Lee Co. Presbyterians petition local authorities to ban "lewd" and "unnatural" drag performances, "grooming children"
Should local jurisdictions take action to prevent the LGBTQ+ "grooming" of young children at so-called "Drag Queen Story Hours?"
That's the argument that was made to the Lee County Board of Commissioners at a September meeting in a presentation by Presbyterian pastor Thomas F. Booher and his father, who serve as teaching elder and ruling elder respectively at Heritage Reformed Presbyterian Church. (The presentation will be made to the Sanford City Council as well).
Booher says he was told privately that there was agreement among a majority of the county commissioners with this proposal, but they were reticent to act due to the potential legal costs of defending such a ban.
An Unlikely Battleground
One might not expect the rural Lee County to be at the forefront of any culture wars, but the county seat of Sanford has been the location of a number of protests and demonstrations in the past few years against men dressing up as sexualized caricatures of women to "educate" or perform in front of children.
This includes a Disney-themed Halloween Drag Brunch at the Hugger Mugger Brewery in downtown Sanford, which made national news due to the presence of the Cape Fear Proud Boys, who objected to the inclusion of children in the audience.
The drag brunch, like the children's "story hour" highlighted in Booher's presentation, was organized by Lindsey Knapp of the Sanford Yoga and Community Center who claims to have a "trans child" of her own.
"The Sanford Yoga and Community Center targets children to bring them into a confused, harmful LGBTQ lifestyle that often promotes self-harm, taking medicine or injections that damage their bodies and destroy mental health," said Booher. "This often leads to mutilating the body, physically mutilating yourself due to gender or sexual confusion, hormone imbalances from medications, and just being lied to about what you are as a boy or a girl."
Booher specifically highlighted one book in particular which was featured at the reading event targeting young children. The book, titled Calvin, is described as a "joyful and impactful picture book," which features a young child being "affirmed and supported" after announcing her chosen identity as a "transgender boy."
"It is clear their agenda is to deceive children into thinking and behaving as if they were the opposite sex/gender that they actually are, and to convince children of these lies even without the knowledge of their parents," reads Booher's presentation.
"Conversations with Kids"
Raafe Purnsley, a "drag queen" with Drag Story Hour Triangle Area who has participated in the Sanford "story hours," has cited the desire to talk to "show up in drag and have conversations with kids" about topics like environmental and ecological science, as well as "culture, race, history, activism and social justice" as one of the motivations for his drag persona of "Stormie Daie":
I think representation is really important. I think when we talk about social justice and we talk about the world needing to change to be better for the people that are in it, we often leave out young people. Children can’t advocate for themselves, or rather, can’t be somewhere without a parent or guardian taking them there to advocate for themselves. I think one of the biggest ways that that comes up in society is children’s media and children’s socialization. What often gets left out is culture, race, history, activism and social justice. Specifically, growing up as a young person in the South, I did not see myself often reflected in media. I did not see myself praised or included.
All of that is what led me to really become the character Stormie Daie. I wanted to read to children, to talk about science, to infuse my entertainment on stage with my love of education, and to also really take my background in environmental and ecological science and start actually infusing it into my drag and start trying to teach children and show up in drag and have conversations with kids. I’m getting to be an educator. I’m getting to work in places where I came as a child on very rare occasions, but cherished moments, like walking the gardens.
(Source: Duke Gardens - Self-Discovery in the Story Circle)
Justin Clapp aka "Vivica C. Coxx", the eponymous founder of the Durham-based drag "family" House of Coxx to which Purnsley belongs, has been just as explicit in the LBGTQ+ agenda behind performing in drag for children: "I think of drag as a cultural art form that children should be experiencing, because it has been rooted in activism, social justice, and progress."
"It’s really important because the children can see that whoever they want to grow up to be is OK and, here’s the kicker, their parents are agreeing to that," Clapp continued. "By a family member bringing a child to a drag show, they’re saying 'Wait, this family member is OK with whoever I become, however I become that person.'"
The Law
In response to uproar in October 2022 over a Drag Queen Story Hour featuring Purnsley at the taxpayer-funded North Carolina Museum of Art, then-Speaker of the NC House Tim Moore told Carolina Journal that "the sexualization of young children is unacceptable, and parents will not stand for it."
In April of the following year, twenty-eight Republicans in the North Carolina House filed HB 673, which would have made it a Class A1 misdemeanor for "male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest" to perform in the presence of any individual under the age of 18.
However, the bill saw no progress after being referred to the Judiciary 2 Committee.
In light of the lack of legislative action, Booher is presenting the following petition:
PETITION TO REMOVE SUCH HARMFUL LGBTQ+ DISPLAYS AND
ORGANIZATIONS FROM OUR COUNTY, CITY, AND COMMUNITYWe implore the Magistrates in our County and City to solemnly and lovingly do their God-Given duty, upholding justice and protecting the innocent people of Sanford and Lee County -- especially children who are the most vulnerable -- from these lewd, harmful, unnatural, and destructive displays and performances, whether down main street at Christmas parades or behind closed doors at ticketed events with adult men dressed up as women, who even say they will put their fangs in baby ghouls.
We also urge the prohibition and removal of all such LGBTQ+ organizations and “resource centers” that clearly are grooming children and will destroy even many adults with these doctrines and practices that mutilate the mind and body, while searing the soul.
To tolerate and permit such evil is evil. To allow such lewd behavior that ought to be criminalized, is criminal. You local commissioners are called by God and the laws of this country, state, city, and county, to restrain evil and uphold that which is good, as defined by the laws of nature, which flow from the Triune God of Scripture (Romans 13:1-7).
Doing so is good, just, and loving to all. It may rebuke and reform the criminal out of harmful lifestyles, and will certainly protect the innocent, which with God’s blessing will promote a happier, holier, and healthier people and community here locally.
May the Lord grant such, and give us repentance toward God, and faith in Jesus Christ, to be the glorious and flourishing men and women made in His image, that He has designed us to be. And may we not cause a single one of His precious children to stumble. Amen.