Republicans are trying to cut funding to libraries hosting drag queen story hour in yet another homophobic crusade
Drag Queen Story Hour at a bookshop in California (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/ Getty)
Republican lawmakers in Minnesota have introduced a bill that would cut all funding for public libraries if they host drag queen story hour events.
At drag queen story hour events, people in drag read to children, sometimes from books with LGBT+ themes, to entertain them and expand their understanding of gender stereotypes, gender identity and LGBT+ families.
But anti-LGBT+, anti-abortion Minnesota representative Eric Lucero has decided that the events are inappropriate for children.
According to MinnPost, a section of Lucero’s website, which has since been removed, said that the US government was targeting an “assault against the family unit”, by allowing “gay marriage and the homosexual lifestyle” and “blending the gender distinctions such as women in combat and homosexuals openly serving in the military”.
Minnesota Republican Eric Lucero. (Eric Lucero/ Facebook)
The Republican lawmaker introduced a bill on Monday, March 9, that would cut all funding to libraries that hosted the drag queen story hour events.
The bill proposes: “For calendar year 2021 and later, a public library that hosts a drag queen story hour event shall have regional library system support aid from the Department of Education reduced by 100 per cent.”
Erin Maye Quade, a former Minnesota representative and current advocacy director for Gender Justice, wrote on Twitter: “What was the process to get this bill?? ‘Hey, Revisors Office (full of serious, non-partisan, lawyers and staff). I hear people are reading BOOKS to KIDS in LIBRARIES! Draft me a bill that will defund public libraries if they continue this story hour nonsense.'”
Like, what was the process to get this bill?? “Hey, Revisors Office (full of serious, non-partisan, lawyers and staff). I hear people are reading BOOKS to KIDS in LIBRARIES! Draft me a bill that will defund public libraries if they continue this ‘story-hour’ nonsense”
— Erin Maye Quade (@ErinMayeQuade) March 9, 2020
Ok now I'm really curious if they also included a legal definition of "drag queen"— Peter Bajurny ?? (@fishmanpet) March 10, 2020
Others pointed out that it would be incredibly difficult to enforce, as there is no legal definition of “drag queen”.
One Twitter user wrote: “Not only is this pointless, it seems extremely easy to get around if it were to pass?
“Rename to ‘Storytelling with Fabulous Women in Fine Clothing And Makeup’ and then let MNGOP try to determine who isn’t fab, finely clothed, or painted for the Gods?”
