Parents Have Power: Drag Show at N.H. Library Halted by Concerned Citizens
Emoji Nightmare (in green dress), one of the Drag Queens scheduled to read to children, posted this photo on his website taken at another event for children.
When MassResistance organized a group of parents, they were able to stop a “Drag Story Hour” from coming to their library — despite roadblocks from the Library Board, Board of Selectmen, and adult LGBT activists.
Lancaster is a quiet, remote town in northern New Hampshire with a population of about 3,200. But like most of America, its public library hasn’t been spared the LGBT movement’s obsession with normalizing homosexuality and transgenderism to young children.
Back in early May, a few parents in Lancaster reached out to MassResistance. People had been noticing sexually explicit LGBT books for children (such as Gender Queer and All Boys Aren’t Blue) in their local Weeks Memorial Library. That was shocking enough.
Drag Queens Reading Explicit Books to Children
But then they discovered that a “Drag Story Hour” was scheduled to take place in the library in just a few weeks, on June 11, 2023. The event was organized by an adult LGBT group called “White Mountains Pride.” The Drag Queens (grown men dressed as a grotesque imitation of glamorous women) read LGBT books to children. The White Mountains Pride group was very clear about their purpose, which was to normalize deviant behaviors in the children’s young minds and so affect them all their lives:
DSH [Drag Story Hour] captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.
Also, this hideous library event was to be on a Sunday, when the library is normally closed. This would result in expenses, including staffing, security, lighting, etc. How would these expenses be funded? According to library policy, the room is provided at no charge to non-profit groups. Would local tax dollars be used?
This shouldn’t happen at all, the parents said. They were very distraught and did not know what to do to stop it.
MassResistance Leads the Resistance
MassResistance immediately jumped in to assist them. We helped them put together and distribute a flyer to alert and educate the community. That brought in lots of local people. We helped them organize and gave them a strategy.
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One of the parents asked the Library Director about this event and the special Sunday opening for it. Her response was that she “did not want this to happen” but was being forced to or the town would be sued by the ACLU. But when asked for a letter or other threat of a lawsuit, she could not produce anything. This was particularly annoying, since the Library Director was ultimately responsible for placing the pornographic books in the children’s section of the library. So she was probably just parroting the American Library Association’s pro-LGBT talking points.
Speaking Truth to the Library Trustees
The parents made plans to have a group attend the upcoming Library Trustees meeting on May 8. Prior to the meeting, they sent strongly-worded emails to the Trustees describing the problems that they saw with the library holding this depraved event, requesting a list of the books to be read, and asking that the event not be allowed.
Tensions were rising in the community over this. A dozen parents attended the May 8 Library Trustee meeting. When they arrived, there were two police officers present to “keep them in line.”
At the start of the meeting, the Chairman immediately made a statement about the event. He told the parents:
- The library is not sponsoring the event. It is renting the room to White Mountains Pride, a local non-profit organization.
- The books read to kids by the Drag Queens will be from the library’s collection.
- It is purposefully being held on a Sunday to make sure it doesn’t interfere with the library’s normal operations.
- White Mountains Pride has specified a rule that an adult must be accompanied by a child and no child may attend without a parent.
- The programs in the library are the responsibility of the Library Director, not the Trustees. The Library Trustees only have general oversight of the budget, building, etc.
- The library has a policy of non-discrimination.
The Chairman meticulously avoided talking about the depraved content. He only referred to it as “the event,” though he claimed that he could not intervene because that would constitute “discrimination.”
Arrogant Officials Cut Off Public Comment
After the Chairman’s statement, there was testimony from the public. All the testimony was in opposition to the event.
Would the event be open to the public? During the testimony a few of the parents mentioned that the library’s bylaws state that all events in the library are “open to the public.” This conflicted with the White Mountains Pride’s stipulation that its event is only open to adults accompanied by a child.
After 30 minutes, the Chairman became frustrated and stated that “the comments have become repetitive” and called for recess.
After the recess the Trustees came back and announced that the topic was closed, even though several more people were waiting to speak.
The Trustee Board stated that they would have their town attorney review whether the event would be open to the public. But it seemed obvious that the bylaws were very clear about that.
But besides that statement, the Library Trustees refused to take any action.
Parents Didn’t Back Down
The MassResistance parents began planning to attend the June 11 Drag Show event, despite the White Mountains Pride’s rule (that they must be with a child). They would arrive at the library well over an hour early to fill all the seats. It was obvious that the event had to be open to the public, and that no “attorney review” could change that.
In addition, our activists circulated a petition in Lancaster against the use of Weeks Memorial Library for a Drag event. Within a few weeks the petition obtained over 500 signatures.
On to the Board of Selectmen Meeting
The next step was for parents to attend the town’s June 5 Board of Selectmen meeting, taking place just six days before the Drag Show event.
Prior to the meeting, the parents emailed each of the Selectmen (as well as other town officials) a polite but firm statement imploring them to “pressure the Library Trustees” to rescind the permission for the event.
As the parents entered the June 5 meeting, they noticed that three uniformed police officers were prominently seated there. It appeared to be an intimidation tactic. But the parents weren’t about to be intimidated. There was also a group of pro-LGBT activists there, who were also obviously there to intimidate the parents.
When the parents came into the meeting room there were three police officers waiting for them.
At the beginning of the meeting the petition was presented to the three Lancaster Selectmen. It was hoped that this would demonstrate the strong feelings of the community. But they did not seemed moved at all by it.
When the public comments started, the parents spoke passionately about how this was a depraved and unhealthy event that the community did not want in their library, that it was being given special treatment on a Sunday, and that the Board should at least make a statement about it.
Then some of the pro-LGBT activists spoke up, using their usual talking points about love, inclusion, non-discrimination, not being narrow-minded, “freedom to read,” etc.
After that, the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen spoke, basically claiming that there was nothing that the Board could do about the situation. They were refusing to take any action or even make a public statement to the Trustees.
Parents Win
Tension continued to grow after the Board of Selectmen meeting as the MassResistance parents’ plans to fill the event spread across the community. A lot of public officials were clearly becoming rattled.
Then on June 7, four days before the event, the local newspaper published an article stating that White Mountains Pride had cancelled their event!
It stated, “Organizers White Mountains Pride of North Conway called off the event Wednesday at the request of the library staff due to safety concerns.”
Of course, their stated reason was offensive and possibly even libelous. There were no actual “safety concerns.” Unlike the LGBT movement’s lunatic activists, these opposing parents were always very civil and completely peaceful.
This was a great victory! And since then, the library has not attempted to bring the Drag event back!
Don’t Let Them Intimidate You
Parents were not intimidated by the phony requirement that children must enter with each adult, since the official policy read, “open to the public.” They also were not intimidated by the Library Director’s phony “ACLU lawsuit” argument or the Trustee Chairman calling it “discrimination.”
When we continue to resist the promotion of lies and take strong action, the Left often backs down.
It was great work by our activists in Lancaster, New Hampshire!
Copyright 2023 MassResistance. Republished with permission.
