Showing posts with label Drag Queens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drag Queens. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Huge F U to Parents: Texas Library Association #TXLA22

Texas Library Association (TxLA) is holding an annual meeting having a drag queen as the keynote speaker.  Houston Public Library had two drag queens who were convicted pedophiles reading to kids at drag queen story hours that are illegal in public libraries.  So TxLA having a drag queen as a keynote speaker is a huge F U to parents.  And I told reporter Luke Rosiak of Daily Wire as much, as seen in this story (graphic at right):

Rosiak, Luke. “Texas Library Association Conference Features a Drag Queen and Ibram Kendi.” The Daily Wire, April 26, 2022:

“What they rely on is the fact that librarians have one of the highest goodwill ratings of any profession, so they use it to get away with a lot, because no one suspects that a librarian would groom their children,” Dan Kleinman, a parent advocate who runs the group SafeLibraries, told The Daily Wire. “This is a direct screw-you to all the legislators down there,” he said. “This is a huge F-you to parents.”

And it's a "huge F-you to parents" and legislators because one moment Texas libraries allow criminal drag queens to "read" to kids then the next moment TxLA makes drag queens the leading topic.  

And graphic CSAM for kids in schools is explained away as First Amendment "FReadom."  The leading groomer imho Carolyn Foote @FReadomFighters even won an award for her grooming training for librarians. 


By the way, TxLA blocked me for reporting accurately on what is occurring at the annual conference where they use the hashtag #txla22.  Well, it turns out the most popular tweet of #txla22 is the guy they blocked, so into free speech they are:



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@FReadomFighters @HoustonLibrary @LukeRosiak @realDailyWire @TXLA
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Location: 3420 Executive Center Dr, Austin, TX 78731, USA

Monday, July 15, 2019

Spy Reveals Librarians Train to Circumvent Communities and Laws to Target Children

A spy reveals librarians train to circumvent communities and local laws to target children.  Even main stream media are beginning to notice.  For example, read Joy Pullmann in the Federalist who befriended a spy to expose the damaging information:
Can you believe a spy is needed to reveal how librarians target our children?  Can you believe librarians are targeting our children, even in schools?  Can you believe American Library Association is facilitating this targeting?  Thank goodness for the spy.

The spy revealed gender insanity and other things.  Gender ideology harms children.  For example:
  • "Gender Dysphoria in Children and Suppression of Debate," by Michelle A. Cretella, M.D. (president of the American College of Pediatricians), Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Vol 21 Num 2, Summer 2016, Pages 50-54: "A review of the current literature suggests that this protocol is rooted in an unscientific gender ideology, lacks an evidence base, and violates the long-standing ethical principle of 'First do no harm.'"
Library law requires libraries to act for the use and benefit of the public.  Gender insanity is neither useful nor beneficial for children, quite the opposite, as the above article by the President of the American College of Pediatricians reveals, "First do no harm."  Thus it violates the law.  Notice you never hear about that from ALA while ALA misleads and acts in the dark to thwart the law, and spies are needed to reveal this.  In short, already existing law can to used to stop the gender insanity in public libraries, if only communities become aware of the law and apply it.  For example, Drag Queen Story Hour is likely illegal and must be stopped.  If libraries will not change, municipalities can force them into compliance with the law, and the public need not approve library levies.

Who will be the first to sue the ALA for misleading communities into violating the law, for harming children and communities?

Here is the story in full with the information from the spy, thanks to Joy Pullmann, followed by another revealing story that cites Joy Pullmann:


21,460 Attend Library Conference Featuring Workshops On Drag Queens And Queering Elementary Schools

At the American Library Association's annual conference, the nation's librarians learned how to circumvent community objections to events like Drag Queen Story Hour and other outrageous, taxpayer-purchased materials.

The Federalist
July 10, 2019

The world’s largest library association’s annual conference this year featured more than 100 workshops with an “equity, diversity, and inclusion” theme, according to the American Library Association’s conference catalog. That included workshops with these titles (some shortened): “Creating Queer-Inclusive Elementary School Library Programming,” “Developing an Online Face for a Lesbian Pulp Fiction Collection,” and “Telling Stories, Expanding Boundaries: Drag Queen Storytimes in Libraries.”

The ALA annual conference’s workshop selections also included “A Child’s Room to Choose: Encouraging Gender Identity and Expression in School and Public Libraries,” and “Are You Going to Tell My Parents?: The Minor’s Right to Privacy in the Library.” Politically charged talks and workshops like these formed at least one-third of the conference offerings, according to the ALA’s own description and a review of the conference catalog.

The titles and descriptions of the conference’s approximately 300 workshops and talks are not available online. They were only published in a conference app and paper catalog reserved to in-person attendees, many of whose attendance was underwritten by taxpayers through local library budgets. According to the ALA, 21,460 people attended 2019’s annual conference this June, approximately 4,000 more than last year.

The attendee who gave me her conference catalog and mobile app access has told me of internal conflict between her public library employment and Christian faith due to the saturation of this kind of bias in the interconnected library and book publishing worlds. More examples of this extreme bias permeated social media under the conference hashtag, including for some reason having librarians weigh in on U.S. border security and make plans for removing the category “illegal aliens” from their collection catalogs. The conference of course featured bisexual bathroom facilities.





An Obsession on Dividing People Based on Skin Color

A large portion of the “equity, diversion, and inclusion” workshops focused on race. One subdivision of these was for participants in ALA’s Spectrum Leadership Institute, which grants a $5,000 scholarship and $1,500 stipend to attend the ALA conference. White people need not apply. See the application criteria:


A Saturday morning workshop entitled “Talking with Kids about Race: A ‘how to’ workshop” discussed, according to its conference description, “individual and systemic racism, intersectionality, and white fragility, as well as participant-guided topics to give attendees concrete tools and the confidence to address these issues with young people in the communities they serve.”

