Who Is Funding ‘Drag Story Hours’ At California Public Libraries?

Authored by Orlean Koehle via The Epoch Times,

…continued from Groups Protest at Drag Story Hours in California Part II

On the evening of July 5, about 30 concerned parents and grandparents showed up at the Sonoma County commissioners meeting held at the Rohnert Park Library. About 20 of us spoke and stated why we were so opposed to their sponsoring and paying for the recent four drag story hours held on Fathers’ Day weekend.

The story hours were sponsored and paid for by the Sonoma County Library Commission using our tax dollars to the tune of $500 per hour, thus $2,000 in total.

By attending the meeting, we learned that, for the most part, the 10 commissioners agreed that the drag story hour performances went well and they are proud of themselves for holding them; they are pleased that they were able to “affirm” the LGBT community. They were happy that a total of 322 parents and children attended them.

One commissioner, who is an attorney, was able to attend the story hour held at Petaluma. He borrowed a friend’s 11-year-old child so he could sit in on it. (You had to have a child with you, or you were not allowed in, even as a commissioner.)

He said that there was nothing sexual about the presentation and there were no sexual movements. The storyteller just read her books and led the children in songs and dances. Another commissioner stated that he was pleased that the protests were peaceful on both sides.

The 20 of us who were part of the protests spoke and gave a whole different view. We told of the disrespect shown to us, especially at the Santa Rosa downtown library, where someone from the pro-trans group used a loud mega horn and called us every derogatory name she could think of: bigots, fascists, hateful, fascist grandmothers, etc. Our signs were blocked by big black umbrellas, or large people stood in front of us so no one could see us or our signs.

The commissioners only gave us two minutes each to speak, so I made copies of what I wanted to say and gave them each a copy after I spoke. I spoke briefly about the history and purpose of drag story hours and my concern that many of the people telling stories to our innocent children are anything but good role models for them.

The following is part of the content of the handout that I gave to the commissioners. I had also given it to people at the drag story hour events, but most of the people of the LGBT community refused to take it.

History

According to Wikipedia, the idea for a drag queen story hour was started in San Francisco in 2015 by author Michelle Tea, who identified as “queer.” She came up with the idea after attending children’s library events with her young son and finding them welcoming but not really “affirming” of LGBT families.

Tea wanted a library hour that would be inclusive to LGBT families. Her first event was held at the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. It featured several drag queens who were all well received.

The idea quickly spread, and Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) chapters formed across the nation and some internationally.

As of February 2020, there were 50-plus official nonprofit chapters, and drag storytellers were holding events at libraries, schools, bookstores, and museums. In October 2022, the name was officially changed to Drag Story Hour (DSH) to be more inclusive and “reflect the diverse cast of storytellers,” since there are both “queen and king” presenters now.

Wikipedia states that DSH aims to “capture the imagination and play of gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”

DSH leaders actually admit that they want children to have “queer role models.”

Attack on the Family

Christopher Rufo, who writes for City Journal, believes the real purpose of DSH and the transgender movement is far more subversive than just creating queer role models. He stated, “The drag queen [or king] might appear as a comic figure, but he/she carries an utterly serious message: the deconstruction of sex, the reconstruction of child sexuality, and the subversion of middle-class family life.”

Not only are many of these “drag queen” or “king” readers also performers in striptease bars and nightclubs (as Vera, our reader, was), some are even pedophiles.

Newsweek reported in 2019 that the drag queen storyteller in Houston, Texas, who had been performing at the public library from 2017-2019, turned out to be a registered sex offender, a pedophile. The National Pulse reported in 2021 that Brette Bloome, the head of the drag queen story hour in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was arrested for multiple possessions of child pornography.

Is that the kind of person you want your child to be around or to someday become?

Notice the choice of books. They all have something to do with transgenderism–to affirm to a small child that the transgender, gay, or lesbian lifestyle is perfectly normal and acceptable. Experts call this “grooming” the child. The more grooming that occurs, and the more exposure to such presentations, the more the child will accept the indoctrination that he or she is receiving.

What effect did our protests and words have on the library commissioners? None at all, it seemed.

