Despite protest, drag queen storytime event a source of pride, Headingley librarian says

Winnipeg drag queen Miss Assuma Gender had never seen protesters show up outside one of her events prior to Saturday, but she's glad a family-friendly storytime event at a Manitoba library went well despite heated protests outside.

The event, Read by Queens, was held at the Headingley Municipal Library just west of Winnipeg in partnership with Sunshine House, a Winnipeg-based community drop-in centre, and featured three drag queens reading children's books.

CBC News obtained a video taken outside the library as the event was underway, showing two groups of about 10 people each. The video shows one group, holding Pride and transgender Pride flags, on one side of the street as the other group across from them chants "shame."

"I'm hoping that that incident is not the takeaway here," Miss Assuma Gender told CBC News. "We really just wanted to, at the very least, show the kids that coming to an event like this should be safe."

She was alerted of a possible protest prior to the event, but said the performers went ahead with it to show kids that they can "dress however they want, and that doesn't diminish who they are as people."

Protesters did not impact the event itself, which took place in the library's basement reading room. Drag queen storytime events have recently grown in popularity, but they've been blown out of proportion by people who don't understand what drag is, Gender said.

"I think the misunderstanding that a lot of people have is, they get hung up on drag — full stop. That's what they view as being inappropriate, which equates being a queer person in the vicinity of children … as inappropriate," she said.

No arrests after protesters got pushy

RCMP said they responded to multiple reports of a disturbance on Alboro Street, near the library, where officers found two groups of people yelling at each other.

Two women — one from each group — had pushed each other, RCMP said in a Monday statement. No injuries were reported and no charges or arrests were pursued after speaking with both women.

Police remained at the protest to ensure safety until both groups left.

About 75 people attended the event, including parents, children and youth, said head librarian Alison Au, who said she's proud Headingley Library was able to hold its first drag queen storytime event.

Au, who has worked at the library for about 15 years, wanted to hold the event to make the library's stance clear following recent calls for the removal of LGBTQ, sexual education resources and other books in Manitoba school libraries.

"It just seemed like the time was right to do something like this. Headingley has never really had any sort of a Pride event or anything like that," she told CBC News on Monday.

The library started getting emails and phone calls from people with complaints after the event was announced, Au said, and she contacted RCMP after learning of plans for the protest.

However, the response from Headingley's community has been largely positive, and it was heartwarming to see some of the kids at Saturday's event connect deeply with the stories that the drag queens read, she said.

Headingley's mayor, a councillor and a United Church minister also attended the event to show their support, said Au.

"The mayor suggested this morning that we should make it an annual event. He was really happy with it, so it's upsetting when you get this sort of negativity — and we're still getting it," Au said.

'We're not going to stop'

Since Saturday, Au said the library has received voicemail messages accusing it of promoting drug use, Satanism and grooming children.

"It was definitely disheartening to have to deal with such negativity but overall we're very proud that we were able to hold this event," she said.

"If we could even reach one family and make them feel included and accepted, then it was worth it."

Moxie Cotton, another drag queen who took part, said the performers felt good about how it went, as the community was overwhelmingly supportive and welcoming.

"As we left, the kids, and mostly their parents, stood on either side of the exit to the parking lot and held up Pride flags and they cheered," she said.

The queens were proud of how much fun they had at the event, and the children were excited to have them at the library, Cotton said.

"We're not going to stop doing them, and people probably won't stop protesting either, but my hope is that eventually they realize that all they're doing is harming kids and making kids [and] their parents scared," she said.

"All we want to do is just help kids be themselves in a world that is increasingly unfriendly to queer youth."