The slideshow that accompanied the workshop and was available on the conference app told participants that the United States is “a country built on white supremacy. White supremacy is the operating system in the US.” It also states, “If you are white, the strategies we are sharing today push against white fragility and racism. Pay attention to your reactions and be aware of your body right now. You might be uncomfortable. That’s OK.”



The handout for a Friday workshop on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) tells participants “Leaders on DEI efforts can always expect pushback on those efforts… pushback happens because effective DEI efforts challenge the status quo, and it can feel threatening to many when we start to change ‘the way things always have been.’ Leaders on diversity, equity, and inclusion must expect and manage this pushback” (emphasis original).

Notice how this encourages librarians to resist feedback from patrons and taxpayers, placing public employees over American citizens and undermining classic American consensuses about public service and government’s proper subjection to the will of the people.


Celebrating Queer Sex with Public Resources, Even for Kids

The workshop titled “Telling Stories, Expanding Boundaries: Drag Queen Storytimes in Libraries” featured Michelle Tea, a lesbian who started drag queen events at a public library in San Francisco. It also featured a “drag queen storyteller” reading to the audience, according to the workshop description.

The description in the conference app says: “The DGS [sic, for Drag Queen Storytime] program has been immensely popular with many audiences at libraries across the country, but it has also produced its share of resistance and controversy. The panel will discuss how DGS was developed and originally implemented, how librarians have been using it today, how institutions have dealt with specific successes and controversies, and how DGS relates to intellectual freedom.”

The workshop speakers included ALA’s Kristin Pekoll, the assistant director of the organization’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. Pekoll was active in several workshops dedicated to challenging local communities and patrons’ opinions about appropriate taxpayer-provided materials and events. Another included librarians discussing how they handled patron complaints about a Black Lives Matter display in the children’s department, a Banned Books Week display, and a librarian-provided LGBTQ reading list for teens. These patron objections were treated as attempts at “censorship.”

A visual from Pekoll’s office says one of the five main kinds of “censorship” is “requiring parental permission to access content.” On another panel she participated in, another public librarian who initiated a drag queen story time gave audience members advice about how to overcome community objections to such events, according to a writeup of the event in Library Journal.
Larson shared her library’s effort to create and promote Drag Queen Story Time. Within an hour of the event being featured in the library’s newsletter, complaints arrived via phone and emal [sic]. After the event was picked up by conversative [sic] news outlets, calls started coming in from across the United States. As a result, the library coordinated with  local police for added security during the process.
When planning programs, Larson advised librarians to make sure that reference and circulation staff are supported; have a prepared statement about how a program supports the library’s values. Be clear in your goals and prepare stakeholders, such as a Board of Trustees. After the success of their first event, they hosted more without incident.
The ALA also provides librarians “crisis communication plans” to shield themselves from altering events or materials they provide with public resources that generate a public backlash, such as the drag queen story hours. A third librarian who hosted drag queen story hours, this time in a Philadelphia-area public library, told the audience the ALA helped him resist community objections to the events.

The June 24 workshop on “Creating Queer-Inclusive Elementary School Library Programming” discussed “ways to dismantle barriers” to such programs, including “crafting arguments,” “reviewing legislation,” and “listing talking points.” The description makes it clear that the workshop is not about only selecting books on this topic but also creating “services and programs.” Please note: The title says elementary school. That’s children younger than 13.

One of the presenters for this workshop, Lucy Santos Green, is the incoming chairwoman for the Educators of School Librarians section of the American Association of School Librarians. Let that one sink in. Then juxtapose it with the description of the workshop about underage children’s “privacy rights” from their parents, which “explore[d] positive and proactive ways that libraries can protect minors’ privacy and confidentiality” and insisted children “have a right to privacy and confidentiality in what they read and view in the library.”

At still another ALA conference workshop, participants brainstormed a list of book recommendations featuring “non-trad families,” which included the titles “My Brother’s Husband” and “Pregnant Butch.”


The outgoing ALA president tweeted pictures of herself sporting LGBT pride wear at the conference:


All these people, and this large organization that serves almost exclusively public institutions, clearly feel completely comfortable broadcasting their cheerful feelings about queer sex — and other extremely politicized and controversial subjects — in public. Have any of them ever stopped to think about how their decision to do so may contribute to some of the polarization, alienation, and anger Americans are experiencing towards each other currently?

Are all these supposedly well-read people completely ignorant of the fact that the majority of the world’s religions and religious adherents, which comprise the clear majority of the world today, plus the vast majority of cultures in world history, consider the kind of behavior they’re cheering depraved, damaging to children, self-harming, and socially destructive?

At least half of America does not agree with bisexual bathrooms or denying opportunities to white people based on their skin color. They are not on board with “queering” public elementary school libraries. How can we trust these librarians’ judgment and management of public resources after seeing this kind of bias, which is extreme to the point of open hostility against our deepest values?

ALA’s leaders and workshop approval committees don’t have to agree, of course. But could they at least, as the woke say, engage in a bit of perspective-taking? Or would they prefer to continue abusing the public trust placed in them and the public institutions they influence? What do they think will be the outcomes of that decision?


Joy Pullmann (@JoyPullmann) is executive editor of The Federalist, mother of five children, and author of "The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids." She identifies as native American and gender natural. Her latest ebook is a list of more than 200 recommended classic books for children ages 3-7 and their parents.

Copyright © 2019 The Federalist, a wholly independent division of FDRLST Media, All Rights Reserved.


