Aftermath of Drag Queen Storytime

On Saturday, Feb. 25, The Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop in downtown Niwot held its first Drag Queen Storytime, with Miss Shirley reading to children who had signed up in advance to attend.

The event caused some controversy, as the Boulder County Republican Party and its newly elected chair, George Tristan, organized a protest, claiming that it was a "grooming event." But the protestors, many of whom wore masks to conceal their identity, were far outnumbered by those attending and supporting the event.

The Parasol Patrol and other LGBTQIA+ allies organized a counter-protest to let children and parents walk into the bookstore without harassment. To learn more about the protest, and the counter-protest, the article titled "Protests at Drag Queen Storytime '' is available on the Left Hand Courier website.

"Exactly seven days before the event, we started getting emails and some phone calls from people who were against it," said Assistant Store Manager Alison Cave. "A lot of them just said that they wanted their voices heard. They just wanted to let us know that it was not something they thought was appropriate for children. I truly think that they didn't really understand what the event was. I think they didn't realize that it was a storytime with picture books. So, some of them would call and ask, 'What is this event for?' and I was describing all of our story times that we've hosted in the past and that they are all geared towards children. I mean the people who called and protested against the event, had never heard of us before and they would probably never come in anyway."

Miss Shirley, who read "My Shadow is Pink" by Scott Stuart to the children, is a performer, a professional storyteller, and an elementary school teacher. The Wandering Jellyfish hopes to hire Miss Shirley again for another Drag Queen Storytime event in the future.

"Miss Shirley was amazing," Cave said. "She had everyone in the room laughing pretty much the whole time. We had a lot of people come, but we have a small space, so we weren't able to make room for everyone. We had to turn some people away, unfortunately.

"Since Saturday (five days prior), we have had almost 10 people come in, because they either read an article about it or they heard about it from someone and they wanted to come in and show their support. People who had never heard of us before came in and it was awesome.

"Drag Storytime is so important to us, because we believe it's important to show kids what diversity looks like and to give them that experience. And just in general, we love storytime because it's fun to entertain kids and to encourage them to read books."