[C]alls poured into Kellogg-Hubbard Library after a conservative online commentator last month urged her nearly 700,000 Facebook followers to contact the organizers to “respectfully express your disgust” about a planned a Drag Queen Story Hour.
Many people did call to object, leaving sometimes lewd and threatening messages. But none showed up.
Instead, well over 100 parents and children — many donning glitter and rainbow-themed apparel — converged on the Montpelier library Saturday morning to listen to popular Vermont drag queens Emoji Nightmare and Nikki Champagne read books and lead singalongs.
“This was solidly double or better what we would normally see,” said library co-director Carolyn Brennan of the event’s turnout.
So-called “drag queen story hours” were started by Michelle Tea and RADAR Productions in San Francisco four years ago. The idea has since caught on, with events taking place in big cities as well as rural towns across America. A nonprofit headquartered in New York even offers curricula, training, and resources to local chapters.
The events are simple: drag queens read children’s books to kids. Emoji Nightmare and Nikki Champagne’s story times often also include singalongs with drag-themed twists (“If you’re happy and you know it – snap your fingers!”) as well as a craft activity at the end.
But as the phenomenon has grown nationally, so has the backlash. The events have become a favorite rallying cry on the right, with conservative personalities urging their followers to protest the events. The Montpelier event was picked up by vlogger Elizabeth Johnston, a.k.a. “The Activist Mommy,” who called on her followers in early June to contact the Kellogg-Hubbard Library to get the event shut down.
Brennan said a slew of angry and at times threatening phone calls did pour in from across the country. She checked in with Montpelier and Washington county police, she said, who assured her there was “no credible local threat.” The calls had mostly subsided by mid-June, she added, and by the time the event rolled around, she wasn’t particularly worried about anyone would come to disrupt the story time.
Still, the librarian, who said her family roots went back likely six generations or so in the Green Mountain State, had a speech prepared in case anyone “grouchy” decided to show up: “Vermonters have never let out-of-staters tell us what to do. And we aren’t going to start now.”
Story time ultimately went off without a hitch. No demonstrators came to protest or disrupt the event, and many of the attendees said they’d come specifically to counter the online hostility. Outside, people held up a banner featuring a purple dragon, with the exclamation “Drag on!”
Erin Galligan-Baldwin, who came from Berlin with her 4-year-old son Jonah and 7-year-old daughter Hazel, said she’d also come the previous year and loved it then.
“I especially wanted to come this time because of the people who objected to it. I thought it was important for people to come and show their support,” she said.
“And,” she added of the performers, “They’re great. They’re fun and funny and wonderful.”
Both of the queens, Justin Marsh (stage name Emoji Nightmare) and Taylor Small (Nikki Champagne) said this was par for the course — blowback from conservative corners of the internet has usually translated to bigger and supportive in-person crowds. The two have been doing story time events in Vermont since 2017.
“We’ve seen this happen when there is some publicity around the nay-sayers – that the community really rallies and comes to show their support,” Marsh said.
Many of the books Marsh and Small read have explicitly queer plots. “This Day in June” by Gayle Pitman tells the story of Gay Pride celebrations. “King and King” by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland is about a same-sex royal wedding. But some don’t. “A Big Guy Took My Ball!” by Mo Willems, which the two queens say is one of their favorites — and included in every single one of their events — is about a pig and an elephant who learn a lesson about making assumptions.
“It’s really focusing on inclusivity, diversity, forming relationships across difference. All of those wonderful themes that are mainly in children’s stories already,” Small said.
Both said the events are mainly a way to have fun. But the performers, who have done work with Outright Vermont, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ youth in the state, also said it’s important to have positive queer representation for young people, especially in more rural areas.
Small noted the latest data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which is conducted every two years by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in every state in the country, show that LGBTQ teenagers in Vermont are still far more likely than their straight peers to feel disconnected from their community, to be bullied, and to have thoughts of suicide.
“We’re that visibility for them. That they can see themselves reflected in a future sense, of like, these are good adults that are existing and thriving in the world,” Small said.
