The Ketchikan Public Library last Friday morning held a Drag Queen Storytime event that attracted so many participants that library staff held three readings. The reading room is able to hold 25 people, Children’s Library Assistant Anne Marie Meiresonne said, and it was brimming for each reading.
The event has attracted much controversy in recent weeks, with supporters and detractors attending Ketchikan City Council and Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly meetings to share their support and opposition, as well as debating the issue on social media.
People gathered in groups outside the library to chat in the sunshine as they waited for the event to begin, and the parking lot overflowed. Ketchikan police officers kept an eye on attendees inside and outside the building.
The drag queen Luna, dressed in high heels and a calf-length iridescent dress with full gathers and sporting a fancy tall hairdo set off with glamorous face make-up, greeted attendees inside the library near the door of the large room used for reading events.
She read from a children's book, “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish.”
Outside, near the library entrance, was a protester, Sam Ryan, who had spoken against the event at last Thursday’s city council meeting. Ryan was holding a sign inscribed with a Bible verse from the book of Matthew.
Attendee Rebecca King said she was there in support of the event.
“I’m here to support the children who want to come to this event,” she said. “Just to let the kids be kids.”
Library Director Pat Tully said, “The library really does stand for being inclusive. “And, a place where people can feel accepted. It’s not that we are advocating for any kind of agenda; we just want everyone to feel included. For kids especially, to kind of see that there are all kinds of different people in the world, and that you can be anything you want to be.”
Tully continued, “That’s why we do the police story time, and the fireman story time and the ballerina story time and now, the drag queen story time,” she said.
Melody Thompson said, “I’ve known Luna since we were little, and I’d heard there was a bunch of negativity surrounding this event, and I wanted to come and show my support. Not everyone fits into the one-line category.”
She added, “I know some people have issues surrounding religion — I’m a preacher’s granddaughter — and I … think that if you are a Christian, you can’t call yourself a Christian and not love all God’s children.”
Deborah Nance, who spoke against the event at the city council meeting, was standing near a friend’s car with Bill Stewart, who also had spoken against the event at the council meeting. She stated that she was “just here to pray.”
She said her main concern is that the drag queen agenda focuses on “sexual fluidity in children.”
Nance added that the library is a “wonderful place” that holds much influence in the community, and she is concerned about the Drag Queen Storytime being held in a location having that strong influence.
“I don’t think it’s healthy,” she said.
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