A controversial event hosted by a Democrat State Representative at the Arizona Capitol has led to consequences from the Republican House Speaker.
Earlier this week, State Representative Lorena Austin and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona hosted a Drag Story Hour in the Copper Basin Room in the House Basement.
That event was immediately met with condemnation from Republicans. Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma addressed the event on his “X” account, writing, “Democrat Rep. Lorena Austin deliberately misled House leadership to reserve a conference room to host a drag story hour with Planned Parenthood. Use of House facilities for radical activism to promote dangerously perverse ideology will not be tolerated while I am Speaker. As a result, I’ve ordered that Democrats have lost the privilege of accessing House meeting rooms until trust can be restored.”
Democrat Rep. Lorena Austin deliberately misled House leadership to reserve a conference room to host a drag story hour with Planned Parenthood.
Use of House facilities for radical activism to promote dangerously perverse ideology will not be tolerated while I am Speaker.
Austin responded to the Speaker’s comments, saying, “This is the people’s House and that includes the LGBTQ+ community, whether my colleagues on the other side of the aisle like that or not. It is nothing short of ridiculous that I have been described as dishonest, deceitful and perverse and have been subjected to calls for punishment and expulsion. What is true is that I hosted a drag performer who read stories about LGBTQ+ history and inclusion. There were no minors present, but also no content that would offend a minor.”
The Democrat lawmaker added, “We were completely transparent when we reserved the room, and the content was not, or should not be, controversial. In total approximately 20 people attended (all adults) because the House is currently only conducting business on Wednesdays, and today was a Tuesday. It was educational and completely within the mission of our LGTBQ+ Caucus. I will never apologize for teaching people to be inclusive, to accept others as they are, and to stand up to hate and bigotry.”
Other Arizona state legislators weighed in on the event. Republican Representative Alexander Kolodin said, “The People’s House should be a safe place for the children of Arizona and I am outraged at this violation of trust. In addition to this punishment, also I call on leadership to bar Rep. Austin from accessing any part of the House aside from public areas and the floor.”
The People's House should be a safe place for the children of Arizona and I am outraged at this violation of trust. In addition to this punishment, also I call on leadership to bar Rep. Austin from accessing any part of the House aside from public areas and the floor. https://t.co/I4EW6QycWW
— Rep. Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) April 30, 2024
Democrat Representative Nancy Gutierrez stated, “Today’s event was wonderful and I was happy to attend. I appreciate Lorena Austin. It’s disgusting that this was used for political mudslinging.”
Phoenix College, the flagship institution for Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), hosted a drag queen story hour for all ages on Tuesday featuring banned books.
Drag Story Hour AZ held the event. The banned books read were “My Princess Boy” by Cheryl Kilodavis, which advocates for the normalization of gender nonconformity; “Neither” by Airlie Anderson, which advocates for the normalization of nonbinary and transgender children; “Prince & Knight” by Daniel Haack, which advocates for the normalization of same-sex relationships; and “Red: A Crayon’s Story” by Michael Hall, which advocates for LGBTQ+ normalization.
In an email, Phoenix College described the story hour as a “Freedom Read” inclusive opportunity to build community. The college hosted the story hour in celebration of Banned Books Week.
“Drag story hours offer inclusive environments for community building and informal learning through a familiar (and fun!) literacy activity,” read the email. “Beyond asking that you encourage our students (and their families!) to attend the event, we warmly welcome your participation.”
The Equality Maricopa PRISM Drag Ball Fundraiser is this week! 10/7 |5:30 PM – 8:30 PM| Bulpitt Auditorium
A community activist and parent opposed to drag queen story hours for children posted that he attempted to obtain tickets for the event, but was restricted from doing so.
Well! I was still going to attend the @PhoenixCollege event where Drag Story Hour AZ was doing a SECRET banned book reading children can attend.
They just emailed me and canceled all tickets and want me to prove I know someone to get tickets. How creepy
Drag Story Hour AZ also lists other banned books on its Bookshop page. In addition to the books read on Tuesday, the organization recommended the following LGBTQ+ advocacy books for children and their families: “Worm Loves Worm,” “10,000 Dresses,” “Antonio’s Card,” “I Am Jazz,” “When Aidan Became a Brother,” “The Boy Who Cried Fabulous,” “Pink Is For Boys,” “This Day in June,” “And Tango Makes Three,” “Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag,” “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Presents: A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo,” “Queer, 2nd Edition: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens,” “Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World,” “Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States,” “A Queer History of the United States,” “Parenting Beyond Pink & Blue: How to Raise Your Kids Free of Gender Stereotypes,” “The Gender Creative Child: Pathways For Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes,” “Helping Your Transgender Teen: A Guide For Parents,” “This Is a Book For Parents of Gay Kids: A Question & Answer Guide to Everyday Life,” and “Sissy: A Coming-Of-Gender Story.”
