A drag queen story hour at the Houston library is being canceled, and organizers blame threats from “anti-LGBT” organizations for the decision.
There was, of course, that little issue of one of the “readers” at the story time having been convicted of molesting an 8-year-old, of course.
WND reported on the issue that developed at the Houston Public Library when officials admitted they deeply regretted not doing a background check that would have revealed the background of Alberto Garza, a 32-year-old drag queen who goes by the name Tatiana Mala Nina.
Garza was convicted of assaulting an 8-year-old child, reported Todd Starnes.
The details were uncovered by the Houston MassResistance organization.
The Houston Chronicle reported the decision:
Organizers shutter Houston’s Drag Queen Story Time https://t.co/7xtzLOulOu
— Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) March 20, 2019
But it wasn’t until a reader clicked through to the original story that it was revealed that the shutdown was because “one of their readers had previously sexually assaulted an 8-year-old child.”
At Twitchy, a social media commentary and aggregator site, there was the explanation: “If you’re reading Twitchy for a while, you’ll know that inviting drag queens to come read to children at the public library is, like, a real thing now.
“We first noticed it at the Edmonton Public Library in Canada, where drag queens read books like ‘The Boy Who Cried Fabulous’ and gave little children their very own drag queen names.”
So obviously such a good idea spread, including to Houston.
But now, “The organizers, Trent Lira and Devin Will, are pulling the plug and according to the Houston Chronicle, the pair wrote a letter to Houstonia magazine claiming that anti-LGBT groups had been threatening library employees and participants.”
The report continued, “Oh, and there was the thing about one of the readers having sexually assaulted an 8-year-old child. Now the library runs background checks on readers to keep out the registered sex offenders.”
One social media commenter added, “No mention of the convicted child predator in the headline … interesting.”
Another, anonymous, added, “‘How can we write a headline to conceal the real reason for the shuttering and make it look it was total evil homophobia and the drag queens are victims of bigotry? I know!'”
MassResistance spokeswoman Tracy Shannon and many parents were outraged when the conviction was uncovered.
“If they had done their job and due diligence, if they had said wait … maybe it’s not a good idea to have a sex offender who at 200 pounds and 5-foot-11 assaulted an 8-year-old boy,” Shannon told Starnes.
Starnes reported a lawsuit was filed against the taxpayer-funded library in October calling for an end to the drag queen event.
“We may not all agree that having adult entertainers is the right way to entertain young children or promote literacy and adversity and acceptance and inclusion,” Shannon said. “But we can all agree that it’s inappropriate to have a sex offender. And for someone to not do their due diligence, to have a sex offender entertaining children at the library.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wrote in his Washington Update that the library’s assurances that there had been no complaints are of “little comfort to community members, who were stunned that anyone would be so lax about kids’ safety.”
“We shouldn’t have to wait for a child to get hurt before we realize what a terrible idea these story times are,” he wrote.