NOTE:  Within the above article reporting on self-arrogated free speech advocates planning to bypass community concerns to target children in violation of law and community standards, the following ALA censors block me, a whistleblower, on Twitter—including the ALA President and antisemite Loida Garcia Febo:
  1. Megan Hodge, @mlhodge, "ALA Councilor, NMRT past president, 2011 Emerging Leader. she/her/hers"
  2. Violet Fox  🦊, @violetbfox, "Classification schemer. Moving and shaking with the help of my friends. #critcat #AskACataloger (she/her)" "I am a reformer by nature but I don't think ALA is reformable at this point; the inertia & conservatism is too heavy. I'll still be working w/in ALA b/c that's where cataloging concerns live, but excited to support new organizations that strive to make librarianship more radical."
  3. Andromeda Yelton, @ThatAndromeda, "Superpositive wrecking ball of goodness. Like putting your finger in an electrical outlet in a good way. @ALA_LITA Past-President. Software dev @BKCHarvard."
  4. Loida Garcia Febo, @loidagarciafebo, "ALA President 2018-2019. Libraries pillars of public education. Communities. Reading, Wellness enthusiast. English/Spanish/Latina/Librarian • LoveAccents"

See also:

"When Did Librarians Get Woke?" 

by tigerlily
Ricochet
13 July 2019


Local Librarian //
Image credit shutterstock.com
What image comes to mind when you think of or hear the word librarian? For me that image is of a conservative person (and truth be told always a woman). By conservative, I refer not to politics or ideology (I imagine librarians have always come in a variety of ideological flavors) but instead of one with a conservative sensibility or temperament which includes a certain respect for tradition and decorum. And, that makes sense (at least to me) for those who are charged with preserving and providing access to a significant portion of our cultural heritage. In recent years, however, that image is fading fast for me.

Pride Month is celebrated at the Boston Public
Library in June 2018 – Image credit
Keith J Finks / Shutterstock.com
A couple of weeks ago, the American Library Association (ALA) held its annual conference and it was a cornucopia of leftism and the stupidest aspects of today’s identity politics according to this July 10, 2019 article by Joy Pullmann at The Federalist. The leftist bent of the conference also clearly shows at the ALA’s review of said conference. The ALA seems to be entirely on board and supportive of every aspect of the LGBT agenda including, regrettably, what I call their war on childhood. The conference involved many workshops including “Creating Queer-Inclusive Elementary School Library Programming,” “Telling Stories, Expanding Boundaries: Drag Queen Storytimes in Libraries,” and “A Children’s Room to Choose: Encouraging Gender Identity and Expression in School and Public Libraries.” And, of course, these sort of endeavors are to be encouraged and undertaken by librarians and school teachers regardless of what parents may think as per the workshop “Are You Going to Tell My Parents?: The Minor’s Right to Privacy in the Library.” The conference also had the usual paeans to racialist thinking and behavior such as the workshop “Talking to Kids About Race: A ‘how-to’ workshop” which included the current racial grievance industry charges such as white supremacy is the operating system in the USA, and white fragility is a tool of white supremacy. Oh, and I am happy to report that the conference was able to approve a motion that denounced detention centers for illegal immigrants. How daring of them!



I suppose I should’ve been surprised by Ms. Pullmann’s article, but I really wasn’t. It seems the ALA has been moving to the left for several decades now. I first became aware of this shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the immediate aftermath of those attacks the Congress passed and President Bush signed into law what was called the Patriot Act, the purpose of which was to strengthen national security. Specifically, the ALA opposed Section 215 of that law, which provided for the collection of “business records,” as per this fact sheet prepared by a group in support of the law. To be fair, there were legitimate concerns regarding this provision of the law and the Congress eventually allowed Section 215 to expire in 2015. That said, the ALA’s reaction to the law was hysterical and went beyond criticism to willful disobedience of the law via purposeful destruction of records they thought pertinent to the law.

The main reading room of the
New York Public Library –
Image credit Keith J Finks / shutterstock.com
Around the same time, librarians were in the news for another issue. At some point twenty or so years ago, libraries began to connect to the internet and provide computer terminals for their patrons. This is all well and good; however, hardcore pornography was and is readily available and accessible on the internet and, although filtering systems exist to deny access to the porn, the ALA and librarians across the country have refused and continue to refuse to provide these filters on first amendment and other spurious grounds, despite the fact that the computers are regularly used for the viewing of hardcore porn. The silliest aspect of this issue is that until the introduction of the internet into the libraries no one ever went to a library to view pornography.

More recently the ALA has eagerly joined in on the current practice of expunging from polite society dead white people for some real or imagined transgression against one the pillars (sex and race) of today’s identity politics. In 1954, the ALA established the Laura Ingalls Wilder award – a lifetime achievement award for authors and illustrators of children’s literature – and named her as the first recipient for her “Little House” books. In 2018, the ALA renamed the award the Children’s Literature Legacy Award because her work does not comport with the ALA’s “…core values of inclusiveness, integrity, and respect” since her books “…reflect dated attitudes towards indigenous people and people of color.” In their announcement stripping Wilder of her honor, the ALA also made sure to congratulate themselves for not removing these horrible works from their library shelves. How generous of them.

With their appetite whetted by the Wilder award renaming, the ALA decided to take down a much bigger fish in the library world in 2019 – that of Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification. And so at this year’s annual conference it was decided to strip Dewey’s name from the American Library Association’s top award – the Melvil Dewey Award- which is awarded annually to an individual who has demonstrated “creative leadership of a high order” in such fields as classification and cataloging, library management, and library training. It seems that Mr. Dewey had a bit of a #metoo problem. According to one biographer, Dewey “…was a serial hugger and kisser,” while another biographer stated that Dewey engaged in “unwelcome hugging, unwelcome touching, and unwelcome kissing” with women subordinates over a period of decades. Sounds a bit like Joe Biden, doesn’t it? He also has another problem in that he discriminated against Jews, Blacks, and others in a club he owned.

Whenever I hear or read of these situations of an organization taking a decidedly progressive turn, I am reminded of Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics, the second of which is “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.” It is remarkable how often this process comes to pass. It is almost as true and immutable as Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. I should note, at least in passing that authorship for this law seems to be in dispute. It is also regularly assigned to John O’Sullivan, a former editor of National Review. If anyone can clarify this conflict, please feel free to speak up.

I mentioned earlier my image of a typical librarian. The clip below from the 1940 movie The Philadelphia Story presents a somewhat exaggerated version my typical librarian.




