Now, just two years later, Drag Queen Story Hour can be found at libraries and bookstores across the U.S. Those reading there spoke to kids with the message of accepting one another’s differences. Last week, Spectrum News 1 took a look at a drag queen story hour, where drag queens read to children at libraries and other spaces. A librarian from the Brooklyn Public Library attended that first event and helped Aimee bring Drag Queen Story Hour to the New York Public Library system in the summer of 2016. Amid some protests, drag story hour organizers say they wont stop their programs. “I think the idea is to expose kids to different kinds of gender presentations,” Aimee told NBC News, “to see beyond the blue and pink gender binary that kids often grow up learning about.”Īimee said the first event she organized was at the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and it was packed. “To me that was shaming - shaming girly things, shaming femininity."īut at the same time, Aimee said she wanted to teach her daughter that pink is “not just for girls,” and “boys can be princesses, too.” So one year after Drag Queen Story Hour held its first reading in San Francisco in 2015, Aimee founded the New York chapter of the group. “There’s kind of this discourse in feminism about how you should encourage your daughters to wear pants and climb trees and have short hair,” she said. Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) is a global network of local chapters that offers reading and creative activities for kids and teens led by drag queens, kings, and creatures. ![]() Aimee heard about Drag Queen Story Hour three years ago when it debuted in San Francisco and thought at the time, “Oh my God, this is what I have been looking for. “I wish when I was growing up we had these types of activities, so that way my parents wouldn’t have had to be so secluded and private about acceptance,” she said.ĭuring Elektra’s library performance, Rachel Aimee, a 39-year-old mother and freelance editor stood in the back of the room. She said she noticed many families were there with kids, showing them what acceptance looks like. Image: Zuma Press / Getty Images / Composite: Brad Howard. It’s OK if you’re a girl and you want to wear a cap and fitted jeans, you know.”Įlektra said she and her partner of 19 years just attended the first-ever LGBTQ pride event hosted by their hometown of Yonkers, New York, a town just north of Manhattan. The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Bill McGurn, Mary O'Grady and Dan Henninger. It’s OK if you’re a boy, and you want to wear a tutu. “My job is to express to them, to help them understand, that it is OK to be different. What do drag queens and children have in common They love dressing up and all things sparkly and fancy Drag Story Hour (DSH) is just what it sounds likedrag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. And drag performances for children, unaffiliated with the organization, have become. ![]() “The main key that we try to teach the children is acceptance,” she explained. The Drag Queen Story Hour nonprofit has 35 chapters in the United States and five overseas, Mr. ![]() Elektra has been reading to kids with Drag Queen Story Hour for about a year.
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