The organization’s founder and president, David Boyles, is an English professor at Arizona State University (ASU). As reported previously, Boyles has been featured in several events promoting drag entertainment through local libraries and the Arizona Humanities.
Boyles has held that LGBTQ+ storytelling to minors remains important because it “counter[s] the erasure of queer stories,” and advocates for their attendance at drag shows as well.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The controversial Drag Story Hour Arizona is led by an Arizona State University (ASU) professor David Boyles.
Boyles established Drag Story Hour Arizona in 2019, a chapter of the national Drag Story Hour organization established in 2015, the same year that the Supreme Court struck down state laws banning gay marriage.
For his drag queen story hour work, Boyles has been featured in several “The Art of Drag” events alongside one of his drag queen storytellers, hosted by various local libraries and Arizona Humanities, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) United We Stand initiative.
The most recent event occurred on Wednesday. In his presentation, Boyles said that the notion that drag shows are harmful to children was a “myth.” He also said that drag queens have been long considered the leaders of LGBTQ+ communities.
In a predictor of what’s to come, Boyles said that the growing acceptance of LGBTQ+ ideologies would allow for more expansive public displays of drag. Boyles cited “Divine” as an example, a drag queen who starred in films purposefully designed to scare “straight society” — in one of his most infamous films, he ate dog poop (not a prop, real dog poop). Boyles hailed Divine as a paradigm.
“[His work was] intended to freak out the straight society in all meanings of that word, of the straights, both the heterosexuals but the squares,” said Boyles. “As queer identity and queer culture becomes more mainstream, kind of comes out of the shadows again, it opens up space for drag to take a lot of different shapes in a lot of different forms.”
Boyles then promoted the practice of drag in minors, referencing 13-year-old Canadian boy Bracken Hanke, who starred for several years in the Disney series “Gabby Duran & The Unsittables.” Boyles said that Hanke should be seen as an authority on valid perspectives of femininity, claiming Hanke is a girl.
“Who better to make fun of all the ideas of femininity than a teenage girl, you know, who has to deal with all these social pressures,” said Boyles.
At one point, Boyles’ counterpart for the event, Patrick Jervis-Stone as his drag queen persona, Felicia Minor, mentioned that Drag Queen Story Hour Arizona did a virtual story hour for Disney during the pandemic. However, Jervis-Stone stopped short of offering further details after Boyles whispered to Jervis-Stone that they “weren’t supposed to mention that.”
According to social media posts, Jervis-Stone conducted a Halloween-themed Drag Queen Story Hour Arizona virtual storytelling event for Disney+ and Hulu in October 2021.
Boyles also dismissed the idea that educators were attempting to recruit students into homosexuality. Boyles describes himself as the “head of recruitment” for “The Queer Agenda” on his Instagram.
It was with his book, “Life is a Banquet,” that Chandler Unified School District board member and Boyles’ friend, Patti Serrano, took her oath of office, rather than the Bible. Boyles’ book focuses on a 17-year-old boy being “indoctrinated” and “radicalized” into progressive beliefs by ASU students out of the values he’d learned from his conservative, Christian parents.
In book drafts posted online, Boyles writes at length about the sexual experiences and fantasies of the boy and his peers.
In another blog post, Boyles said Serrano’s act reminded him of when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac in the Bible. Boyles said that Christian parents resembled Abraham: their obedience to God by refusing to affirm LGBTQ+ behaviors in their children jeopardizes their children’s lives, not unlike how Abraham’s obedience to God jeopardized Isaac’s life. Boyles also accused Christians of viewing their children as “property” through their faith, and declared that every transgender suicide constitutes murder.
“[I]n this story of the original patriarch, we get an almost too on-the-nose description of the toxic patriarchal ideas that infect so much of modern right-wing religion, and white evangelical Christianity in particular,” said Boyles. “If your god is telling you that honoring him is worth slitting kids’ throats, do what Abraham should have done and tell him to f**k off and find a new god.”