Copyright 2019 Silent Cal Productions, LLC.


NOTE ADDED 16 JULY 2019:

Excellent comment below I'm republishing here so it gets seen:

David Anderson

Mon Jul 15, 09:11:00 PM 2019

As readers here may know, in March of 2018, the Public Library Association (PLA) hosted its biennial national conference in the City of Brotherly Love – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – and among the programs offered was one entitled “Drag Queen Story Hour: Reading Fabulously”.

Shared with attendees for titles to read in setting up their own DQSH were those that “best support a program for young children exploring gender fluidity.”

First listed on the program handout touting the spread of “The Ever Growing Queendom” was Rachel Aimee, New York City DQSH chapter founder.

Speaking of spreading, those in the audience during the DQSH presentation of that March meeting of library enthusiasts – official representatives and staff - from across the country may or may not have known that Aimee co-founded in 2005, developed and was editor-in-chief of “$pread”, a sex-workers magazine.

“$pread” was “criticized by some branches of feminism that believe that sex work is inherently degrading.”

Aimee believes otherwise.

Aimee’s “$pread” website declares of her magazine staff, “Most of us are real sex workers. Among us are street workers, pro-dommes, escorts, strippers, nude models, porn workers and pretty much anything else you can think of.”

“The assumption that sex workers are too dumb to publish a magazine really pisses us off,” Aimee wrote.

When asked what was next for “$pread”, Aimee responded “We’re looking for sex workers to paint, mutilate, or otherwise decorate sex toys” for her then-upcoming show’s special exhibit entitled “One Sex Worker Nation Under Dildo.”

If your search engine is set to filter out adult content, then you may not know what ‘dildo’ means, nor the world Aimee envisioned.

Did the members of your library association where you live attend the Rachel Aimee, NYC Director of DQSH, sponsored event at the March 2018 Public Library Association conference in Philadelphia?

And, just as important, even as political districts vet their candidates, does your library district screen for character those who would stand before your children, your grandchildren, the children of your community?

Source quotes may be found in an article I wrote from which the excerpt above is taken: https://thesubtimes.com/2019/02/26/letter-drag-queen-story-house-not-what-you-may-think/


NOTE ADDED 16 July 2019:

The Hormone Health Crisis | with Endocrinologist William Malone, MD:


—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2019/07/spy-reveals-librarians-training.html

On Twitter: 
@ALALibrary @FDRLST @JoyPullmann @Ricochet



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Location: Chicago, IL, USA

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

City of Leander Texas—No Drag Queen Story Hour

From: Arthur Schaper
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2019 1:02 PM
To: citycouncil@leandertx.gov
Cc: Tracy Shannon; mayor@leandertx.gov; place1@leandertx.gov; place2@leandertx.gov; place3@leandertx.gov; place4@leandertx.gov; place5@leandertx.gov; place6@leandertx.gov; SafeLibraries@pm.me
Subject: Re: City of Leander Texas -- No Drag Queen Story Hour

Dear Leander, Texas, City Council:

I am saddened, dismayed, and disgusted by the lack of courage taken up on this council to put a stop to the Drag Queen Story Hour program at the city library.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/drag-queen-story-time-leander-public-library-tickets-63112214332

Two of the city council members had contacted me last month, and they assured me that they had nothing to do with this program, and they cancelled it.

Now it's being promoted by this so-called "Open Cathedral" church in Leander. You have a duty to put an end to this travesty. Drag Queen programs across this country are part of a perverse agenda to normalize sexual confusion and deviance. This is not about openness or acceptance at all.

Ironically, this church is not very open about who the Drag Queens are who are reading to these children on June 15th, I contacted the library, as well, and the staffers cannot tell me who is going to be reading to the children! The church has not responded at all.

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

Our Houston MassResistance leader Tracy Shannon exposed that not one but TWO sex offenders were intermingling with the children at the Freed-Montrose branch of Houston Public Library earlier this year. And now the Leander Library does not even have the common decency to inform the public—in a public library paid with public money—which drag queens (their stage names as well as real names) who will be reading to impressionable children.

This whole thing just reeks. This program must be suspended immediately. The lack of transparency, the insistence on hiding from the public what is happening at this library—it's just terrible!

I demand an answer on this right away.

My cell is (973) 610-8296.

PS. — Do not give me this excuse that the library is run by a third-party contractor, therefore the city council has no authority to stop the program. The funds are the city funds, and the contract was initiatied by the city. You as city council members have full power and responsibility to put an end to this perversion.

Sincerely,

Arthur Schaper, Organization Director

Website: MassResistance.org
Email: arthur at massresistance.org
@MassResistance
@CAMassResistanc



[NOTE: Graphics and minor changes added by SafeLibraries; I'm a recipient of this email.]

—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2019/06/city-of-leander-texasno-drag-queen.html

On Twitter: 
@CAMassResistanc @CityofLeander @Eventbrite @MassResistance @MyOpenCathedral

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Location: 1011 S Bagdad Rd, Leander, TX 78641, USA

Monday, June 10, 2019

Drag Queen Story Hour Leaves 'Kids In The Cold,' Is Just 'Cute and Fun and Trendy,' Says School Librarian Ingrid Conley-Abrams

Drag Queen Story Hour in public libraries leaves "kids in the cold" and is just "cute and fun and trendy" for libraries that otherwise could not care less about "queer kids and families."  So says "Bi-Furious" social justice warrior and New York City school librarian "Magpie Librarian" Ingrid Conley-Abrams, pictured at right (photo source).

Knowing who she is politically is important since even someone like her thinks drag queens reading to kids in libraries may be inappropriate.  She's just honest enough to admit it publicly.  That said, in the past she has been dishonest about me so she could defend homophobia by American Library Association that persists to this day, but I agree with her about how ALA is using the LGBT community since that's consistent with how ALA uses the same community to promote its annual "Banned Books Week" hoax.

For those not in the know, DQSH is where drag queens read to children in public libraries due to American Library Association political activity unrelated to libraries.

