Drag Queen Story Time for Children Receives Online Backlash in New Zealand

A public library in New Zealand has received considerable online backlash for hosting a drag queen story time event for children, Stuff NZ reports.

The event, called “Rainbow Story Time”, was held on October 5thin a Paraparaumu library on the North Island. It featured a reading from Queen Olivia St Redfernto about 50 adults and children.

The Kāpiti Coast District Council posted a picture of the event on Facebook with the caption: “Last Friday, we were lucky enough to have [Redfern] join us at the Paraparaumu Library for some fabulous story time during the school holidays. The kids loved it and we look forward to having another rainbow story time soon!”

They were soon inundated with comments claiming it was “completely inappropriate for children” and tantamount to “brainwashing”.

The council had to release a follow up statement: “Due to the number of offensive comments on our post about story time at the Paraparaumu Library, many of which were directed at other people making comments, we have decided to remove the post from our page.

“We value community discussion and feedback on our work but we reserve the right to remove or moderate contributions and followers on our page.”

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