they learned the meaning, but they had just sold four flags, so it might be good for business, and it was.

They received no flack for the flags.

I have seen flag booths like this at many festivals over the years and they know their customer base so most of the merch is religious, politically conservative, sometime local to the event by, perhaps, having one relevant flag, and are often unaware of the offense their wares may cause in one place because it did not occur in most others. And, because it is a great money maker, Confederate flags always fly on the longest pole.

Saying the words “fairground flag booth” will conjure in everyone’s mind the universal image we all received in Plato’s Cave.

New Bedford is a city of immigrants. They built the city and amassed the wealth that made it at one time the richest city per capita in the country with its whaling and cotton mills, although most were on the low end of the figures that produced the stat.

Massachusetts is a state with strict gun laws and laws on the books against bigotry. New Bedford is in that state and it boasts being the true home of the Abolition Movement with Frederick Douglass getting his start here and with many men signing up for the 54 Regiment that produced Medal of Honor recipient Sargent William Carney, an African American.

For 107 years, the Portuguese have been celebrate their own and the contributions of all the city’s immigrants with its annual Feast of the Sacred Heart, the Festa, the largest Portuguese festival in the country, so it was rather disconcerting to see the classic flag booth at the entrance of the Festa grounds waving a Confederate flag from a tall pole, flags for Trump and Desantis on shorter poles, and American Flags whose red stripes were assault weapon profiles on poles a size between.

The booth was promoting racism and guns at a festival celebrating the very people the confederate flag was against in a state that rejects the foolishness of the Second Amendment revisionists, has laws on the books against racism and actions taken based on it, and had citizens killed by those who fought under that flag to be able to be able to continue to enslave human beings. The is the state that rejected Trump and what he stands for and, locally, threw out the white supremacist, anti-immigrant county sheriff who used his invented threat of imaginary immigrant crime to divide the community and falsely claim to be for the people as opposed for himself and his political cronies.

The contents of the booth which could be proudly displayed in many other places was at a festival to celebrate immigrants and, so, was totally out of place, but in keeping with the nature of such booths. When the booth was set up and the committee did a run-through inspection before opening the grounds to the public, something I know is done as festival organizing was a part of my past, someone should have had the presence of mind to inform them that the Confederate flag, the conservative political flags, and those promoting guns could still be sold, but local standards do not allow the Confederate Flag or the promotion of gun to be displayed so prominently. The DeSantis and Trump flags, although not promoting an ideology or advocating the breaking of local law and community standards, we like our people of color here, most of us are one, were just in bad taste.

This is a nonpolitical, family friendly event with, as the name Feast of the Sacred Heart would imply, a Christ-like under tone. People who have any kind of beef with politicians, individuals, or organization have their say along the parade route but not at the entrance to the fairgrounds through which everyone must pass, having no choice but pass those flags and have to lok at them.

They were the greeters at Walmart that you had to pass and look at on the way in and the way out.

This did not sit well with people and after some complaints were registered, the Confederate flag was removed, the political fags were placed in less conspicuous places while the two gun modified American flags were moved to poles in the back.

Obviously, because of the changes, someone had spoken to the vendor, and obviously the vendors were the type who, once informed, acts correctly.

They should have been informed after an inspection of the grounds by the Festa Committee who either is lazy in their work, or, perhaps actually support what had been removed.

At the last Festa, just before the endemic shut everything down, during the big night before the parade, the most attended night of the Festa, the county sheriff-supported ICE agents were randomly asking people on the street for their IDs on their way to and from the Festa Grounds to see if they could nab any undocumented persons.

People were being harassed merely for going to the feast and looking like immigrants.

The next morning, our Junior G-Man, Sheriff Hodgson, was an honored guest for the kick-off breakfast for the parade after a night of his people rounding up and harassing innocent people on part of the parade route and then, during the parade that celebrates immigrants and refugees and their contribution to the city, he had all his government supplied ICE vehicles used to round up immigrants and refugees in the parade with their lights flashing and him waving.

Ironically, he would soon lose that equipment when his ICE agreement was canceled by the federal government when it was shown he had been systematically denying immigrant county detainees their civil and human rights and was using his office for self-aggrandizement and political positioning.

He had emailed the White House’s Stephen Miller on many occasions reporting on churches that gave comfort, advice, and aid to immigrants like Christians are supposed to do.

There were three anti-immigrant/refugee actions at the last Festa and the people in charge were well aware of the sheriff’s anti-immigrant actions and showed they had no problem with it by allowing those actions without comment.

Action this year was taken after complaints when the display could have been prevented in the first place by ensuring it, like all vendors, met community standards.

We often blame racial tensions and divisions on the obvious while not seeing what is around us.

I hope next year such racial insensitivity can be prevented as opposed corrected.

The initial welcome to the Festa was not welcoming.

 

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