Here is the first in a string of tweets from Ingrid Abrams, followed by the entire string in text:


I've been thinking a lot about Drag Queen storytime+my concerns about next steps, or steps before DQST. Basically, if the only non-gender conforming rep you have at your school/library are drag queens, what message are your students getting about gender?

Gender identity and presentation are multi-faceted and complex, and I'm concerned that students/patrons are getting the message that the only way to be gender non-conforming is to spend 3 hours on your makeup+hundreds of dollars on a dress.

Certainly better representation than NO representation, which is what kids get anyway, but it leaves a lot of other kids in the cold.

If a person performs drag, it doesn't dictate their sexual orientation or gender identity. Performers may gay or bi or straight or cis or trans. Are kids getting that message? Are they getting other kinds of non-binary/gender non-conforming representation?

Are these patrons/students getting support outside of DQSH? Non gendered bathrooms? When they sign up a library card, are they asked if they are male or female, or is the sign up more inclusive?

Is the library/school welcoming to queer kids and families with queer members? Or are we just hosting Drag Queens for an hour a month because it's cute and fun and trendy and then calling it a day?

Are queer people at your library only welcome for an hour a month and only if they're super visually appealing and entertaining? Are queer ppl only welcome to be gawked at? Can queer ppl exist at yr library outside of DQSH?

This being said, I love drag performance, I love that drag performers care about kids and care about libraries and are reaching out to kids who deeply need the representation.

End of conversation
Lastly, for bringing this to my attention, hat tip to "Underground Educator," one of a number of whistleblowers who oppose how ALA harms communities, including "Activist Mommy - Elizabeth Johnston":


By the way, I ask if little kids should be giving money to drag queens dancing in public libraries:

—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2019/06/dqsh-leaves-kids-in-the-cold.html

On Twitter: 
@ALALibrary @MagpieLibrarian

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Location: 5 W 93rd St, New York, NY 10025, USA

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Drag Queen Story Hour Funding FOIA—ALA Uses National Library Week to Call It Censorship

Dear Houston Public Library Foundation [HPLF] TPIA Officer:

This is a noncommercial FOIA request from a member of the news media for electronic production of documentation per the Texas Public Information Act, §6252-17a et seq. [TPIA], to this email address, to my attention, using the above-referenced research project code.  TPIA requires that you "promptly produce" the requested records unless, within 10 days, you have sought an Attorney General's Opinion.  If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of the appeal procedures available to me under the law.  All documentation should be produced as PDFs, with the exception of photographs (which should be JPEG), audio files (which should be MP3), and video (which should be MP4 or MOV).  If documentation files are too large to transmit in an email, transmit them to me either using a free file sharing service (such as Dropbox) or by sending multiple emails (as many as needed).  I seek the following numbered categories of documentation for my research pursuant to news articles and a book I am writing that has interest and value to the public:

Copy of the following:

WHERE DOES HPLF GETS ITS MONEY:  ( 1 ) Please provide documentation, written or recorded, of financial gifts, grants, loans, donations, or any other monies offered to and actually received by HPLF from the American Library Association [ALA], the Freedom to Read Foundation [FTRF], the Public Library Association, the Texas Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Open Society Foundations, or Drag Queen Story Hour, from 1 July 2018 to present.  I expect FTRF to be the main source since it has an established pattern of quietly funding its acolytes, as discussed below.  Further, ALA has in the past given HPLF anywhere from $250-$999.  See: page 15 of “2017 Impact Report” https://www.houstonlibraryfoundation.org/s/Houston-Library-Foundation-Impact-Report-FY-17  I anticipate responding to this request will take 5 minutes.

WHAT’S BEING FUNDED AT HPL BY HLPF:  ( 2 ) Please provide documentation, written or recorded, of financial gifts, grants, loans, donations, or any other monies offered and/or actually funded/disbursed by HPLF to Houston Public Library [HPL], from 1 July 2018 to present, including an itemization of each instance, for whom or what it was provided—including the drag queens or drag queen business(es), when, and the exact dollar amount.  I anticipate responding to this request will take 5 minutes.

IS HOUSTON CITY CODE 24-5 TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION:  ( 3 ) Please provide documentation, written or recorded, of discussion of Houston City Code 24-5, specifically, “Without limitation, the director is authorized to include provisions that govern the use of library premises by the public, including the use of the property around the library, in order to promote an environment that is protective of the health and well-being of patrons and children while at the library facility,” from 1 July 2018 to present.  See: https://library.municode.com/tx/houston/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH24LI_ARTIINGE_S24-5RURE&fbclid=IwAR3MjIhvnaD8Q-uHVixLgJM9H_nWWB2R8DAucJONfW-k98ny9fkIFnfNK1c  I anticipate responding to this request will take 10 minutes.

IS DRAG QUEEN STORYTIME ACCEPTABLE UNDER HOUSTON CITY CODE 24-5:  ( 4 ) Please provide documentation, written or recorded, of discussion of how Drag Queen StoryTime relates to “understanding and celebrating all Houstonians’ similarities and differences, building positive relationships, and promoting a dialogue of acceptance, respect, and trust,” and any counterarguments thereto, from 1 July 2018 to present.  See: https://www.houstonlibraryfoundation.org/s/HPLF-DQST-Statement-SM.pdf  I anticipate responding to this request will take 10 minutes.

SEE DRAG QUEEN STORYTIME IN ACTION:  ( 5 ) Please provide all photographs and videos taken during Drag Queen StoryTime events.  Upon information and belief, HPL and HPLF employees/staff/appointed office holders/commissioners took photos and video at these events, using both library, foundation, or library consortia owned equipment and their personal cellphones.  Time period is limited to 1 July 2018 to present.  Be clear personal cellphones are covered by TPIA as long as the recordings do not “constitute an invasion of privacy” of the individual.  Recording public Drag Queen StoryTime shows does not constitute an invasion of privacy of the individual making the recording.  It is not believable people did not use their personal devices to make recordings, so they must be produced pursuant to TPIA as well.  See Texas Government Code § 552.109: https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/government-code/gov-t-sect-552-109.html or https://web.archive.org/web/20180905094242/http://txla.org/IF-Open-Records  I anticipate responding to this request will take 10 minutes.

