A Letter to Red Deer City Council Regarding Drag Story Time at Red Deer Public Library
To the attention of Mayor Ken Johnston, and members of Red Deer City Council;
It is with regret our Society feels it must take action and write this letter to you. After commentary made by members of Council both publicly and to individual members of the public, it is our duty to remind City Council of your commitment to diversity, inclusion, and creating a safe and welcoming Red Deer for all citizens and visitors.
As part of Central Alberta Pride’s slate of Pride Week events, occurring this year between August 7 and August 13, we are excited to partner with the Red Deer Public Library (RDPL) to present Reading With Royalty – a drag story time at the Downtown branch on Friday, August 12. This will be the second edition of this type of event RDPL has put on, the first being Drag Story Time featuring local queen Lilliana Starlight on June 21.
What does our Reading With Royalty event entail, you ask? A guest reader welcomes youth to the Red Deer Public Library to read a few stories, with topics of those stories aimed at creating awareness of inclusion. We’re pleased to inform you that many councillors themselves may have been a guest reader at an event very similar in the past, so you very likely know exactly what happens at a children’s story reading such as this! This year's short list of stories includes Pink is for Boys by Robb Pearlman, Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love, And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, and Sam is My Sister by Ashley Rhodes-Courter - all excellent stories we are excited to share with our community in this manner.
So, what is the difference between Reading With Royalty and any other reading event? The reader is in a brightly coloured (probably sparkly) costume, wearing a wig, and also some makeup. Some have taken issue with this. Why? Because the reader is a member of the LGBTQ2S+ community. The reader I just described, in the sparkly costume, is a drag queen. A drag queen reading stories about loving yourself and accepting others for who they are. At this point, we pause and ask very bluntly: what difference does it make if the reader is a person in a brightly coloured outfit, a wig, and face paint? Is the only difference which makes some uncomfortable that the person reading the story is a member of the LGBTQ2S+ community?
It’s become clear some on Red Deer City Council have never taken the time or effort to attend an event such as this, and therefore do not understand a drag queen reading a children’s story to youth from our community is not, as Councillor Barnstable described in a public post to his Facebook Page, “adult entertainment”. (If it were, we’re fairly certain our local library would not promote such an event.) To say that any one person sitting down with youth to read them a story which promotes loving yourself, accepting others, and educates about diversity is “child abuse” or “grooming” (as mentioned by some comments in the post) is incredibly misguided, disconnected, and downright false – whether that individual is plain clothed or in a fabulous costume. We recommend that all city councillors take the time to review what the mandate of the RDPL actually is, and remind them that this type of event fits squarely within this mandate. We also remind all city councillors they represent all citizens within the City of Red Deer, and are guided by policies outlined in the Council Code of Conduct Bylaw 3608/2018.
As identified in the event’s description, attendees “enjoy an afternoon with stories, crafts and activities that bring us together in love and friendship and celebrate the freedom to be who we are.” This clearly meets the mandate of RDPL, which is to “enrich lives by promoting literacy and providing access to knowledge and culture.”, and their vision to “Provide a welcoming environment where everyone will discover, share, develop, and value our public library.” Would there even be a discussion or opposition about an event of this nature if it were presented in partnership with any other organization, and the literature chosen were along the lines of Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho, Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry, The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad, or The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad? (All these stories, by the way, are just a few wonderful stories that celebrate culture and diversity, and readily available through the Children’s Department at RDPL.) We could ask the same question about RDPL’s “A Day at Hogwarts” event. Does such an event with Harry Potter themed crafts and activities thus promote witchcraft? Surely all citizens can appreciate any programming put together by the staff at Red Deer Public Library has been vetted to meet their mandate and vision, and be in service of ALL Red Deerians.
There are devastatingly significant reasons why LGBTQ2S+ issues should be addressed with youth in our community. You may already know that suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 10-24 (Hedegaard, Curtin, & Warner, 2018), but what you may not know is LGBTQ2S+ youth who are not accepted as they are, who are not supported, who do not feel safe are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2020). For more information on this, we advise you review the 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health by The Trevor Project, which found 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth. That said, when youth are able to find affirming spaces, who have social supports and have acceptance from one adult in their lives – rates of suicide risk diminish by up to 40 percent. For these reasons, and so many others, we must act to ensure that our LGBTQ2S+ communities are visible and affirming spaces are found throughout our city and Central Alberta.
Our Red Deer, and our Central Alberta, is a place where ALL are welcomed to come as they are and participate in community in safety while feeling valued and supported. What we continue to see as Red Deer grows is an increase in LGBTQ2S+ individuals calling our city home, and as a result we expect our City Council to make a continued effort to support and celebrate Central Alberta’s unique intersectionality of culture, history, and diversity. This includes taking ACTIVE ACTION to educate and learn about these intersectionalities, including local LGBTQ2S+ history and culture.
If the City of Red Deer as an organization wants to itself continue professing a mandate of ensuring our city is “vibrant, healthy and diverse…that supports a welcoming and inclusive community where everyone feels safe and can fully participate in community life”, and City Council is to address it’s mandate of equally representing ALL citizens including our LGBTQ2S+ communities, Central Alberta Pride Society calls upon our City Council to immediately take serious pause and identify the following actions to be taken in short order:
Identify an action plan for the Welcoming & Inclusive Communities (WIC) Network to work with City Council to administer LGBTQ2S+ education training to ALL City of Red Deer City Councillors including the Mayor as well as City of Red Deer Senior Administration before the end of 2022;
Formal review of Council Code of Conduct Bylaw 3608/2018, specifically sections 8.4 and 8.5, with all members of Council; and
A formal apology to the LGBTQ2S+ community and Red Deer Public Library by Councillor Barnstable regarding his public comments about June’s Drag Story Time at Red Deer Public Library.
We welcome all City Councillors to join us on Friday, August 12 at the Downtown Branch of Red Deer Public Library to participate in the Reading With Royalty drag story time event, and to experience first hand what this type of event looks like in reality. (Anyone looking to participate in the event can register here.) We of course are open to meeting both with City Council and Councillors either as a group or individually at any mutually agreeable time. We hope that as a result of this engagement we are able to foster a more open and respectful discussion with Councillors, where a better understanding of the LGBTQ2S+ folx in our community will be met and received so as to serve the whole of Red Deer better.
Yours in Pride,
Sent directly by email on July 25 on behalf of the Board of Directors, Central Alberta Pride Society