Elsewhere on his blog, Boyles encouraged people to advocate for LGBTQ+-inclusive, pleasure-centered sex education for minors.
“[A]busive, patriarchal fundamentalists […] fear the liberatory power of queer sexuality,” wrote Boyles.
Boyles also encouraged people to plant pornographic LGBTQ+ banned books in local libraries, such as “Gender Queer” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”
*Warning: the following clip contains explicit sexual language*
John Kennedy reads a passage from p*rnographic novel "All Boys Aren't Blue" which is available in public school libraries. pic.twitter.com/vnCzAnPjRb
Boyles noted in a post that “zines” — noncommercial, self-published, and often unconventional magazines produced at home or online, usually reproduced via copy machines — are an essential component of promulgating LGBTQ+ ideologies.
Several of Boyles’ students were promoted in his Substack for their zines. He recommended a zine on sex toys by one of his former students, Paige Daniel, an “abortion doula” for Planned Parenthood Arizona (PPAZ); Daniel’s other zines discuss sex education and self-managed abortions.
Boyles promoted a popular zine distributor (distro) among Phoenician progressives, Wasted Ink Zine Distro (WIZD), host of the annual Phoenix Zine Fest. The distro specializes in promoting “historically marginalized creators,” specifically the non-white, LGBTQ+, disabled, chronically ill, or neurodivergent. WIZD receives funding from the city of Phoenix’s Office of Arts and Culture, as well as the Arizona Commission on the Arts through the state and National Endowment for the Arts.
Haley Orion — known online as Arizona Right Wing Watch, an account that posts research on “far-right losers and hate politics” — formerly worked for and published her own zines through WIZD.
Orion recently took issue with the fallout prompted by a post issued by her equal opposite, Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok, about the University of Arizona nursing students course engaging with children as young as three about gender identity.
So this article just rehashed that the video was going viral, confirmed the College of Nursing was getting threats and then embedded the LOTT video. You know, the one causing those threats. Fuck you. pic.twitter.com/NfOOHlHThy
— Arizona Right Watch (@azrww.bsky.social) (@az_rww) September 8, 2023
Like Orion, Boyles advocates for other progressive causes in addition to LGBTQ+ issues, such as abortion, gun control, climate change activism, police defunding, and Black Lives Matter (BLM). He formerly served as a board member for NARAL Arizona and the Abortion Fund of Arizona, as well as a research coordinator for White Hat Research & Policy Group.
On his public Instagram page, Boyles posts LGBTQ+ content consisting of gay erotica art, his cross-dressing, drag queens, paganism, witchcraft, advocacy for gender transitions for minors, sex toys, drugs, criticisms of Republicans, and arguments against Christianity.
In a February opinion piece, Boyles declared that LGBTQ+ storytelling to minors was important to “counter the erasure of queer stories.” Boyles also advocated for minors to attend drag shows.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A crowd of Tucson parents protested against a drag queen story hour hosted at Bookmans, a local bookstore chain, this month.
Bookmans hosted the event in coordination with Drag Story Hour Arizona. Event organizers withheld the exact location until the day before the event, and only released it to registered attendees.
The line wrapped all the way around the corner!
It’s clear Tucson parents are NOT on board with sexualizing children. https://t.co/OtZ6vGBA8o
The Bridge Tucson, a local multi-location church, organized the protest. Church members behind the protest noted that the drag story hour event organizers were saving preferential seating for children so that protesting adults couldn’t take all the seating.
Bookmans attempted to host another drag queen story hour back in March, but the organizers canceled due to protests.
The protest of Bookmans "Drag Story Hour" is not needed at this time because they have canceled! Great job BCC and all that took a stand. We will continue to monitor and reschedule the protest if needed. pic.twitter.com/2bc6JPoHuX
“Bookmans is committed to allowing men dressed in women’s clothing to dance and sing and read books to children while exploring sexual themes with children and providing a ‘queer’ influence in their life,” stated the Bridge Tucson. “Bookmans is committed to grooming our children and it is pure evil. It has always been society’s job to protect children, and this is one of those moments in time to take a stand. We made it very clear that if Bookmans re-scheduled their Drag Queen Story Hour, we would reschedule our protest. So it’s on!