HEAR DRAG QUEEN STORYTIME BEING DISCUSSED:  ( 6 ) Please provide all voice mail recordings about Drag Queen StoryTime or the funding thereof.  Such recordings are likely MP3 audio files organized by your voice mail system.  Such recordings are likely to be in the voice mailboxes belonging to any chief executive/director/commissioner, any assistant executive/director/commissioner, any youth services director, and any public relations director.  I anticipate responding to this request will take 15 minutes.

That completes this documentation request.  The expected time for completion of the above requests by an experienced TPIA/FOIA officer is 55 minutes.

This is an attempt to determine if and to what extent outside influence is influencing local policy in Houston, TX, and whether local policy as reflected in Houston City Code 24-5 has been considered and applied or simply tossed aside intentionally or out of sheer ignorance of the law.

ALA makes a habit of influencing local communities with quiet money.  In Highland Park, TX, for example, FTRF, an ALA entity, gave $5,000 dollars to local advocates of ALA’s political positions.  See page 10: http://www.ala.org/aboutala/sites/ala.org.aboutala/files/content/governance/officers/eb_documents/2014_2015ebdocuments/ebd12_12_exec_dir_rpt_11dec14.pdf

ALA later saw to it that its local favorite in Highland Park was awarded with a “Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award” for doing what ALA wanted.  See: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/highland-park/2015/12/10/highland-park-group-that-went-to-bat-for-books-is-recognized  It is worthy to note that ALA arranged to have the same “Intellectual Freedom” award given to a library that facilitated then covered up the crime of child pornography viewing. See https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2014/12/university-of-illinois-gslis-gives-award-for-defending-child-pornography/

In West Bend, WI, ALA quietly slipped $1000 grant to a local acolyte, the existence of which was never made public until it was uncovered by a FOIA request, necessitating the need for the filing of this present TPIA request.  See what was uncovered and the cozy financial relationship one local acolyte had with ALA and the library it supported to defeat a local whistleblower: http://westbend.pbworks.com/f/Hanrahan2Tyree051209.pdf

In the Houston matter, there may be more quiet money being used to promote interests of outside groups instead of local interests.  There are definitely indications that this is so.  For example, your HPLF stated, “Drag Queen Storytime has been volunteer-led and offered at no cost to the Houston Public Library, and no private or public funds were used to directly fund the program.” See: https://www.houstonlibraryfoundation.org/s/HPLF-DQST-Statement-SM.pdf

Notice the word “directly.”  “[N]o private or public funds were used to directly fund the program.”  That means funds were used indirectly.  The public has a right to know.

ALA’s quiet money is always done indirectly.  ALA is an organization that defends child pornography viewing ( https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2017/01/brave-librarian-speaks-out.html ) and the sexual harassment of librarians, calling it “dubious,” ( https://www.librarians.cc/2018/02/ala-ignores-sexual-harassment.html ) among other serious problems including homophobia ( http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2014/07/gay-hate-at-your-library.html ) and antisemitism ( http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2018/11/antisemitism-at-ALA.html ).  Such an organization giving quiet money to local acolytes to defeat local whistleblowers and local law is a serious concern.  People should be fully informed so as not to be misled into doing what ALA would have them do if ALA only had the direct power to do so.

This TPIA hopes to expose the extent of ALA’s financial involvement in Houston as it may explain why those in power may be ignoring Houston City Code 24-5 about “promot[ing] an environment that is protective of the health and well-being of patrons and children while at the library facility,” and exposing the community to seriously risk of liability.  ALA’s former de facto leader and creator of FTRF, also a former board member of the Illinois ACLU, actually said, as quoted in the Chicago Tribune, “I get very concerned when we start hearing people who want to convert this country into a safe place for children. …. I am adult. I want available what I need to see.”  See: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-06-23-0506230234-story.html

I have to wonder if the people of Houston agree with that statement enough to toss aside Houston City Code 24-5, that is explicitly “protective” of children, and is directly opposed to the anything-goes views of ALA.  As Governor Greg Abbott stated in an analogous case, “Don’t Mess With Texas. We don’t want out-of-staters rigging our elections.”  See: https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1109933040724312064  Do citizens want out-of-staters at ALA rigging the libraries instead of complying with local law designed to “protect” children?  Governor Abbott raises an excellent point, and the response to this TPIA may help educate him and the Houston community.

Even Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is in on the action.  He stated, “The Fact is: Storytime is funded by the Houston Library Foundation. No tax dollars are involved. The program was requested by patrons of the Library.”  See: https://twitter.com/SylvesterTurner/status/1107424485811146755  So the present TPIA request is to determine the extent of that funding, who are the sources of that funding, and where specifically is that funding going.

The responses to this TPIA request are a matter of great public concern.  So great that even Texas Governor Greg Abbott raises the issue, “How much are you paying for a library where a registered sex offender participated in Drag Queen Storytime? The Fact is, Houston spends plenty of taxpayer dollars for services that are not essential. Houston, just like other cities, can handle property tax reform. #txlege”  See: https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1107418383568506880  Well, Governor, it is likely there will be more news about the harm the library has done by ignoring its duties.  The present TPIA request is to determine how much money is funding Drag Queen StoryTime where a registered sex offender participated.  I hope to present the Governor with my findings.

