By Michael Bielawski
A national organization based out of Massachusetts called MassResistance, which focuses on helping communities respond when a drag queen story hour comes to town, may be coming to the Cobleigh Library in Lyndonville.
They would be coming to support local resistance to a drag queen story hour currently scheduled at the library for this Saturday.
Karen Marie Van Wyk, the National Organizational Coordinator for MassResistance.com, spoke with VDC by phone on Monday. She said initially the effort is to pressure for the event to cancel. If the event goes on, sometimes there will be a peaceful demonstration.
“The librarians if you noticed, they are making it their agenda in the library to push that [ideology] and the taxpayers don’t want that there,” Van Wyk said.
She said her organization works with local communities to get regular citizens who are upset about political indoctrination at schools to engage with the school boards and get the policy changes they want.
“Nobody knows what to do to stop it,” she said. “We come in to help people strategize.”
She said her organization has stopped such events already. What sometimes happens is there will be a sudden announcement citing an alleged safety hazard and the event will be canceled.
In some cases, they go on despite local calls to cancel the show.
After communicating with some of the locals she determined that it seems like people there are generally not OK with the event, but they mostly don’t wish to publicly intervene.
“Generally speaking, everyone in the town doesn’t want it,” she said. “Libraries need to just be about libraries.”
She continued that conservatives who don’t want to see these events need to take action and at times, be aggressive.
“Sleepy conservatives need help to understand how to stop it, and you do need to be aggressive,” she said.
Those who want to preview the show can watch a clip here. It’s of Emoji Nightmare in Chester. Nightmare has been touring regional libraries for years including on at least one occasion the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier and there was very little public resistance.
Van Wyk says it’s not “banning” books or performers when the community decides that certain material isn’t the best fit for public libraries with young children.
“Have we come this low? These are children,” she said.
She also noted when these events occur, it is often times it’s visitors from outside the local community that fill much of the seating.
“Most of them aren’t even in the community… and they bring their children,” she said.
According to Nightmare’s website bio, “Emoji Nightmare (Justin Marsh) has been performing across Vermont and the region since 2015 and is one of the state’s leading drag entertainers. She has hosted, performed in, and/or produced several major events over the past decade, including New Queers Eve, Pride Ball, First Friday, Glitter & Duct Tape, The Vermont Pride Festival, Paint: A Drag Cabaret, Queen City Drag Cabaret, Queer Pop-Up Dance Party, and SASS.”
It continues that the local media has been celebrating Nightmare’s work. The bio says, “She is a frequent guest on Amber Live! and a multi-year nominee for Seven Days’ annual Daysies Awards for Best Drag Performer in Vermont.”
And they have a show on Vermont Community Access Media.
The bio states, “The series included some high-profile guests, including former Governor Madeleine Kunin. The two founded the Vermont Chapter of Drag Story Hour in September [2017]. They begin hosting and producing New Queers Eve that December.”
Vermont Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman has been doing a “banned” book story time across the state. Some of the books include Gender Queer, Lawn Boy, Kite Runner, Beloved, and more.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle