Daniel Villarreal
The anti-LGBTQ political action committee that unsuccessfully tried to sue the Houston mayor and municipal library system to end Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH), a non-profit where local drag queens volunteer to read books to kids, is now using it in political ads to scare Houston-area voters into supporting Republican candidates.
KHOU 11, the local CBS news affiliate, recently reported that The Campaign for Houston PAC — the group that helped successfully overturn the trans-inclusive Houston Equal Rights Ordinance in 2015 — is airing TV ads and mailing postcards with juxtaposed images of drag queens and crying children.
The TV ad says, “Now Democrats want drag queens to read to our little children,” an allusion to the democratic city council members who approved HERO and a reference to democratic Mayor Sylvester Turner who called the PAC’s failed lawsuit against Drag Queen Story Hour “frivolous and without merit.”
The Campaign for Houston PAC site has a petition saying that the goal of Drag Queen Story Hour is to “indoctrinate children,” “break the stigma of drag and queer culture with kids” and “normalize this perverted behavior, so that these children can be more easily recruited into their lifestyle.”
“Exposing children to this bizarre sexual behavior is a form of pedophilia,” the petition states.
But these lines are the same sort of homophobic attacks that religious conservatives have used against the LGBTQ community for decades, and what’s more, they’re untrue.
DQSH was originally created three years ago to provide more kid-friendly activities for LGBTQ families. The PAC also says that the program uses tax dollars, but that’s not true.
DQSH board member Lil’ Miss Hot Mess told LGBTQ Nation that the program requires no city funds: all you need is a children’s book, a drag queen volunteer and some kids.
The ads are expected to continue airing through Election Day.