June is LGBT Pride Month. A Warren County library wanted to do something to mark the occasion, so it enlisted a New Jersey drag queen to read a story to children. But they never got the chance.

“Drag Queen Story Hour” has become an increasingly popular event for libraries, schools and bookstores to hold, though not always without controversy. So when the northeast branch of the Warren County Library System scheduled one for June 15, some questions and comments were expected.

They did not expect two straight days of phone calls clogging the lines and demanding the event be cancelled. Or for a usually dry library commission meeting to meet with similar, in-person resistance.

The library commission, apparently caught by surprise at their May meeting, cancelled the Drag Queen Story Hour.

Staff were surprised both by the initial reaction and the commission’s decision.

"My thought for doing this was basically to acknowledge Pride Month. I thought a story hour would be as innocuous a thing as we could do," said Adam Petroski, manager of the northeast branch in Independence Township, just outside of Hackettstown.

"I'm frustrated that it's an issue. I'm frustrated that it happened,” he continued. “I don't blame the library commission. I think they were caught off guard.”

The story hour was cancelled late in May, shortly before the monthly newsletter went out and too late for the library to coordinate another Pride Month activity, Petroski said.

That disappointed Kathleen Lynch, a Belvidere mom who planned on taking her 11- and 6-year-old sons.

“I wanted our family to go to this event because it would be an opportunity for them spend some time with a person whose lifestyle they don’t get to experience a lot,” she said in an email. “Prejudice stems from ignorance and I want them to have an understanding and relationship with our society outside of our small town.

“People who oppose it can choose to stay home,” she continued, “but no one should be able to take this choice away from other families just because they don’t want it for their own.”

Mimi and Alexander O'Keeffe, both 3, with Harmonica Sunbeam at Drag Queen Story Hour in the Hudson Park branch of the New York Public Library, April 27, 2017. (Amy Lombard/The New York Times)Amy Lombard/The New York Times

Serving the community

The Drag Queen Story Hour website says events vary, but are usually simple: A drag queen or king reads a book to children, maybe sings some songs and leads the kids in a craft.

As for its “agenda,” the site says, “We believe that people of all ages should be free to express themselves however they want, free from the constraints of prescribed gender roles. … DQSH teaches children that there are many ways to express themselves and their gender, and they are all OK.”

The Warren County Library Northeast Branch event was to be led by Lady Keyonta, who was crowned Miss Gay New Jersey 2017 and has done other story hours.

Warren is a conservative county of a little more than 100,000 people, where nearly all elected officials are Republicans. There is no data on how many LGBT residents live here, but an estimated 4.1 percent of New Jersey’s nearly 9 million people identify as such, according to data from the Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law and Gallop polling.

"I feel like we didn't serve a portion of our community that deserves it, especially during pride month," said Sandy Roberts, who works in the county library system and posted public messages on Facebook critical of the decision to cancel the story hour.

"I think that's quashing freedom of speech and giving in to bigotry,” she said. “I'm OK if people have differences of opinion, but we're a public space.”

Paula Pompa protests a "Drag Queen Story Hour" at the Leander Public Library on Saturday, June 15, 2019, in Leander, Texas.Associated Press

Coordinated effort

A separate Drag Queen Story Hour is scheduled for this weekend in South Side Bethlehem, about 30 miles southeast of Independence. An organizer there said there have been some comments online (including a negative review of a co-host’s business and some general talk of a protest or counter-protest), but nowhere near the resistance seen in Warren County.

Roberts, the Warren County library employee, provided an example of one of the messages left on the county library Facebook page in a public post on her own profile. That person, whose name and face are obscured, quoted a Bible verse and said they are “boycotting” the county library system for “destroying a whole generation of youth.”

OK. So here we go. Some people may not like this post. Others may get offended. I don't care. This is important. I... Posted by Sandy Roberts on Saturday, May 25, 2019

Library staff don’t know who was behind all of the phone calls and messages, but some suspect it was an organized effort. Petroski and Roberts both said they saw area codes from outside the county and said the calls seemed to follow a script.

“We're not set up to take repeated calls from open to close,” Petroski said. He likened the story hour to events for Black History Month or learning about Muslim culture, things that are supposed to be educational for the community.

“We shouldn't have to defend a program,” he said. “I think it is the library's place to offer programs like this, and you can come in and learn from it."

‘State of confusion’

But there’s another complicating factor: It’s not clear if the library board knew the Drag Queen Story Hour was happening before opponents appeared at their meeting last month.

"Once they found out, I think there was a state of confusion," said Rick Gardner, a county freeholder who works closely with the library board.

Though he was not at the May meeting, Gardner said he was told there were 15 or more people there – unusual for a panel that usually has no audience – all in opposition. Without prior knowledge of the event, he said, the commissioners didn’t know how to respond and chose to cancel it.

"I think our commission members, and rightfully so, need to know what the program is in advance and what the benefit will be to the public at large," Gardner said.

The director of the county library system did not return a call for comment.

In this Sept. 8, 2018, file photo, a drag performer by the name of Champagne Monroe reads the children's book "Rainbow Fish" to a group of kids and parents at the Mobile Public Library for Drag Queen Story Hour in Mobile, Alabama.Associated Press

‘Better prepared for next time’

It’s unlikely the library will attempt another Drag Queen Story Hour this year, said Petroski, the branch manager. But he said he wants to work with outside groups to try to coordinate something well in advance for next year’s Pride Month.

And if there is a benefit here, he said, it’s that the library is learning how to deal with controversy.

Gardner, the freeholder, said the lesson is that the library needs a system for its branch managers to run events though, so that the commissioners can be prepared to address any problems.

Petroski, the branch manager, said he’s working on developing a form for patrons to fill out when they object to an event, like one would do for objections to a book or movie. He said that should help organize the complaints and verify that they are from people who live here and use the library.

“We’re going to try to learn from it,” he said. “If there’s anything that is even remotely controversial, we’ll be better prepared for it next time."

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.