By Saara Itkonen, Library Director, Creston Valley Public Library
In mid-January, several public libraries across Canada—in Port Coquitlam, Calgary, Peterborough, and Sault Ste.Marie—were targeted by protests from far-right activists. The activists, who had tiesto the far-right Christian Nationalist group Action4Canada, organized coordinated rallies at libraries to protest against drag queen story time programs.
According to anti-hate.ca, a non-profit organization that monitors the far-right in Canada, “the far-right were outnumbered, outshouted, and out flag-waved”. In every case, they were kept away from the events in these communities. People came from Toronto and Ottawa to join drag defenders in Peterborough.
In Coquitlam, hundreds of gaily dressed drag defenders showed up to protect Conni Smudge’s drag story hour by holding a party between the far-right bullies and the library. They were faced by a motley crew of bigots and far-right content creators – maybe 50 in total. One of them brought a large “gays against groomers” sign, an anti-trans hate group banned by Google. All of them were yelling and calling members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community “pedophiles,” but they were barely heard over the pop music and the dance party.”
READ MORE: Drag Story Time returns to B.C. library more than 3 years after controversy
If you’ve never heard of drag queen story times or if you’re confused about how drag queen culture and children’s programs go together, please let me take a moment to explain. Anyone who’s been to a drag show at a bar, theatre, or club knows that those performances are usually very much for adults. However, drag queen story times are put together with children’s development in mind. The drag queens are experienced children’s entertainers who facilitate story time with all kinds of child-friendly content and entertaining age-appropriate books. The programs are designed to help marginalized kids and families feel welcome and included in public spaces.
In Port Coquitlam the drag queen storytime was facilitated by Conni Smudge, who’s been doing children’s programs for over 10 years. She often wears a giant pink wig with silver eyebrows and can be seen on North Vancouver City Library’s YouTube page reading all kinds of fun kids books. The books that were read at Port Coquitlam’s event included Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas by Aaron Blabey (one of my favourite books to read aloud) as well as I Like Me! by Nancy Carlson, Rawr by Todd H. Doodler, Perfect Pigeons by Katherine Battersby, and You Are My Kiss Goodnight by Marianne Richmond (all of which are available to borrow from BC public libraries).
In Creston, we are also committed to making sure that members of the LGBTQ+ community and their families feel welcome, supported, and safe in our library space. Our strategic framework, which is our guiding document, says that the library will “listen and learn from members of our community who are experiencing the effects of bigotry” and I think it’s probably good advice for all of us. We could all spend more time listening to each other, especially listening to those that continually deal with so much hate directed towards them.
It’s been encouraging to hear about these events across Canada, where communities come out to support love, understanding, and acceptance instead of hate. As those of us that work in public libraries know, our libraries are all about being safe, supportive, community spaces that welcome everyone. We are about kindness and removing barriers to access, and, above all, valuing the full humanity of all our patrons, staff, and volunteers. There is no room for hate and bullies here.
Upcoming events & programs
• Family Storytime - Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. until March 15 - Drop-in
• Bloxels - Tuesdays at 3:30 p.m. beginning February 7 - Registration required
• Coding at the library - Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. beginning February 9 - Registration required