Missouri introduces bill to stop drag queen story hour
By Calvin Freiburger — Because of his efforts to empower communities to nix sexually charged events for kids, Missouri Rep. Ben Baker, who introduced the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, has received death threats. The Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act is based on model legislation created by the Personhood Alliance.
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Editor’s note: The Personhood Alliance created the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act as model legislation to stop age-inappropriate, sexually charged materials and events from being pushed onto children through public libraries, as promoted by the American Library Association, LGBTQ organizations, and unaccountable local library boards. Several states are now considering this model during their current legislative sessions.
Missouri state lawmaker, Rep. Ben Baker, has introduced legislation that would empower communities to keep Drag Queen Story Hour and other radical, sexually-charged material away from their children at public libraries, to the chagrin of LGBT activists.
Sign the petition to support Rep. Baker and help us build a groundswell for other legislators to adopt this model.
House Bill 2044, the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, requires any library that receives taxpayer dollars to create a review board composed of five parents elected from the community, with final authority over the permissibility of sexual material.
These boards would be empowered to hold public hearings and render verdicts on public concerns as to the library’s offering of “age-inappropriate sexual material,” meaning “any description or representation, in any form, of nudity, sexuality, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse” that is deemed “patently offensive” and without “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
“Any public library personnel who willfully neglects or refuses to perform any duty imposed on a public library under this section, or who willfully violates any provision of this section, is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year,” the bill states.
The bill is largely a response to the spread of Drag Queen Story Hour events, in which adult crossdressers read storybooks to children. These events have been intensely controversial around the country; organizers admit one of their central purposes is to indoctrinate children about “learn[ing] to see beyond the pink and blue gender binary.” Many have exposed children to sexually-charged performances as well as drag queens who range from x-rated performers in their day jobs to convicted pedophiles and prostitutes.
Republican state Rep. Ben Baker, who filed the bill, told LifeSiteNews:
“Just knowing that there are children being exposed to the agenda being pushed by the LGBTQ community is alarming, but even more so when the vehicle in these situations is our taxpayer funded public libraries.”
LGBT groups and library officials have come out strongly against HB 2044. “I was contacted by my fellow directors across the state. They’re all very very upset about it,” Neosho Newton County Library director Carrie Cline told KOAM. “The Missouri Library Association’s very aware of it, so also is the American Library Association at a federal level.”
Shira Berkowitz, communications manager for Missouri LGBT group PROMO declared that the bill was “just based on fear,” NBC News reports, and denied the Drag Queen Story Hours involve “any kind of sexual content”…while at the same time declaring them important to the “visibility of LGBTQ culture.”
Rep. Baker responded:
“I think it is a ridiculous accusation to say that the bill would ban books or censor literature. Anything the parental oversight board would deem to be inappropriate for access by minors would still be available to adults to check out and provide to their children if they chose to do so. They already have internet filters on library PCs for the same reason, and that is protecting children from objectionable materials.”
He added that the penalty for noncompliance is no harsher than what library personnel already face for willfully neglecting other policies, such as Internet filters on library computers.
“The current law on disseminating objectionable sexual material to minors is actually a felony which is a much stricter penalty than what the bill calls for. I think it’s perfectly appropriate to have a penalty for those who would willfully ignore the wishes of the community regarding content or events available for children to view in a public space.”
Baker also revealed online that he has received death threats for his stand:
“I have received several death threats for me and my wife and four daughters. Some of the threats were from as far away as Australia. Most of the negative has been outside the state and what has been from Missouri has been outside of my district. I think most sane thinking people can agree that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
The biggest problem is the false narrative that the media has created. They have not been objective with the story and the headlines are misleading so people just run with that rather than actually reading the bill and finding out what it actually would do.”
Research by the Personhood Alliance has played a significant role in drawing lawmakers’ attention to the issue. Earlier last year, Personhood Alliance’s Sarah Quale wrote an article revealing how the American Library Association (ALA) has been actively helping to promote the LGBT agenda and Drag Queen Story Hour at the local level.
In response, nearly 60,000 people signed LifeSiteNews and Personhood Alliance’s petition calling on the ALA to immediately cease its promotion of Drag Queen Story Hour events. “It is common knowledge that to expose children to sexual concepts beyond their years is tantamount to child abuse,” the petition argues. “And unwary parents, trusting that the library system would never be used to corrupt their children, are taken by surprise.”
Those shocking revelations, along with the hand-delivery of nearly 100,000 signatures from LifeSite, Personhood Alliance, and Activist Mommy’s petition with CitizenGO to the ALA’s head office in Washington, D.C., have provoked interest from legislators all over the US.
Your signature is needed!
Personhood Alliance and LifeSiteNews have partnered on a new petition to support Rep. Ben Baker and build a groundswell for legislation in other states. We will hand-deliver this petition to Rep. Baker and reference it in every state using this model. Legislative sessions are happening right now! Click here to sign the petition.
You can also sign the updated petition to the ALA, if you did not have a chance to sign it before.
Personhood Alliance’s research
Read Personhood Alliance’s research on drag queen story hours:
- How libraries are being used to corrupt children and what you can do about it
- Behind the chiffon curtain: Drag queen story hours and child endangerment
This article was originally published on LifeSiteNews and edited for form, petition links, and article title.
This is not right should not be allowed anywhere its not GODS way
This defiant in-our-face perversion is imposing its corruption on the most vulnerable of our otherwise peaceful society – our children. We must not be passive and we must recognize this for what it is and use all our available resources. It is a call to battle. Pray fast stand up for our right to reject evil.
Amen!
Clearly this is the enemy’s strategy, after the youngest… we must not allow this to happen! Take every opportunity in every state and cut the head off of the snake of evil.
“ I have been young and now I am old but I have not seen the righteous forsaken..”
We do not want this kind of child abuse to be legal!
Missouri says no to LGBTQ agenda! no more!
I fully support protecting our Citizens from Harm be psychological, drugs or violence especially children,
Stop this nonsense. Stop corrupting our children
Maybe we should see some examples of the story hour so we can use common sense and see if there really is any issues. The same argument could be used against any one or any type of race. Just think about it.
Joe, drag queens are not a race. They are part of the adult entertainment industry. Please google “drag queen story hour videos” and take a few moments to browse through the many, many examples – not only of drag queen story hours, but Drag 101 events for pre-teens, where drag queens have put on “strip shows” for kids. The two other articles in our series, on this website, get into details about what’s happening here. I encourage you to read them.
I feel this is dead wrong and children should
Not be exposed to any of this I do not get
Why they are focusing on story hour in
A library who’s audience is young children
Isn’t it enough for them to perform at
Nightclubs
I definitely agree this Disgusting Drag Queens story needs to be discontinued Especially for children to see, they need there own combine on a Island or away from normal Society!!
While any adult in the 21st Century must realize that drag queens and the LGBTQ community is out there and children WILL see them, be it in their public library or otherwise, the content of what the children see must be reasonable and of educational value, just as anything else they would see in a school or public library. If that is not the case in this Drag-Queen Story Hour, than why expose the children to it? The parents need to be comfortable with what their children see or it is not going to be an experience the children will remember with neutral or comfortable memories and be able to discuss with them. It will, in fact, be ruined for them and become nothing more than an uncomfortable experience they will be confused and uncomfortable with that will make them possibly become antagonistic towards the LGBTQ community through the parents.
This never should have been a thing in the first place. Shame on you for the establishment’s who allowed this to take place