Out gay Queens Councilmember Daniel Dromm celebrated Lunar New Year festivities over the weekend with a special edition of drag queen story hour.
Dromm hosted a special event for the ninth consecutive year and was joined by Queens State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, RuPaul Drag Race Season 10 star Yuhua Hamasaki, and hundreds of local residents who were excited to kick off the Year of the Pig.
“This year’s event was the biggest and most robust to date,” Dromm said. “For Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese people around the world, Lunar New Year is one of the most important holidays of the year. It is a special time for friends and family.
The event, which was at the St. James Episcopal Church in Elmhurst, included traditional Chinese dance, Korean drumming, Vietnamese music, song and dance numbers by students from a pair of local schools, face paintings, and lion dancing.
City agencies, social service providers, and local civil groups also were on hand for a special resource fair associated with the event.
“As a Council Member representing one of the largest and most diverse Asian American communities in the city, I am pleased to have founded this event that allows us to usher in the new year together as one neighborhood,” Dromm said.
Dromm has been a key supporter of the drag queen story hour events, which have been under fire in other parts of the country. The library in Five Forks, South Carolina, which is a part of the Greenville Library System, has become the center of attention as of late amid strong opposition to its own edition of drag queen story hour.
A Change.org petition calling on the library in Five Forks to stop the yielded more than 6,000 signatures and opponents have mounted protests during the story hours.
