Houston ‘Drag Queen Story Time’ Program Halted Amid Outrage That Sex Offender Read to Children at Library
This news article was posted By Heather Clark on March 21, 2019 for Christian News Network. Here is a preview of this article:
HOUSTON, Texas — Organizers of the Houston, Texas “Drag Queen Story Time” have decided to discontinue the offering for the “foreseeable future” in the midst of outrage over the revelation that a man who had read to children is a registered sex offender. The organizers state that the library’s failure to run a background check was an oversight, and that they too did not know the man had a criminal record.
“When Trent spoke to the queen in question this weekend, she confirmed that she had been convicted in 2009. It was devastating,” Trent Lira and Devin Will outlined in an article published to Houstonia on Tuesday. “We had insisted and insisted that what we were doing was safe for children, and yet here was a performer who had been charged with sexual assault of a minor.”
“We didn’t know about the conviction prior to last week, but it would have come up if a background check had been conducted. It was a systematic mistake.”
According to reports, Calvin Miller, an evangelist who founded 1Team1Fight Ministries, and others had filed suit against the Houston Public Library in October to contend that Drag Queen Story Time “excessively entangles the government with the religion of secular humanism.”
I totally agree – Close the Book on Drag Queen Story Time!
What’s the legal action can be done against KCLS????
Mass Resistance Washington is exploring this with Pacific Justice Institute. Keep the library Safe for Children’s approach is to look into their funding. In Washington State as much as 90% of a library districts budget comes directly from the library tax levy. In King County according to their library board of trustees meeting minutes in April this year they talked about the need for a new library tax levy by 2020. The last levy passed by a 52% winning margin, fairly close. There is currently a Pledge to Vote ‘No’ form being circulated in King County and I will contact you privately with more information. Here in the Ft. Vancouver library district we have just hit 2,000 pledges to vote ‘No’ in just 4 months by word of mouth. We have gone to the monthly library board meeting to update them on our progress. We are making an impact as the board said at the end of May’s meeting there are no plans for another DQSH. We will keep getting pledges and updating them accordingly.