Christian lawyer claims drag queen children’s event violates US Constitution
A Drag Queen Story Time event. (Facebook/Drag Queen Storytime)
A library is being sued for hosting a children’s story time event hosted by drag queens.
The Lafayette Library in Louisiana is facing legal challenge over the event, scheduled for October 6.
Drag Queen Story Time, which promotes literacy and inclusivity by having a local drag queen come in to read to children, has become popular with kids across the US—but the programme frequently faces attacks from anti-LGBT+ campaigners.
(Drag Queen Storytime)
The event has now come under fire from fringe evangelical lawyer Chris Sevier, who is best known for demanding the right to marry his laptop.
His suit, filed in federal court, claims that Drag Queen Story Time is in violation of the First Amendment because it is “endorsing secular humanism.”
Sevier named library director Teresa Elberson in the suit alongside Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Attorney General Jeff Landry.
Sevier told local news outlet KADN: “By bringing this lawsuit, we are unapologetically and firmly defending the civil rights movement led by pastor Martin Luther King.
“The evidence would suggest that the self identified transgendered [sic]. They are using a government facility to show that the governments backs their worldview to then target children, to indoctrinate them under a faith based ideology.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two religious groups called Warriors for Christ and Special Forces of Liberty.
(Drag Queen Storytime)
The event had already promoted division in Lafayette, with Mayor Joel Robideaux threatening to cancel the event, while the head of the library’s board resigned.
After the introduction of equal marriage, Sevier filed a lawsuit seeking the right to marry inanimate objects such as a laptop.
In response, the state of Utah pointed out the laptop was below the age of consent.
It warned: “Under Utah law, Sevier’s computer is not a party legally capable of entering into a solemnized marriage and cannot meet the consent requirement of the unsolemnized marriage statute.
“Even if that were not the case, unless Sevier’s computer has attained the age of fifteen it is too young to marry under Utah law.
“Therefore, Sevier cannot satisfy even the most basic requirements for a valid marriage under Utah law. His factual allegations are not plausible, and his claims should be summarily dismissed.”
The state response also affirmed that same-sex marriage is not the same as marrying an inanimate object.
Despite his apparent anti-LGBT beliefs, Sevier has close ties to a number of state-level Republican lawmakers, penning proposed legislation that was submitted by GOP officials in two states.
Eight GOP lawmakers sponsored Sevier’s proposed Marriage and Constitution Restoration Act bills in South Carolina and Wyoming earlier this year.
The bills appeared to be an attempt to segregate same-sex marriage from heterosexual unions in the wake of the 2015 Supreme Court decision that brought equal marriage to all 50 states.
The proposed laws sought to define “any form of marriage that does not involve one man and one woman” as a “parody marriage” and block legal recognition of such unions.
Six Republican lawmakers, Steven Wayne Long, Bill Chumley, Mike Burns, John McCravy, Josiah Magnuson and Rick Martin, signed on as sponsors in South Carolina. An identical bill in Wyoming was sponsored by GOP lawmakers Lars Lone and Roy Edwards.
