The Boston Public Library\u2019s series of drag queen story hours for families in celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month has raised concerns from the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
C.J. Doyle, the executive director of the independent Catholic advocacy group, says he fears that the scheduled events are a \u201cdemonic assault on the innocence of children, who are being exploited to mainstream the sexual deviancy of transvestites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roughly 19 story hours are scheduled in June, according to the BPL calendar, with the first slated at 10:30 a.m. Monday in the West End. The events primarily target children ages 5 and under.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren and families are invited to come and celebrate Pride Month with drag queen Ms. Patty for a fun-filled story hour of songs, stories, and more!\u201d an advertisement for Monday\u2019s event reads.<\/p>\n
On June 9, the BPL is set to host \u201cBilingual Drag Story Time with Just JP\u201d in Jamaica Plain, for children ages 3 and up with an adult.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bilingual story hour celebrating Pride Month that raises awareness of gender diversity, promotes self-acceptance, and builds empathy through an enjoyable literary experience,\u201d that event\u2019s advertisement reads.<\/p>\n
Critics of drag queen story times argue that the events are inappropriate for children and don\u2019t belong in public settings because of concerns around sexualization and grooming.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving such depraved events hosted by public libraries,\u201d Doyle said in a statement, \u201csends a clear \u2026 message to anyone who holds traditional moral beliefs \u2013 faithful Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Jews and others \u2013 that they are now second-class citizens in Boston.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir views and values are not only irrelevant to the City of Boston,\u201d Doyle added, \u201cbut, apparently, are so bigoted and benighted that they must be publicly repudiated at taxpayer-supported institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Boston Public Library did not immediately respond to a Herald request for comment on Saturday.<\/p>\n
A BPL spokesperson told Fox News Digital last week that families are \u201calways free to make their own choices about the programs they wish to attend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BPL offers a variety of programming designed to serve the wide range of needs, pursuits, and perspectives of our community; this means that not every program will be of interest to every library user,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Last month, Mayor Michelle Wu came under fire for initially funding wellness grants for queer and transgender migrants amid a $100 million budget shortfall, spending that her office confirmed was inappropriate.<\/p>\n
Amid backlash, the so-called LGBTQ+ migrant justice organization, Outnewcomers, returned all grant funding to the city intended for queer migrants to use on gym memberships, yoga, meditation, reflection activities, transportation, and childcare support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Public Library\u2019s series of drag queen story hours for families in celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[98328,98329,98327,16048,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-251935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-boston-politics","tag-boston-pride","tag-boston-public-library","tag-michelle-wu","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}