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Bigots in a bind
Anti-drag queen protesters drowned
out by supporters in Crown Heights
COVER GIRL: Lily Bushelle joined a group of 50 demonstrators, who turned out in support of a drag
queen at the Crown Heights Library on June 27. Photo by Stefano Giovannini
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Locals flocked to support
a drag queen who
read children’s books to
kids at Brooklyn Public
Library’s Crown Heights
branch on Thursday,
overwhelming a small
group of protesters.
Just five people gathered
on June 27 to express
outrage over Harmonica
Sunbeam’s presence
at “Drag Queen Story
Hour,” while more than
50 colorfully dressed proponents
sang songs and
chanted in support of the
event.
One protester shouted
biblical references into
a megaphone to warn of
the potential dire consequences
of the drag
queen’s presence.
“God wiped out cities
because of this,” said the
man who asked only to be
identified as Tag. “We’re
almost there. It’s getting
worse now than it was
back then.”
Supporters brushed
off the ominous alarms,
calling the protesters intolerant
and a poor representation
of the Crown
Heights community.
“We’re here to stand
against bigotry in whatever
form it takes,” said
Alice Tracey. “And look
at how much we outnumber
them by. I think that
tells you all you need to
know.”
The demonstration
came on the heels of a
similar clash outside of a
June 6 installment of the
story hour program at the
Gerritsen Beach Library,
where anti-story hour
protesters mobilized in
much larger numbers
than the miniscule showing
in Crown Heights.
The protest organizer
chalked up the weak attendance
to the intolerance
of pro-drag queen
demonstrators.
“Obviously, we didn’t
have the turnout we’d
hoped for,” said Rick
Knight. “I think that if
you express any conservative
views, people just
jump on you. People are
afraid to speak against
this.”
Knight suspected that
the story hour program
was the beginning of an
elaborate indoctrination
effort on the part of drag
queens everywhere.
“They can’t reproduce,
so they’re recruiting,”
he said. “I’m not a
conspiracy theorist, but
I think a lot of this ideology
is from the cultural
Marxists.”
The demonstrators,
who Knight described as
fighting a global culture
war, were attempting to
draw the line before society
slid down a “slippery
slope,” he said.
“Pedophilia is next,”
Knight said. “You have to
realize that drag queens
were a fringe group just
10 years ago, but now
they’re mainstream.
Next they’ll be defending
pedophilia.”
Their efforts to hijack
the event failed, as police
cordoned off the unevenly
matched groups of
demonstrators on either
side of the entrance to the
library — where approximately
65 kids listened to
the guest of honor read
a number of children’s
books uninterrupted by
the commotion outside.
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