On a less-than-springlike Friday afternoon, the Jackson Heights branch of the Queens Public Library opened its doors for an afternoon children’s event.
QPL, one of the largest public library systems in the US, hosts thousands of events each year, ranging from classes to crafts, games, and readings in the borough that calls itself the most diverse in the world, with over 300 languages spoken.
Jackson Heights radiates out from both sides of the 7 train along Roosevelt Avenue. It’s a busy neighborhood with no tall glass towers, streets lined with mom & pop storefront businesses, sidewalk vendors and food trucks, and sturdy brick apartment buildings that rarely rise above six stories.
It’s the epitome of a working-class Queens neighborhood, filled with immigrants and their descendants.
Friday’s reading was by Drag Story Hour-NYC and funded by City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan (Jackson Heights D-25). Parents and caregivers arrived, pushing children in strollers, escorting little kids with big backpacks into the building, which has been welcoming area residents since 1953.
Volunteers distributed information sheets about DSH-NY in several languages to passers-by, describing the reading and the events outside.
The “kid-friendly” explanation read: “We are here to make sure story time doesn’t get interrupted by a few bullies. It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes the meanies exist in real life, not just in stories and movies. These people are confused about Drag Story Hour, and they don’t like the books we read.”
Anti-LGBTQ+ protesters have been disrupting queer and DSH-NYC events in Queens for months, with Proud Boys and neo-Nazis showing up at the Jackson Heights events. They’ve attacked Krishnan, vandalizing his office, and going to his home to protest.
Library staff and police from the 115th Precinct admitted the attendees, making sure no unfriendlies got in. Their presence was needed, as a small crew of protesters set up across 81st St., waving American and Pride Flags, shouting angry slogans through bullhorns, trying to scare and intimidate the library users. (Their presence also inconvenienced the residents of the street; police had to escort them to their homes through the barricades.)
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards made it his business to stop by to show his support, as did Queens State Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas.
From six to 10 protesters noisily demonstrated across from the library, while in front of the building, a crowd of supporters that grew to 100 or more gathered starting at about 2 p.m., continuing until the reading was over.
The supporters brought signs and musical instruments, including ukuleles and drums, played happy songs through speakers (Abba, the BeeGees, Kool & the Gang), and unfurled rainbow parasols to keep the children from being disturbed by the angry group of mostly male, mostly white, protesters.
Organizer and activist Jay W. Walker (Gays Against Guns, among others) brought song sheets for the crowd, with selections ranging from “The Hips on the Queens,” sung to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus,” to “Heels and Wigs,” sung to the tune of “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” which went:
Heels, lashes, wigs and butt (wigs and butt)
Heels, lashes, wigs and butt (wigs and butt)
Cho-sen fam’ly, ma-a-a-keup and love,
Heels, lashes, wigs and butt (wigs and butt)
Activist Laurie Arbeiter brought dozens of signs, with slogans like “Drag Story Hour Spreads Joy” and “I Want You to Be Free and I Want to Be Free,” that she gave to supporters who held them up while they sang and chanted.
The press was present as well, with camera crews from local TV stations, including FOX5. The media greatly outnumbered the protesters, whose group included a man with a poster identifying himself as a member of the Guardians of Divinity and the Guardians’ leader, who calls himself King Jesus. (The Guardians of Divinity are a “religious far-right, anti-vaccine, and anti-LGBTQ group,” according to Wikipedia.)
Another protester was a balding, middle-aged man with white hair and a red face, who brandished a “Gays for Trump” flag and wore an anti-Biden t-shirt. He and some of the others rushed down to the end of the street at one point and exchanged words with DSH-NY supporters, but the police kept the groups separated. One arrest was reported later on by Fox 5 and other outlets.
Community members who were part of the defense effort were there to make sure the event went as smoothly as possible and set up a table with information about the organization, including copies of books read at Drag Story Hours, stickers, pins and more.
Outside the event, Bella Noche was a “backup queen,” prepared to read a story outside if there was overflow from the indoor event. Reflecting on the role of community and queens in Queens, Noche, who organized the Long Island chapter of DSH, talked about how she reacted to the local protesters and the what’s at stake, on the day after the Tennessee state legislature passed a bill banning drag performances.
“We came together as a community of Queens: families, educators, storytellers and creatives,” she said. “These people are clearly not going away, but neither are we. As long as we can stick together and show up and be out when we need to be, we’re going to be all right.”
Below are some pictures from the Drag Story Hour event in Jackson Heights as well as from a previous Drag Story Hour event in Elmhurst.
Below are pictures from the Elmhurst Drag Story Hour event:
