What Happened at Drag Queen Story Time?
By: Uncle Hank
It was just supposed to be a couple of drag queens reading books to children, according to Paul Liller.
Liller, who has “been doing drag since the dinosaurs,” is no stranger to small town conservatism. Growing up in Oakland, in the western corner of Maryland in a household stocked with firearms during the 1980s, Liller said books were one of the few ways kids got to see the outside world.
Liller, who goes by the stage name Dimitra Blackwell while in drag, wanted to find a way to give back to the Morgantown community he lives in. He and fellow performer Robin Hearts-Love — a transwoman — are both at the age where kids are on their minds.
“Robin really wants kids, which is really hard since she is trans,” Liller said. “I’m still at that point where I love kids, but I also like to send them back to where they came from. I’m quite happy being that cool uncle.”
During a discussion earlier this year with newly elected West Virginia State Delegate Danielle Walker, Liller and Hearts-Love decided to set up a Drag Queen Story Hour at the Morgantown Public Library. Walker arranged a meeting with library leadership.
Drag Queen Story Hours feature drag queens, in their full regalia, reading books to elementary school-aged children or younger. Since the first story hour in 2015 at the Harvey Milk Memorial Library in San Francisco, the trend has spread to major cities across the country — to much acclaim and derision.
The Morgantown reading was scheduled for Nov. 16, 2019.
Considering what’s worked and what hasn’t at other readings across the country, Liller said he and Hearts-Love tried to craft a modest affair.
“I read feedback about how at other shows some dresses were cut a little too low, so there were accidental crotch shots, or things were falling out of tops too low,” Liller said. “So I wanted to avoid that as much as possible.”
Liller continued, “I was designing matching green dresses with sleeves that went down to the floor. Literally all you could see were our hands, feet, and faces.”
And it wasn’t just dress they were concerned about, Liller said — they also wanted the reading selections to be “as benign as possible.”
“One of the selections the library had for us was a book about a little boy living with his grandmother in New York who saw a mermaid parade outside his window. He wanted to be a mermaid, so they put together a costume to be in the parade,” Liller said.
“It was a cute story, but we were afraid it would create some kind of a backlash about us trying to push a political agenda,” Liller said.
Instead, they opted for the Dr. Seuss classic Green Eggs and Ham, Danny the Dinosaur, and Waiting is Not Easy, featuring Elephant and Piggie.
And besides a couple grumbles here and there in the community, Liller said the event “flew under the radar.”
Until it didn’t.
Survivors Will Be Shot Again
The troubles started Sunday, Nov. 10., when local conservatives began shouting calls across social media to shut down the event “for the children.” After seeing one veiled threat about “fireworks,” Liller said he was a bit apprehensive.
“West Virginia is an open carry state, so it’s hard to say what they meant about fireworks,” he said.
On Nov. 11., Liller, Hearts-Love, and the library staff sat down with city police to draw up a security plan. Despite being a little short-handed that Saturday due to other events around town, Liller said the police were able to supply a couple officers to keep an eye on things. Having experience with organizing the Baltimore Gay Pride festival, Liller said such meetings with police “weren’t outside my wheelhouse.”
“I can’t say enough good things about them,” he said. “They were thorough and nice and took our concerns seriously. They did a great a job.”
Around this time, former Del. Cindy Frich weighed in on the Drag Queen Story Hour, calling for it to be canceled. Using ominous language about “violent forces coming to my town…I don’t want anyone to be hurt,” Facebook commenters erupted into a cacophony of insults.
At one point, Frich — who voters removed from office in 2018 — wrote that Del. Danielle Walker was possibly bringing Antifa to town. Walker, for the record, beat Frich in that same election.
Jason Ruehl, a Morgantown resident, said he typically doesn’t get himself involved in “large-scale things like this.” When the reading was announced, he figured there would be some grumblings, but after seeing folks online accusing drag queens of pedophilia, Ruehl said he felt enough was enough.
“I put up an event to support and I just expected a few friends to show up,” Ruehl said. “Within the first hour, 100 people said they were going. What got a large portion of the supporters were the inflammatory remarks made by Cindy Frich.”
In a screen shot Ruehl sent to The Haint, Frich also compared drag to black face. As the rhetoric got worse, Ruehl said many folks pushing back against her got banned from her account.
“We’re taking that as a badge of honor,” he said.
Frich also posted multiple articles about some legal troubles Liller incurred during his work in Baltimore — in 2016, he entered a no-contest plea to a misdemeanor theft charge related to alleged embezzlement at Baltimore Pride.
Under one of those articles, a man posted that he knew where Liller lived and an image stating “Trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again,” along with a statement reading, “That’s what I will do, you wanted to know.”
Liller said Hearts-Love came over to his place in tears over the threat. Despite having a tough skin performing drag — both have been threatened before in their careers — this scared them, according to Liller.
“You see it on the news all the time, where you have these shootings and there were warning signs out there, but no one took them seriously,” he said. “Most of the time they’re just people who want to feel big and bad behind their keyboards but will scurry away as soon as they feel daylight. But sometimes they’re not.”
The man seemed mentally unstable to boot, according to Liller. He’s dealt with mental illness in his family.
So they called the police and filed a report. The responding patrolmen said they didn’t think the charges could stick for a warrant, according to Liller.
“They were really nice guys, and I don’t want you to think they just shrugged it off,” Liller said. “They could go talk to him, but I was afraid that could send set this guy off.”
Love, Not Hate
In the end, it just wasn’t worth the kids’ safety, Liller said.
Neither was it worth the safety of the supporters either, according to Ruehl. Both men canceled their events in the wake of the threats.
“At first, I kind of felt like we were betraying our roots, because at Stonewall transwomen and drag queens of color stood up for themselves,” Liller said. “But it wasn’t just about us. We had to think about the safety of the kids and the parents and the library volunteers too.”
This comes at a time when earlier this year a drag queen was beaten by a group of men. Ash EG, president of Morgantown Pride, said the LGBTQ+ community has cause to wonder about safety.
“I’ve lived here since 2013 and it’s the worst it’s ever been,” Ash said. “The city has been supportive with our block party and our rainbow crosswalk, but looking at the every day, what are they doing to prevent us from being harmed?”
Many of the supporters from Ruehl’s rally wound up attending a rally put on by Morgantown Pride. While only one heckler drove by the crowd yelling slurs, Ash said they were concerned something worse could happen.
“During the first hour or so, I was a complete nervous wreck,” they said. “What if someone hit us with a car? Or showed up with a gun?”
But ultimately, the rally had to show “We wouldn’t let hatred define us,” according to Ash.
“There’s ignorance and hatred out there hiding behind religion,” Ash said. “I grew up in a religious household and I consider myself spiritual. These people are not following Christ’s example. We have allies we work with in the faith community, so the problem isn’t religion. It’s hatred.”
This week, Ash said they planned to attend the Morgantown City Council to follow up on a non-discrimination ordinance that had stalled in the Human Rights Commission. The original draft had failed to protect transgender and non-binary people and was sent back for edits.
Despite the vitriol and rhetoric, Liller said he still feels safe in the area.
“I truly believe it’s just as safe a place as any,” Liller said. “Let’s be realistic, if this guy breaks into my house and tries to kill me, I just call 911. That’s what you do. But I also feel safe by the community that has supported us here. No one I’ve dealt with about this has made me feel like a freak or anything.”
As Ash and their group work towards change at the city council, Liller and Hearts-Love have started a YouTube channel for their Drag Queen Story Time.
“People can look at this and see exactly what we’re doing. They can see we’re not trying to teach their kids to be gay or anything like that. We’re just playing dress up, and we’re wearing the things they want to when they play dress up,” Liller said. “We’re teaching them that’s it’s okay to be different and to be yourself.”
And hopefully, one day, they’ll get to share that message live at the library.
