FEBRUARY 23RD, 2019 
PAUL WILCOXE EVANSVILLE, INDIANA
According to library officials, approximately 275 children and their guardians were able to experience Drag Queen Story Hour over multiple sessions. It is also estimated that more than 150 children and their guardians were turned away due to capacity.
Drag Queen Florintine Dawn read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and Goodnight Moon. In addition, children danced to “The Hokey Pokey,†Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,†and “Freeze Dance.†In anticipation of a large gathering, EVPL North Park had several activities, books, and crafts ready in the Children’s Tower for before and after the program and for those who were not able to attend the event.
“I’m definitely happy to be here today,†Dawn said. “I’m excited. When the kids come into the room … I’m full of life right now. Reading to kids means a lot to everyone. The public library has definitely done a fantastic job.â€
Outside, several hundred people gathered in support and opposition of the event.
“I’m just here to show support for Drag Queen Story Hour and the LGBTQ people in our community,†said Gena Garrett. “I think the messages that kids hear are important and I think if a kid is gay or queer or questioning, it’s really important they hear love and they hear that they matter and are accepted.â€
Jude Grer is bisexual and was on hand to support kids because she did not get much support when she was growing up.
“Kids that are going to grow up … on the hateful side, the Christian side that doesn’t approve of this, and they’re going to be gay,†said Grer. “It’s going to hurt to know their parents were against something so, loving and historic.â€
Many people were on hand holding signs condemning the library board’s decision to host the story hour.
“We’re here to protest this library board allowing the drag queens to perform for the children,†said Randy Cain. “I think it’s terrible to put the children involved with this. This is awful.
“I can’t believe that our Evansville council, the mayor, the commissioners, and the library board all allowed this to happen.â€
Pat O’Brien is a military veteran and says he supports the rights of those in favor of the drag queen story hour, but as a Christian, he believes he is standing up for what is right.
“The first thing the Lord says is, ‘What is our greatest commandment? It is to love one another as I love you.’†said O’Brien. “I love this opposing group. I love all diversity. I love all people. I also love the Word.
“I believe they have the right, but I believe, as a Christian, I also have the right to state my view. I also have a right for the majority of the people and what their views are.â€
EVPL CEO Cyndee Landrum applauds all sides of the issue and believes the civil protest is good for the community.
“It’s actually good we have people who are here that are for and people who maybe have a different opinion,†said Landrum. “This is an act in civic engagement and civic engagement is very important.â€
Jennifer Yaser is running for City Council 5th Ward and was on hand to show her support for the reading program.
“This, at its core is the children’s literacy program,†said Yaser. “I am all for diverse and inclusive literacy programs. I really don’t understand all the controversy surrounding it because I believe it’s more fearful to see the children see this hateful rhetoric and the protesting, as opposed to going in there and seeing someone dressed up reading.â€
Christopher Brown brought his 11-year old daughter and nine-year-old son to the library and says he wants his kids to learn that hate has no place in the world.
“This is definitely a great way to think out of the box,†said Brown. “I definitely applaud the public library system and the people over it that put this together.
“It puts out a good public image for this community, for the LGBT. I have a couple siblings that are in that and it provides a sense of openness … and I definitely appreciate and applaud that.â€
Evansville Police were on hand with 26 officers keeping the peace. No arrests were reported but a number of times officers had to remind each side to respect the other’s space.
“Whenever you have two different factions that are very passionate about their sides, you have to make sure that you put adequate number of personnel to address a potential problem,†said Captain Andy Chandler. “That’s what we did. We wanted to make sure that we had a good showing here.
“We have had to ask some of the people to maintain some distance between the groups. We’ve got two different groups with a lot of passion and strong personalities.â€
According to Landrum, there are no current plans to hold any further Drag Queen Story Hours, but noted it would be something they would consider.
“It’s always a possibility,†she said. “We don’t have anything on the calendar at this point. I know at last count there were 156 people that couldn’t get in and we’ll take all that into consideration when we do a program evaluation and see what happens next.â€
Calling BS on this part of the EVPL statement:
According to library officials, approximately 275 children and their guardians were able to experience Drag Queen Story Hour over multiple sessions. It is also estimated that more than 150 children and their guardians were turned away due to capacity.
