A Missouri representative has filed a bill that takes aim at Drag Queen Story Hour, establishes censorship and punishes librarians
Whos afraid of the big bad drag queen? Missouri, apparently. A Republican lawmaker in the conservative state has introduced a bill that could jail librarians who host a Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) or let kids check out inappropriate books.
Ben Bakers Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, filed last month, would establish a panel of parents that would determine whether or not a book is appropriate for children. Books deemed to contain age-inappropriate sexual material would be moved to a restricted part of the library. Any librarian who allowed kids access to these books could get up to a year in jail; the library would also lose funding.
What might be considered age-inappropriate sexual material isnt really spelled out in the legislation and its not quite clear what it would encompass. Sleeping Beauty features a non-consensual kiss; Beauty and the Beast is a paean to bestiality; the Frog Prince contains a slimy interspecies embrace. Would those fairytales be stuck in the restricted session?
Unlikely. It seems what Baker is really concerned about is books with LGBTQ+ content. What inspired this bill is events like Drag Queen Story Hour, and materials that have a clear agenda of grooming our children for the LGBTQ community with adult themes and content that fit the description of a objectionable sexual nature, Baker said on Monday.
If youre unaware of Drag Queen Story Hour its basically exactly what it sounds like; drag queens reading books to kids. It was launched in 2015 with the aim of showing kids people who defy rigid gender restrictions and letting them imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress-up is real.
Baker is not exactly the first critic of DQSH; numerous conservatives have railed against the program, accusing it of indoctrinating children. In actual fact, of course, the opposite is true. DQSH is an anti-indoctrination program; a much-needed corrective to the gender norms that are pushed on kids from the moment theyre born. If you want to see what indoctrination looks like, then just walk around the kids section of a store and take a look at whats in the boys section and the girls section; according to a study last year, the marketing of toys is more gendered now than it was 50 years ago.
Critics of DQSH accuse it of being sexual which is a reflection of how anything outside rigid heterosexual norms is automatically considered hypersexual. Weirdly, however, its not considered sexual for babies to wear onesies with things like chick magnet or Im a boob guy on them. Its not considered sexual for parents to make jokes about their little kids having a girlfriend or boyfriend. But someone in fabulous makeup demonstrating the performative nature of gender and telling kids that its OK for them to be whoever they want to be? Somehow that is considered sexual.
Drag queens arent exactly the most timid of creatures and Ive got a feeling Baker might regret picking a fight with them. A call has gone out for Queens, Kings & everything in between! to protest at the Missouri state capitol on 7 March. Ive got a feeling its going to be fabulous.
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Original Article : HERE ;
from MetNews https://metnews.pw/republican-lawmaker-is-about-to-regret-messing-with-drag-queens-arwa-mahdawi/
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