The Freed-Montrose library in Houston, Texas hosts a monthly event called "Drag Queen Storytime," which allows children and their guardians to be sung to and have picture books read to them by a drag queen. The program is extremely popular - to the point where the December event reached maximum capacity. Drag Queen Storytime is a fun and wholesome opportunity for children to be taught about acceptance, yet a man almost ruined it by entering the library on January 26 with a gun in order to threaten this positive environment.
James "Doc" Greene Sr., the armed man, fortunately never got near the event because he was stopped by library management and the Houston Police Department when he entered the library. Greene had violated a trespassing warning that the Houston Public Library had issued last month when he was caught filming children at the Montrose branch. When Greene refused to leave the library when the manager told him to, the police were contacted and they removed him from the premises.
Greene's intention when entering the library was to protest the Drag Queen Storytime event being held. He told the officers, "We have a bunch of homosexuals that are molesting children. They are doing it with your help."
Eventually, Greene was disarmed and then handcuffed and put inside a police vehicle for not cooperating. However, he began to complain of having chest pains and was released into the custody of Memorial Hermann. The district attorney has decided not to file any criminal charges against Greene.
It boils my blood that Greene was behaving as if he was some sort of hero for marching into the library with a concealed weapon in order to "protect the children." Protect them from what? Literature? Diversity? An art form? (And yes, drag is an art form.) Drag Queen Storytime should only be the beginning of exposing children to the LGBTQ+ community. They clearly love the event since the number of attendees only grows each month, so Greene needs a reality check.
You truly have to be a monster in order to falsely claim that someone is molesting children. Abuse is a serious issue and not an accusation you can throw around to help support your own twisted agenda. It is ironic that he accused Regina Blake-Dubois, the drag queen at the January event, of putting the children in harm's way when all she did was read to them, yet Greene was the one who entered the library with a gun and had previously recorded children. Those two actions are pretty suspect if you ask me, but yes, Blake-Dubois was the problem for reading a story about a singing armadillo.
Honestly, Greene was let off too easy. The entire exchange between him and the Houston Police Department is a perfect example of white privilege. He got away with arguing with the officers about how he was trespassing, refusing to leave the library, accusing the officers of enabling the molestation of children, all while being armed. The fact that he is not facing any charges blows my mind because there is no way he was unaware that he had been banned from the Monstrose library, yet he played dumb when an officer showed him the affidavit that had been filed the month before.
I am glad that Greene failed at trying to ruin Drag Queen Storytime and that the program will continue on. If you live in Houston and are interested in attending one of the events, click here. If you would like to volunteer at Save Drag Queen Storytime, click here.
