Judge dismisses lawsuit against drag queen story hour in Texas
A Drag Queen Story Time event. (Facebook/Drag Queen Storytime)
A judge in Texas has dismissed a lawsuit against the Drag Queen Story Hour initiative in Texas, telling the complainants that they had failed to explain how the event was infringing upon their constitutional rights.
The lawsuit was brought forward by a group of Christian activists, who call themselves “Christ followers,” against a local library that hosted a Drag Queen Story Hour event, which is part of a nationwide initiative.
The popular initiative sees drag queens going into public libraries across the US to read stories to children.
Drag Queen Story Hour has proven controversial
However, the “Christ followers” group took issue with a reading in Houston, Texas, and filed a lawsuit against the library in October.
A federal judge dismissed the case on Thursday, saying that they had failed to show how their rights were being infringed upon by the event.
The judge also noted that they could not show that they had been harmed by the event, as they didn’t attend it.
Furthermore, the judge said that the group was using the lawsuit in an attempt to protest advancements in LGBT+ rights across the nation, including marriage equality, according to CourthouseNews.com.
“In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.”
– Drag Queen Story Time
When the group filed their lawsuit in October, the Houston Chronicle reported that they were accusing the library of promoting an “LGBT doctrine.”
(Drag Queen Storytime / Facebook)
They also claimed that they were receiving unequal treatment, as a “man-woman marriage storytelling hour” would not be allowed.
A spokesperson for the library told PinkNews in October that the city considered the lawsuit to be “frivolous.”
Despite objections, the Drag Queen Story Hour initiative has proven hugely popular with children across the US.
The initiative’s official website says their goal is to capture “the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood” and that the initiative seeks to give kids “glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”
The initiative has been popular with children
“In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.”
The library in Houston, Texas is not the only library to face legal action over the Drag Queen Story Hour.
A library in Louisiana was also sued in September for hosting drag queens.
The event came 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, claimed that Drag Queen Story Time is in violation of the First Amendment because it is “endorsing secular humanism.”
