Drag Event In MA Town Prompts Bid To Defund Library

STURBRIDGE, MA — A bid to withhold funding from Sturbridge's public library over a drag event failed this week at Town Meeting, according to town officials.

Last week, members of the Sturbridge Republican Town Committee emailed local residents asking them to attend Monday's Town Meeting session to vote to withhold funding for the Joshua Hyde Public Library for the upcoming fiscal year.

The library on Saturday hosted Connecticut-based drag performer Giganta Smalls via Zoom. At the event geared toward teenagers, Smalls discussed what it's like being a drag performer, and offered tips about makeup and costumes, according to the event listing.

On June 2, the library posted a copy of the email being circulated in town calling on residents to help defund the library on its Facebook page. The library trustees encouraged town meeting members to show up to counteract the defund effort.

"[I]n response to the growing concern over Adult Entertainment/Indoctrination of our children by the overly-WOKE left. In particular, to stop funding for library-sponsored Drag Queen story hours either on site or via the internet," the email said part.

The Sturbridge Republicans also posted a portion of a speech prepared for the Town Meeting vote.

"Our public library belongs to ALL of us, and we all have a say in how it is managed. It belongs to everyone regardless of race, color, creed, religion or sexual preferences," the speech read in part. "We have viewed Giganta’s videos on the web and believe that anyone of sound mind would find his performances to be obscene and insulting. There is nothing there to be described as uplifting for the human spirit."

The vote on the library's fiscal 2024 budget of about $600,000 took place Monday and passed 320 to 23. A vote to hold funding for the library never took place because it did not have enough support.

"Thank you to everyone who supported the library budget and our mission! We will continue to offer programs and materials that reflect ALL members of our community," the library said after Monday's vote. "You belong here."

The Sturbridge defund effort comes amid a resurgence of hate directed at the LGBTQ+ community nationwide and in Massachusetts. The ACLU of Massachusetts intervened this spring when the North Brookfield selectmen attempted to ban a drag performance as part of a Pride festival. Pride banners in Bolton were vandalized over the weekend, prompting police to launch a hate crime investigation.

The group Human Rights Campaign this week declared a "state of emergency" for the first time ever over anti-LGBTQ+ laws being passed across the nation, including outlawing drag and gender-affirming care.

HRC counted some 75 anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into law in 2023, doubling the amount in 2022 — previously the highest year for such legislation on record, according to the group.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that a vote to defund the library never took place. Town Meeting only voted on the library's budget.