Therefore, in respect of the above, and given the eyes of Houston and the Governor of Texas are upon you, please respond to my TPIA request without any of the usual open government gamesmanship, such as what HPL has done to prevent the public from learning the facts.  I still have not received any documents even after the Texas Attorney General had to force compliance.  See Ken Paxton’s decision here: https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2019/03/houston-library-forced-foia.html  Only yesterday was I informed by HPL the documents would be made available to me, but only for a $145 fee.  So I still don’t have the documents.  I’m a reporter and HPL is charging fees despite the law and dragging out the process.  This will result in my requesting relief from the Texas Attorney General, running up further legal costs—to defend despite open government laws unforced errors that allowed a convicted pedophile to read to children.  No doubt I will be blamed as legal fees rise due to HLP’s defense of Drag Queen StoryTime despite city law and state law.  I say this in the hope HLPF will not go down the path of HPL and will simply turn over the documentation as requested and as required by law.

Additional notes:

TPIA gives the public the right to request access to government information. The same applies to HPLF, an organization whose members are appointed by the Mayor and approved by City Council. Therefore, please respond to the above noncommercial TPIA request in accordance with the law.  See: City of Houston Code of Ordinances, Chapter 24, Article II, Sections 24-25 through 24-35. https://www.municode.com/library/TX/houston/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH24LI_ARTIILIBO_S24-25LIBOCR

Also, constructive criticism, consider adding HPLF to “Public Information Act Requests” that has already been updated once as a direct result of my first FOIA request to HPL.  Not being listed on that page gives the false impression that HLPF is not subject to TPIA. See: http://www.houstontx.gov/pia.html

I am a reporter on library matters where I publish on both SafeLibraries® and on Sexual Harassment of Librarians. As such I may publish anything you send me.  Thus, I ask that all fees for the production of TPIA responses be waived: "If a governmental body determines that producing the information requested is in the 'public interest' because it will primarily benefit the general public, the governmental body shall waive or reduce the charges." "Shall," not "may."  Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/2018-06/PIA_handbook_2018_0.pdf 194; Gov’t Code § 552.267(a). That this is a matter of public interest is evident by the international media attention the library has received as a result of the library's admitted "oversight" in allowing a registered child sex offender to read to children at Drag Queen StoryTime, and in Governor Abbott’s message quoted above.

Further exposure of more drag queens is likely, given the complete dereliction of duty of the library.  See https://twitter.com/ShannonTracy123/status/1110749040290029569   So this issue is of current interest.

There are even indications that this is a matter beyond mere dereliction of duty bordering on intentional refusal to protect children when comments like this one from eleven weeks ago appear in a public Facebook group called ALA Think Tank, as seen in the URL, but later renamed to hide the connection to ALA, “Someone referred to it as ‘pedophile storytime’ to my coworker and she was really confused until I said ‘They mean drag queen story hour’ and she's like ‘But drag queens and pedophiles are completely unrelated?’ YEP.”  So librarians, likely including some at HPL, were aware of the concerns and still ignored them.  That is bad.  See: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ALAthinkTANK/permalink/2440967925976013/

Where emails are involved, also provide the BCC as well as the CC and the TO. As you know, BCC is for the convenience of the sender, not for circumventing public information laws. If senders/recipients include distribution lists HLPF created, then please provide the document that lists the individual recipient email addresses in any distribution list; again, distribution lists are for the convenience of the sender, not for circumventing the law. Further, if HPLF business has been conducted via the use of personal emails, then please provide those emails as well. Conducting HLPF business on personal emails is not a valid means for circumventing TPIA.

Any document written or recorded is included as well. That includes voice mails, audio recordings, video recordings, transcripts or minutes of any public meetings. HLPF board executive session recordings or minutes are not included in my request if they have not already been made public.

Written or recorded documents also include those made in any telephonic, electronic, or physical meeting with anyone acting on behalf of any library association such as the ALA. ALA trains librarians that written or recorded documents from ALA-provided trainings, meetings, conferences, etc., are ALA proprietary and may not be released publicly. That ALA claim is false. TPIA controls, not ALA. If a public employee attended anything at public expense, then anything learned/recorded at such an event or as a result thereof has been made public and is discoverable under TPIA no matter what ALA claims. The public has a right to know what business has been conducted at public expense, especially where the library goofed, allowed a pedophile to read stories to children, and is now seeking to expand the drag queen story hour program further with the help of HLPF.

Be clear ALA top leadership uses personal email to direct librarians to destroy public documents precisely to prevent production under state sunshine laws like TPIA. Example from the private email of the current Interim Director and Deputy Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone, Esq., of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom: “Subject: URGENT -­ must delete all documents related to 17 Dec crisis communications workshop .… Remove these from your servers today and destroy hard copies. This is an attempt by two individuals to obtain privileged information …. we cannot allow anything from 17 Dec to be produced in response to FOIA.” See: “Librarians Ordered to Destroy Public Documents Revealing Homophobia at American Library Association and Crime in Libraries,” by Dan Kleinman, SafeLibraries®, 26 April 2018, https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2018/04/librarians-ordered-to-destroy.html

Thank you very much for your attention to this matter.

[NOTE: If anyone wishes to contact me privately/confidentially, perhaps to provide some of this documentation, use SafeLibraries@pm.me.]

Sincerely,

Dan Kleinman

=====

27 March 2019 (Wednesday early AM)

Houston Public Library Foundation
550 McKinney St
Houston, TX 77002
hello@houstonlibraryfoundation.org

     Re:  FOIA Research Project #2019-03-27 = Houston Public Library Foundation - Drag Queen Funding - 1




Above is my 27 March 2019 FOIA request.  I would love to think of it as a model FOIA request for others to follow.  It's specific, anticipates some of the gamesmanship recalcitrant libraries play because they are hiding something, and it looks at the law of the state or municipality that libraries must follow and sees if those rules are being followed or have even been considered.  Get a head start in your own state here:
The library has already responded to the above FOIA request.  Below is a discussion of and a link to the library's response dated 10 April 2019.




The response to the above FOIA request is that the City of Houston has written to the Texas Attorney General asking to be relieved from having to respond to requests made under open government laws:
It has used some or all of these excuses to block FOIA responses to anyone, for well over half a year now, I believe.  No one has gotten anything yet, while the bills keep piling up to defend pedophiles reading to children at library programs.  The problem with keeping what the library is doing opaque is that the library can continue to act in a manner that may be harming the community either directly or financially.

