Author: Nicci Little & Jordan G Estabrook
The CIAF (Charlotte International Arts Festival) comes to Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, Sept. 16, to Sunday, Oct 2.
While art both classical and contemporary is enjoyable, one offering for Saturday, Sept. 17, and Sunday, Sept. 18 is deeply concerning, disturbing and disgusting.
A free event hosted by the CIAF and Blumenthal Performing Arts in partnership is none other than Drag Queen Story Hour, an organization started in 2015 “to captures the imagination and the play the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive and unabashedly queer role models.”
In the description, it's described as follows:
"an organization that promotes diversity in literature through performance in Drag. Drag queens, kings, and theybies read books to children to show them that there is always a way to love who they are! Come join us for stories, crafts, and general fun all around!"
Why do children need queer role models? It's one thing to present this to adults. What they choose is between them and their maker. There are plenty of adult venues for drag shows and queens in Charlotte, but not at Romare Bearden Park at 300 S. Church St. Charlotte in the middle of the day for small children.
Drag Queen Story hour is hardly art. It's fueled by an appetite to present this lifestyle to your children. Protecting are children from these types of events isn't about sheltering them from art, but instead from inappropriate sexualization of our children.
There is a difference between leaving people alone in their own choices and propagandizing. Sexualization is being forced on children and they deserve better.
There are some people who aren't concerned about this because it's "not happening everywhere" and it's "not as popular as the media is making it out to be."
But this is how it starts. Drag Queen Story Hour is already in 29 states in major cities and also internationally. It's coming to a city near you. They're not hiding it. It's not in a back alley. It's in your city, center stage, in broad daylight.
Even if you did not plan to attend the CIAF this September, reach out to the CIAF, Blumenthal Performing Arts, Charlotte City Council as a whole and its members, Alma Adams, Gov. Roy Cooper, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the State Senate etc. The list below provides avenues to contact our leadership via phone and email. More importantly, vote in politicians that represent your values in the upcoming elections.
Our goal is to flood their communications with our concern so they
cannot ignore us. We ask that communication with them not be nasty or threatening, but straightforward and truthful.
Our voices and the voices of our children deserve to be heard.
Alma Adams – 12 th Congressional District Representative: https://adams.house.gov/
Charlotte City Council with Members Listed: https://charlottenc.gov/CityCouncil/Pages/Default.aspx
Gov. Roy Cooper: https://governor.nc.gov/
Lt. Gov Mark Robinson: https://ltgov.nc.gov/about/mark-robinson
NC State Senate: https://www.ncleg.gov/Senate
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of Resident Skeptics.
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