Challenge gender norms and bring queer joy into kids’ lives

Tina Vasquez of Kos Prism Reports wrote about the origins and current state of Drag Queen Story Hour. It started in 2015 by Michelle Tea. She applied for a grant for arts programming and she had an idea for the Harvey Milk Library in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco (a gayborhood hit by gentrification and straight people). Tea got the grant, but it was Julián Delgado Lopera who organized the first one. It was a small idea that soon exploded. There were always protests, though they were mild until 2017. That year they had a workshop pairing gender expressive kids with drag queen mentors. The event was hosted by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – drag queens dressed as nuns with a strong tradition of charity work. When the protests started the Sisters served as the security force – these are big dudes and their size and sass prompted the protesters to leave. Drag Queen Story Hour soon had chapters in 30 states, DC and Puerto Rico, and more across Mexico, Europe, Australia, Canada, and in Tokyo. Events are wildly popular. A recent story hour in Winston Salem, North Carolina drew protesters. It also drew counter protesters. They were called to action by Queer Winston Salem. They were LGBTQ people and allies, 100 strong, who came to show their support – and to form a barrier between the protesters and the kids. It worked and I’d like to see more of this. Other places have hired police to protect the event. But that doesn’t sit well. It’s really strange to tell kids the story of the Stonewall uprising against police brutality when the event is surrounded by police. And many LGBTQ people have had encounters with police that were not good. And some reports say during an event Wilmington, NC the Sheriff’s office escorted Proud Boys to the event room – a claim authorities deny. Delgado Lopera said:

This is going to become really dangerous work because what these performers do is play with gender, and they are creating a bridge with children. But that’s also what has always made Drag Queen Story Hour so revolutionary. Hateful people can’t think of our communities as wholesome; they can’t think of us as family. It never occurred to them that you could take a drag queen out of a bar and turn them into someone [who’s] part of the nuclear f---ing family, someone their kid loves and goes to the library to read with. They feel like drag queens are infiltrating their space.

Tea said:

I’m queer, so I have no illusions about our country and how many bigoted, phobic people there are. It’s precisely because Drag Queen Story Hour brings queer joy into kids’ lives—and that joy is coming from people who challenge gender norms—that [Drag Queen Story Hour is] remains the focus of attacks. People who mess with the gender binary in any way get the most venom.

I add that the reason why messing with the gender binary draws so much venom is because it also messes with a strict social hierarchy in which men claim to be above women. My Sunday movie was The Rose Maker. It is a French film, the story of Eve who owns a rose farm that she inherited from her father. It used to be famous in the rose world and now is close to bankrupt. The only employee is Vera, who keeps track of how little money there is. Much to Eve’s annoyance Vera contacts an ex-con program to bring in three workers – Fred, Samir, and Nodége – who won’t have to paid much. They come up with ideas to generate extra cash and use some of their talents. Eve teaches them how to create hybrid roses in hopes of winning the next year’s rose contest. It’s a gentle film, all about second chances. I enjoyed it. Brother came for a short visit. He arrived late Monday afternoon and he left this morning. He was scheduled for a longer visit last week but in flying to visit our other brother he caught COVID. Of course, he didn’t know he had it until after he had spread it. Both brothers have recovered and sister-in-law law is getting there. I downloaded Michigan’s COVID data, updates yesterday. I can’t tell yet whether we’re in a plateau or whether omicron variant 5 is starting another increase in cases. Over the last few weeks the peaks in new cases per day now stand at 2164, 1847, 1920, 2125, and 1818. I suspect the last number, showing new cases on Monday, will be adjusted as more data comes in. The deaths per day for the last four weeks has stayed under 20. I played a minor part in gathering signatures to put a voting rights amendment to the Michigan Constitution onto the November ballot. The campaign needed 425,000 signatures when they turned in petitions on Monday. They had 670,000. Even better, another group turned in petitions to put an abortion rights amendment into the state constitution. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reported they set a new record when they turned in 753,700. After the draft decision to overturn Roe was leaked the campaign to collect signatures got 30,000 more volunteers. When the decision came down they got another 30,000. And they’re itching to start the fall campaign. Why collect so many above what’s needed? As one who signed after I knew they had enough I did it to make a statement that I agree with it. Also, that much of a response prompts donor dollars. Yeah, a small number of signatures will be disqualified (which doesn’t mean fraudulent) for such things as a person signing twice or putting down the wrong address. Because of that campaigns always turn in a cushion. But election officials are not going to disqualify 300,000 signatures. Rachel Martin of NPR talked to Stuart Butler of the Brookings Institution about the effects of states banning abortion. Prevent abortion and there will be more kids. Will a state’s infrastructure support them? Conservative say they value the lift of the child. If so there should be plenty of programs improved health care for the mother and child. Yet, over half the states that banned abortion do not have Medicaid to keep poor pregnant people healthy. Butler said:

Well, it's certainly an odd combination to be saying, we are so concerned with life and with children that we want to ensure that no woman can have an abortion, but at the same time have done very little, if anything, to make available the resources that those women and children will need. ... So that's what we're seeing over and over again, this simultaneous position of being very strongly pro-life, but at the same time being very strongly against expanding government assistance or raising taxes to fund government assistance. And I don't see any change in that on the horizon. And I think it is going to lead to really dire results in many of these states.

No, it’s not about the sanctity of life of the unborn. It’s a way to oppress women who have sex. Clawson reported that attacks on books has become attacks on librarians. It is disappointing that a book that has gotten great reviews in trade journals must be pulled from shelves. It’s scary when the line of fire shifts to the librarians. And some of them are quitting. Clawson concluded:

It’s not enough for the censors to attack books. They’re going after the professional ethics and expertise of librarians. They're turning disagreements over content into a vicious personal battle against public servants for doing their jobs. But that makes sense, because the disagreements over content come from the bigoted desire to ensure that kids only see one way of existing reflected as appropriate and acceptable. Once you’re committed to isolating and stigmatizing huge numbers of kids, why wouldn’t you do the same to librarians? You’ve already decided that anyone who gets in your way, even by merely existing, is disposable.

In a Ukraine update Kos of Kos wrote that Russia has announced a pause in its special military operation to rest and replenish. But since that pause doesn’t include the Russian artillery Ukraine isn’t pausing. Kos discussed how effective the HIMARS long range rocket systems now in the hands of Ukraine fighters has been against Russian targets. A lot of Russian weapons depots are going boom. This is doing a lot of great things for Ukrainian morale. In another post Kos wrote that Russian logistics are again an issue. Their supply lines were a problem early in the war, which prompted them to pull out of the north (around Kyiv) and northeast. The battle for Donbas, so much closer to Russia, hasn’t had that problem before now. But since Ukraine can make things go boom from 85 kilometers away Russian logistics are again shaping the war. Kos also wrote that Russia lacks forklifts. That means when a truck hauls 114 pound artillery shells and 170 pound crates of propellant to the front they must be loaded by hand. Which really increases load time and how many runs a truck can make in a day. Take out a few weapons depots and those trucks have to go farther between intact depots and the front lines. Again, fewer trips per day. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community, discussing an article on the Daily Beast, reported a Russian state TV host said citizens shouldn’t wait for life to return to what it was. It could take years. They’re waiting for the nasty guy to be reinstalled. And until then Russian propagandists will work to provoke unrest in the US. From a tweet that’s been hiding in my browser tabs for three weeks Shannon Vavra of the Daily Beast linked to a full article and wrote:

A US intelligence memo I obtained shows Russian influence ops are trying to convince Americans aid for Ukraine is the reason the war is dragging. And another memo I got my hands on warns Russia’ll try to interfere in US midterms.

Of course they will. And is America prepared for that? Not any more than we were in 2016.