In this case we have a library that has allowed two registered sex offenders to read to children.  The FOIA requests are to shed light on how and why this happened, with an eye toward preventing it from happening in the future.  But not only is the library blocking public disclosure of this, it is also actively seeking to ramp up more and more of the inherently dangerous activity.  Such activity can go on and further harm the community precisely because the library is blocking access to public documents that might disclose what's going on so as to allow the public to decide how best to proceed or to persuade their government to do so.

In other words, the library is defying the law or playing FOIA games to further expose the community to harm.


What's a FOIA game?  I asked for who are the donors to the library foundation.  The City says it will not supply that under Boeing Co v. Paxton, a case that allowed a private company that contracts with a public entity to block disclosure by that public entity because it might hurt business.  There is no private company involved in this matter, only the foundation itself that argues giving away its donor list would harm its own ability to raise funds—it doesn't do any business.  And none of the private donors contract with the library foundation, they simply donate money.  The Boeing case doesn't even apply, but the City raises it anyway.  That's a FOIA game.

Besides, we all know not a single donor would stop donating because people knew who else was donating.  Rather, that would be a feather in the donor's cap, one freely broadcast because of the goodwill that brings.  Ever seen a stadium plastered with the name of its major donor?  It's likely already broadcast by the various donors.  The excuse is a false one.  Again, the reasoning of Boeing doesn't apply.

How do we know Boeing is a problem?  Is it used by public entities to block disclosure of public information?  Yes.  Texas legislators are working to get around the effect of the case that has taken a formerly transparent state and turned it into the exact opposite.  So much so that even a library that allows registered sex offenders to read to kids gets to claim Boeing applies so it can block the public from learning about how that debacle happened.  Is Boeing supposed to protect a library as it allows pedophiles to read to children?  Read what legislators are doing to reverse this:
In the Boeing decision, the court granted private companies that contract with governmental entities enormous latitude to claim that documents and information should be kept secret, including in some cases the contract itself and the amount of taxpayer money involved.
In its decision to allow the University of Houston to keep the contracts hidden, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office cited a 2015 Texas Supreme Court case known as Boeing Co. v. Paxton, which expanded what is considered a trade secret, or proprietary information of private companies that government agencies can withhold from the public.
“As a citizen, you just feel bullied,” Terrell said. “They hold all the cards. Boeing gives them the right to withhold the entire contract. It’s [a way] to just shut down everything.”

And the Houston Public Library Foundation has played this game before, using Boeing Co. v Paxton to block past FOIA requests.  See:
You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID # 733956 (GC 25439). 
The City of Houston (the "city") received a request for information pertaining to funding and donor information of the Houston Public Library Foundation.  You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101 and 552.104 of the Government Code.  We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information.
Section 552.104 excepts from disclosure "information that, if released, would give advantage to a competitor or bidder."  Gov't Code § 552.104.  The "test under section 552.104 is whether knowing another bidder's [or competitor's information] would be an advantage, not whether it would be a decisive advantage."  Boeing Co. v. Paxton, 466 S.W.3d 831, 841 (Tex. 2015).  You state the city competes with other entities to obtain donations for funding. The city states it has specific marketplace interests in the submitted information and relies on donations to fund several library programs.  Further, you assert disclosure of the information at issue would provide other entities access to a list of all the donors with whom the city has cultivated relationships.  You claim release of the information at issue would be detrimental to the city's competitive advantage in seeking donations.  After review of the information at issue and consideration of the arguments, we find the city has established the release of the information we indicated would give advantage to a competitor or bidder.  Accordingly, the city may withhold the information we indicated under section 552.104(a) of the Government Code.  However, we find the city failed to establish the release of the remaining information at issue would give advantage to a competitor or bidder.  Thus, we conclude the remaining information at issue may not be withheld under section 552.104(a) of the Government Code.  The city must release the remaining information.
The Texas Attorney General sure got fooled.




Now, as we discuss Drag Queen Story Hour funding and how to FOIA libraries for information, and how libraries are letting pedophiles read to children, keep in mind that not only does the American Library Association actively support libraries in spreading Drag Queen Story Time throughout America (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.), but at the same time it actively attacks any and all watchdogs, an ALA trait, calling them "censors"—and it makes no difference if your library allows registered sex offender pedophiles to read to children like at the Houston Public Library that's blocking FOIA requests—and ALA's "Office for Intellectual Freedom" even used "National Library Week" to launch this attack as well:

And don't think people aren't noticing:


See also:


NOTE ADDED 19 APRIL 2019:

Today I sent a letter to the Texas Attorney General to attempt to counteract the library's latest effort to continue to hide its malfeasance from the public.  Here it is:


NOTE ADDED 26 JUNE 2019:

Yesterday, 25 June 2019, I learned that I would receive absolutely no documents in response to this request.  In a nutshell, someone else has filed a lawsuit that is ongoing at this moment, so the law allows the library foundation to avoid responding during the pendency of the lawsuit.

Therefore I will wait until the lawsuit is over.

I note that I will be filing a substantially similar request on the library itself, in addition to the library foundation.  I wanted this foundation matter to complete first as a matter of efficiency and good practice.  Sure enough, I can now tell that a similar FOIA on the library will result in a similar answer/non-answer.  So by waiting as I have, I have saved Houston some time and some money.

I still will note that Houston refuses to release information about how pedophile drag queens got to read to Houston's children.

Here are the relevant documents:
So this matter is closed, with no documents having been released, and I'll refile it and file on the library when the lawsuit with which I am not involved has completed.

—
URL of this page: 
safelibraries.blogspot.com/2019/04/drag-queen-story-hour-funding-foia.html

On Twitter: 
@ALALibrary @HouLibraryFdn @HoustonLibrary @NFOIC @OIF @TXAG @_YvonneBurton

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Location: 550 McKinney St, Houston, TX 77002, USA
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