We noticed on the agenda that their next story hour will be the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence coming to Guerneville on July 29. This will not only endanger innocent children; it will be a total mockery of Catholic nuns and the Catholic religion. Some of the Catholics in our group of protesters are threatening a lawsuit.

Who Is Funding the Presentations?

Much funding comes from taxpayer dollars. Some of the story hours have been held on military bases, supported by our taxes. Some funds come from public libraries themselves (as in the case of our Sonoma County libraries), who invite the presenters in the spirit of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

The funds buy books; some DSH events give books away for free. Of course, all the books are promoting their agenda.

The funds also pay the “queens” and “kings” for their performances and for the training they receive to ensure they can “talk effectively to children and parents about gender identity and drag,” according to Wikipedia.

Funding also comes from big foundations and corporations. Much money comes from wealthy billionaires like George Soros and his Open Society Foundation and from the Warren Buffett Foundation.

Both of these men believe the world is overpopulated and the population must be drastically reduced. What better way than to make sure young people cannot reproduce? They know that transgender children who have had body parts cut off will never be able to have children of their own.

The Federalist reported in 2018 that another big billionaire family that is giving much money to drag story hours and other transgender causes is the Pritzker family. This family created the Hyatt Hotel chain with its leader Jennifer Pritzker, who identifies as transgender. Mr. Pritzker used to be named James and even served in the military. Now as a transgender woman, he is very supportive of transgender causes.

But could it be more because of financial interests than ideological ones? Some of the organizations Mr. Pritzker owns and funds are especially noteworthy, for they are all promoting the rapid induction of transgender ideology into medical, legal, and educational institutions.

Mr. Pritzker owns Squadron Capital, an acquisitions corporation with a focus on medical technology, medical devices, and orthopedic implants; and the Tawani Foundation, a philanthropic organization with grants that focus on gender and human sexuality.

Other wealthy people who have invested a lot of money in the transgender movement are Martine Rothblatt (a male who identifies as transgender and transhumanist), Tim Gill (a gay man), Drummond Pike, Jon Stryker (a gay man), Mark Bonham (a gay man), and Ric Weiland (a deceased gay man whose philanthropy is still LGBT-oriented). Most of these billionaires fund the transgender lobby and organizations through their own organizations, including corporations.

According to the Federalist, many other wealthy donors use other foundations to hide their names–such as the Tides Foundation.

Then there is Big Pharma. Who stands to make the most money if children fall for all the indoctrination that they hear and decide they, too, were born in the wrong body and end up transitioning themselves?

According to PJ Media, Big Pharma companies are also pouring money into the transgender movement because they know they will get that money back with all the puberty blockers and hormones that the transitioning persons will need for the rest of their lives to keep them in their transgendered state.

The transgender business is very lucrative, bringing in lots of money for the hospitals and doctors performing the surgeries, plus the cost of expensive hormones and the cost of counseling.

According to the Daily Wire, it is expected that the money earned will be $5 billion at the end of 2023 and maybe $11 billion in future years.

Concerned Parents

We who protested the story hours are a group of concerned parents and grandparents. Some of us even have children who have suddenly–seemingly out of the blue–decided they identify strongly with the opposite sex and are at various stages in their transitioning.

This is a new phenomenon that has only recently been identified. Researchers are calling it “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD), and it is becoming an epidemic among our most vulnerable youth.

We are horrified at the growing number of young people whose bodies have been disfigured and whose physical and mental health have been destroyed by transitioning, only to discover–too late–that it did little to relieve their dysphoria.

Contrary to popular opinion, data shows that the highest rate of thoughts of suicide is among transgender youth (82 percent) who realize there is no going back–they cannot regrow those body parts that were removed. They will never be able to have children of their own.

Our children are young, na?ve, and impressionable. Many of them are experiencing emotional or social difficulties. They are strongly influenced by their peers and by the media, and these sources promote the transgender lifestyle as popular, desirable, and the solution to all of their problems.

And they are being misled by authority figures such as teachers, doctors, counselors, and librarians who rush to “affirm” their chosen gender without ever questioning why.

We concerned parents do not hold any hate for the LGBT community. We just love our children and do not want them indoctrinated into making decisions at an early age that can harm them for the rest of their lives.