Below are the recommendations put forth by this commission after they were triggered by critique offered by MassResistance Austin. Note that they want to bypass public comment on this issue and there is no mention as we go through this document of the expose’ given the council on 8/8/19 which included social media of the drag queen reader, disturbing revelations about the events the sponsor has hosted with children and even featured porn and male escort accounts followed by the drag queen on his Twitter account on which he only follows just over 50 accounts.
Without public comment, without a vote, the LGBTQ Quality of Life Commission recommends that city council direct the city manager to develop more LGBTQ “cultural learning initiatives like DQSH so Austinites of all ages can have the opportunity to develop deeper empathy for their neighbors”. It seems like this is a matter that should be up for the entire public to comment on rather than a commission to determine all of Austin needs sensitivity training which will be funded by taxpayer.
They ask to secure the safety of participants. They also refer the American Library Association, they need to refer to the ALA’s guidelines and policies for controversial programming, as they suggest that organizations that sponsor controversial events at the library can be asked to provide or pay for their own security.
As for support, the council and mayor already showed their support for this program. The mayor has attended the event and the council sat silently as a minor was assaulted for speaking against the program at city hall on 8/8/2019.
Let’s just break their “rationale” down bit by bit. Here is a segment:
The mission to “provide open access to information and promote literacy, love of reading, and lifelong learning opportunities for all members of the community” does not hinge on whether or no there is a DQSH program at the library. It is an intellectually vacuous argument to state imply that this program meets those goals or that the reduction of this program undermines that mission. The library was meeting these goals prior to DQSH. There is no evidence of LGBTQ being turned away from programs offered at the library. There are no resources they cannot access. There is no history of anyone not being able to get a library card due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Austin Int’l Drag Festival repeated the goal of Drag Queen Story Hour, “to promote unabashedly queer role models”. Thank you, we noticed that too and we don’t know why children ages 5 and under need queer role models and why they need any content reflective of adult sexuality or gender confusion promoted toward them. In fact, this bring up a major point of opposition: drag queens are not proper role models for children. The teen who was assaulted by one of the LGBTQ community (that is supposedly our moral betters when it comes to empathy) brilliantly stated that there are better role models for children, even among the LGBTQ community. There have been astronauts, lawyers, doctors, police, firemen, mayors, scientists, engineers, etc. that are LGBTQ. While we don’t need to bring anyone’s sexuality or gender confusion to the consciousness of a young child, there are better role models for youth to find in the community. Why would the LGBTQ set the bar so low for role models, perhaps because they aren’t being honest about their real agenda which is to massage their own egos and feel better about their own identity as well as to virtue signal so hard they let a drag queen with a record for prostitution entertain kids at the library.
They bring up the SPLC designation of MassResistance as a hate group….see the thread below where we address that libelous label. They brought Tracy Shannon because she has done a lot of research on drag queen story hours across the country and she is able to speak factually about those findings. If people in Austin were not afraid of the queer caliphate backlash then it is likely more would have been at the press conference. There would have been more to speak but the city shelters itself from public comment with the most absurd rules for public comments ever seen. They should adopt rules that allow public comment from as many as who would like to comment. The Facebook page was not utilized but to post an event online. It has at least 98 followers as of 8/22/19 and that number is expected to grow as the arrogance of council members and the LGBTQ Quality of Life Commission is showcased to Austin residents. As of 8/21/19 Austin has made national news with its drag queen story hour program. The public will become more aware of the lack of due diligence and the weak defense for this ill-advised program. The fact that they are dropping names and mentioning SPLC together into a public record should concern residents about the manner in which these commissions are run and what liability they could create for the city and taxpayers.
The program is an ideological crusade posing as a storytime. Why can’t the library do a background check on the drag queens? An Austin resident reported to Mad Momma Bear that the library informed him he would have a background check when he inquired about volunteering for story time reading. Is it some kind of micro-aggression to expect a drag queen to submit to a background check? It is common practice now days for volunteers in youth programming to have background checks. Just think if Houston Public Library had followed its own policy for background checks, it would not have made international news for having not just one but two sex-offenders in its drag queen story hour program.
