A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by a group of Christians who sued a Texas library for having drag queens read stories to children.

Three Christian activists filed a lawsuit against two public library directors in Houston for hosting events from the Drag Queen Story Hour initiative.

The nonprofit Drag Queen Story Hour or Story Time series gets drag queens to read to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores throughout America.

The plaintiffs argued that public taxes should not be used to fund events ‘brainwashing the children of Houston’, Courthouse News reported.

However, the judge said that they had failed to prove that the events had caused any harm or misappropriation of public funds.

‘Instead of witnessing the event, the plaintiffs “researched it online”‘

The Christian group, Christ Followers, took the case to court in October 2018 after an online petition and a protest were unsuccessful in deterring the library from hosting the events.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal on Thursday (3 January) dismissed the case for having a lack of standing and a failure to state a viable First Amendment Establishment Clause claim.

Rosenthal said that the men could not prove that the story hour events had caused any harm, as they were unclear if they had even attended any of the events.

‘The plaintiffs assert the very opposite: they purposefully avoided “Drag Queen Storytime” because of its alleged immorality and potential to harm their children,’ Rosenthal wrote in the 18-page order. ‘Instead of witnessing the event, the plaintiffs “researched [it] online”.’

The group has a history of anti-LGBTI beliefs.

‘The plaintiffs believe that LGBTQ ideology is immoral, obscene and subversive to human flourishing and that the LGBTQ ideology is inseparably linked to the religion of Secular Humanism,’ it stated in their lawsuit.

One of the group’s members, Chris Sevier, filed a similar lawsuit against a Louisiana library in September 2018.

Sevier had also previously filed a lawsuit to be able to marry his laptop as a form of protest against same-sex marriage.

Not their first storytime

Drag Queen Story Hour was started by RADAR Productions in San Francisco and has become a popular feature throughout America over the past two years.

However, the initiative has prompted a backlash from conservative and religious groups.

Right-wing Infowars host, Alex Jones, has railed against Drag Queen Story Hour, describing the events as a ‘societal wrecking ball’ and comparing the drag queens to demons.

Several Christian activists have attempted to interrupt events in the past.

In November last year, a woman interrupted a session being held in a private bookstore by shouting about a ‘homosexual agenda’ before being escorted out by police.

In June, Dave Grisham, an evangelical pastor in Alaska, videoed himself attempting to interrupt a drag queen children’s story time taking place in a public library.

He was instantly booed by the crowd and ushered out in under a minute.