MORE rampant bigotry from America’s religious right …

Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH), according to its website, is:

Just what it sounds like – drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores. DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.

You can see how this would send conservative Christians into a frenzy, and they are doing all in their power to kill off DQSH literacy events.

One prominent anti-DQSH lunatic is Scott Schittl, above, Campaigns Coordinator with LifeSiteNews.

This right-wing American site reported yesterday (Thursday) that the deranged and aptly named Schittl, together with Gualberto Garcia Jones, President of the Personhood Alliance, hand-delivered nearly 100,000 signatures to the American Library Association (ALA), against their promotion of the DQSH “phenomenon” .

It was a hand job he is particularly proud of: 40,000+ signatures came from the joint petition launched by LifeSite and the Personhood Alliance last month, while 56,000+ signatures came from a joint petition on the same topic which was launched by The Activist Mommy and CitizenGO.

Schittl and Jones met with the Senior Director of Public Policy & Government Relations Dr Alan Inouye at the ALA’s headquarters in Washington DC on Wednesday.

During the meeting, Schittl and Garcia Jones focused on four main issues:

1. That DQSH is highly inappropriate for children who cannot consent to its sexualized content at such a young age, regardless of whether their parents accompany them. And, exposing young children to sexual material beyond their maturity is tantamount to child abuse.

2. That DQSH is highly offensive to Christian communities, and will discourage library use in many communities – at a time when libraries should be encouraging literacy!

3. That DQSH is dangerous because it exposes children to potential predators, as it is well-known that registered sex-offenders have already been caught “performing” in front of young children.

4. That DQSH is a highly political issue with which libraries should not be involved, especially as they are in receipt of public funding. Libraries should be neutral zones, where one ideology is not preferred over another.

According to LifeSiteNews:

Schittl and Garcia Jones also delivered the message that we would be pursuing this issue – on grounds of child welfare – at both the state and federal level, and that we will be seeking to have Congress and state legislatures look at the issue, with a view to banning DQSHs (and other sexualized agenda topics) from libraries and classrooms.

Inouye said that he would pass along the petitioners’ concerns and help arrange further meetings.

Speaking about the delivery and the petition, Schittl said:

We are really enthusiastic about the fact that this petition struck such a chord with our readers. We want to thank everyone for signing this petition, and we want you to know that, where DQSH is concerned, this is only the first phase of our campaign. We are committed to ensuring that this perverted practice is stopped. The psychological, spiritual, moral, and physical well-being of America’s children is at stake.

• This item was cross-posted from The Pink Triangle Trust.