A new proposed bill in Texas could stop that.
Senate Bill 18 would pull all state and local funding to libraries that put on or host drag queen story hours.
State Senator Bryan Hughes introduced and co-authored the bill. Texas Scorecard says Hughes noted that the founding organization behind drag queen story hours openly stated its goal is to expose young kids to "gender fluidity" and give them "queer role models."
Jonathan Covey is director of policy with Texas Values. He said in an interview with AFN these events target very young children often ranging from 3-11 years in age.
The children don’t just sit and listen. They’re part of the show.
“These young children, they're being asked to participate, asked to put dollar bills in underwear, for example, or young children being asked to strut or dance or imitate drag queens,” Covey said. “It’s exposing kids to hyper sexualization at a very early age with really devastating results.”
This isn’t happening only at libraries, Covey said.
“But the American Library Association has really been a very strong supporter of these events and has pushed these library events, particularly aggressively, across the country."
High hopes for bill's passage
Covey said he is pretty confident this will get passed into law.
“This is really about protecting kids from premature, hypersexualized exposure to drug entertainment, so they don't suffer harm into their adult years by what they were exposed to outside of their control as a child. I think that we all should…. be able to get behind that."
If Texas legislators don’t get behind this, there will be consequences for the children.
“Children are the casualties with these events, and nothing is worth the price and the well-being of our children, so, we just continue to work towards protecting kids in Texas,” Covey said.