“children and their guardians”?? Really, “guardians”? The Library didn’t require any proof of custody, guardianship or even a simple sign-in sheet with names and legal status. A simple sign-in sheet would show exactly how many children entered the library. The library guessed at number of children and “hoped” the adults had the legal right to bring the young children with them. Basically the library used the liberal left open border policy, that if you show up with a child and no paperwork, you can come in.
Well, we call BS on everything you are spewing today. Once again, you are showing your ignorance and lack of understanding of the law in Indiana.
And while I think on it, your “demand” for an “apology” from yesterday is laughable. I’ve got 30 years of legal experience in child custody issues, so you know where you can shove your “apology”
Unless you were there or staff for EVPL, your rantings about the number of children and guardians are just more of your usual silliness, trying to make things up so you can appear to know anything. However, we know that your rantings do not add up. Crowd numbers were provided, and considering the library limit is based on fire code and the fire marshall, you are a liar if you are suggesting the numbers were made up
The library followed all normal procedures in managing the event. You are just pissed off because you failed with your thinly veiled method from the homophobic crowd locally to meddle in the event
As I already indicated, there is NO paperwork to show a parent has “legal custody” no matter if married, divorced, or widowed. The staggering ignorance of your illegal suggestions show you have zero thoughts for the rights of anyone, and even less care for the financial burden your illegal suggestions would bring locally
You are still leaching and incorrectly trying to portray how the Indiana legal system handles “joint custody” by making up utter crap. Indiana Code for “joint legal custody†means that the persons awarded joint custody will share authority and responsibility for the MAJOR DECISIONS concerning the child’s upbringing including the child’s education, health care, and religious training
If the Courts have already allowed visitation, then the Court has ALREADY decided that the parents has the right to attend any normal event in the public domain, and your continued insistence otherwise just shows how little you know about custodial issues
The absurdity and nonsense of saying EVPL ever needs to have “proof of custody, guardianship or even a simple sign-in sheet with names and legal status” is undoubtedly the most ignorant thing I have seen. Just because YOU are a homophobe and a bigot, you do not get to dictate public policy. The ONLY reason you and your ilk have been following this is because a single drag queen read books to WILLING participants, and they were they VOLUNTARILY. EVPL does story hour every week, but your group of malcontents never gripe about that
It is absolute rubbish that a parent who is exercising weekend visitation has to get permission to attend a book reading at a local library. Taking YOUR child to the library on a weekend would not achieve the “major decision” legal status, and it is ignorant to even suggest such
The level of stupidity in this suggestion boggles the mind! This would require the EVPL to post a guard or officer to check marital status and custody for every parent attending an event
Is there no end to what the bigots and hypocrites in this community will do to detract from a library function? Doing a Yahoo search for Indiana laws on custody does not mean you know what the hell you are reading
If (God forbid) you have kids, I bet you carry ZERO proof they are yours. It would be karma if you went somewhere and law enforcement questioned you, or the facility refused to allow you in with your kids. How would any of them know you are really a parent and not some pervert who kidnapped some kids. The system does not work that way, which you damn well know, but you feel important being able to spout off this nonsense about sign-in sheets and the “liberal left” boogeyman to force everyone else to support your lifestyle
So let me summarize AGAIN: There is ZERO case law, ZERO legal framework, and ZERO common sense for this. It is simply another harebrained suggestion from someone who has no understanding of the family law that surrounds custody
looks like Ronald has never seen a divorce decree. But, that doesn’t stop him, her, unspecified from personally attacking Joe for points, some of us do agree with. Just be glad this library circus act is over.
Norm
Perhaps the library can assist you with reading classes or is “I’ve got 30 years of legal experience in child custody issues” more than you can handle
I need my jelly beans now
Since the EPD had 26+ officers at the Drag Queen play hour, that would seem to fall under a “major event”. Just saying.
I wish people got as fired up about Vectren getting permission to further screw over it’s already screwed over “customers” as they do about some guys in costume reading stories to children.
Comments are closed.