Everyone should feel really comforted by this statement by the library. Especially in light of what happened not long ago in an Austin Public Library when a man attempted to kidnap two girls, cornering one in the restroom and stripping her panties off of her. What is the bathroom situation in the Austin Public Libraries? Is it routine for men to use the women’s restrooms? If the library takes children’s safety seriously then it would do background checks on all volunteers just like they do in many children’s activities.
The LGBTQ Commission must have pulled this garbage straight from the pages of a queer website or magazine. The truth about the events surrounding “Doc” Greene Sr. are distorted to paint a picture in which people will believe someone was threatened or even in danger at the Houston Public Library. In fact, posted below you can see a post by a Senior Level Houston Public Library employee who was at the library that day which says that the reporting on this story would be a good study on fake news and she describes the event very differently than the hyperbolic press and the dramatic drag queen which was interviewed (who was not even at the library at the time b/c it was an hour prior to story time).
There was not, is not, and never was a policy in place that prevents filming children without parental consent in the Houston Public Library. One day, out of nowhere during a drag queen story hour program, a library employee told all in attendance that there will be no more photography or videotaping from that point on. At another drag queen story hour a MassResistance parent was told no videotaping was allowed due to a city policy. No such policy exists to this date. The HPL added a new rule after the fact to limit filming but that only pertains to bullying and harassment of patrons. Filming for newsgathering purposes is protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. The library is a public venue, the drag queen story hour at the library is a public event and nobody can have any reasonable expectation of privacy. News reporters, even those that the progressives dislike (such as InfoWars) cannot be restricted from recording and newsgathering. Generally, (although they do make profits) journalists are not considered to be gathering photos, video and asking questions for commercial use. To try to restrict InfoWars or any other reporter, Like “Doc” Greene from newsgathering is not only infringing on their first amendment rights, it could be considered viewpoint discrimination if there are other news agencies allowed to film and/or report on the program.
Below is a post from the senior level administrator for the Houston Public Library stating that the news coverage of Doc Greene at the library is a good study in fake news:
Below is a post from the senior level administrator for the Houston Public Library stating that the news coverage of Doc Greene at the library is a good study in fake news:
The Leander protest had an unusual amount of law enforcement and parks and recreation workers involved in the preparation for and the facilitation of security, parking and cleanup for the protest/counter-protest. There was communication with the police from the time a rumor circulated and was reported on in national media (Washington Post for one) that Antifa was going to show up. Some Antifa sympathizers did show up but there was not a real showing of Antifa which would have warranted all the security. There was no credible threat to the library, the event or the people going to the event held at the library. The library didn’t have to close to the public, Leander didn’t need to spend $20K in security to “manage crowds” and escort attendees. Like any protest the police were there to keep peace and they really did not have a hard job to do as there was nothing more than debate across the fence erected by the police. I think both sides reported some unpleasantness, but there was nothing that would have necessitated an abundance of security from the actions on either side of the event. There was the one moment when some LGBTQ protesters surrounded Owen Shroyer in an act of intimidation but event that was not particularly violent and would not require but a few officers for peace keeping. We are supportive of the police keeping peace at the events for the protection of all parties, but let’s not exaggerate and make false claims like the LGBTQ Commission is doing.
Maybe the LGBTQ could be so kind as to provide credible sources. Has this been reported anywhere and are there any police reports of actual threats made? Who knew that “neo-Nazis” had taken an interest in the DQSH program? This sounds like more hyperbole.
It seems like the LGBTQ Quality of Life Commission relies on fake news for its “rationale” of why the city should support DQSH and add more programming like it and increase ALA training. There is not rationale for bringing more programs that reflect gender issues and adult sexuality in children’s programming.
Austin needs to get the ALA out of the library, not bring more ALA training and programming to the library and Austin certainly does not need more programs like DQSH. Frankly, the adults need to find their own entertainment without the children.
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