It has been confirmed that the protest was hosted by @TheBridgeTucson
Drag Story Hour Arizona formed in 2019. In addition to Bookmans, the group collaborates with AzTYPO, Virtual Arizona Pride, Free Mom Hugs Arizona, and Phoenix Pride.
Ahead of the March story hour cancellation, Bridge Tucson members claimed retaliation. Their members reportedly emailed the bookstore to protest the event and claimed that their email addresses were then signed up for porn site email listings.
BCC: We have had a few reports of people that recently sent an email to Bookmans and then had that email address signed up for porn site emails. This seems to be only some recent emails but we wanted to warn everyone. Again, well done BCC for standing against sinful behavior. pic.twitter.com/vHAzgKBKVc
In response to the protest, State Sen. Justine Wadsack (R-LD17), commended the local parents for withstanding the temperatures that afternoon, which reached around 110 degrees. Wadsack also included an allusion to the controversial child sex trafficking awareness movie, “Sound of Freedom.”
Mama Bears & Papa Bears around the country have had ENOUGH with Drag Queen Story Hour. So much so, they’ll protest the venues in 110 degree AZ Heat!
On Saturday, Democratic Mesa lawmaker Lorena Austin hosted a drag show fundraiser open to all ages.
The legislature’s first “nonbinary,” “gender nonconforming” elected official planned the event from 9 to 11 pm at Meno’s Place in Mesa. The event required a $10 cash cover charge to enter. Along with offering $5 raffle tickets, Austin teased the appearance of an unnamed, special guest, in addition to the MC, a drag queen named Gypsy Rose.
Austin first posted about the fundraiser event back on June 1 to commemorate the beginning of Pride Month.
Back in March, Austin drew ire for hosting a controversial drag queen story hour event hosted at the state capitol. House leadership claimed Austin misled them to reserve the conference room where the story hour took place. House Speaker Ben Toma revoked Democrat access to House meeting rooms as a result of Austin’s event.
“Use of House facilities for radical activism to promote dangerously perverse ideology will not be tolerated while I am Speaker,” posted Toma.
Democrat Rep. Lorena Austin deliberately misled House leadership to reserve a conference room to host a drag story hour with Planned Parenthood.
Use of House facilities for radical activism to promote dangerously perverse ideology will not be tolerated while I am Speaker.
Austin responded that it was “ridiculous” that she was accused of being dishonest or deceitful, let alone perverse for promoting LGBTQ+ ideologies in children.
The drag story hour took place ahead of an “LGBTQ+ Youth Day” at the Capitol, arranged in part by One-N-Ten. That organization recently made headlines for hosting a name change clinic advertised by the DeMiguel Elementary School in the Flagstaff Unified School District.
One-N-Ten provides LGBTQ+ programs to minors as young as 11 years old, focusing on topics such as sexual health and gender identity.
The gender nonconforming lawmaker won her first election thanks to a majority of funding from out-of-state Democratic money. Austin campaigned in part on rolling back laws prohibiting males from joining female sports teams and gender transition surgeries for minors.
This time around, Austin is campaigning on some of the same things — increasing teacher pay, establishing more affordable housing, expanding Medicaid access, and greater legalization of abortion — though missing from her priorities are those related to LGBTQ+ policies.
Austin is defending a seat in a historically Republican district, though she and another Democrat, Seth Blattman, won in 2022.
According to testimony from Austin in a promotional video for her alma mater, Arizona State University, she discovered her gender identity after joining an LGBTQ+ activist community in St. Louis, Missouri following the 2014 death of Michael Brown. This epiphany occurred after she dropped out five times from Mesa Community College; Austin credited her involvement in the ensuing protests to her desire to return to continue her degree at MCC and then finish at ASU.
ASU awarded Austin a scholarship through a leadership program launched by President Michael Crow. She graduated ASU in 2020 as the dean’s medalist for the School of Transborder Studies.
Austin was one of the primary opponents of a bill prohibiting schools from using preferred pronouns or names rather than those that align with a child’s biological sex or birth certificate, respectively.
Governor Katie Hobbs cited Austin’s testimony in opposition to the bill as evidence that the legislation would be harmful, and that transgenderism among children was something to be supported, not opposed.
Hobbs’ husband, Patrick Goodman, helped children embark on gender transitions in his capacity as a Phoenix Children’s Hospital Gender Support Program counselor.
The hospital was known for its provision of comprehensive gender-affirming care to gender dysphoric children. As part of his job, Goodman consulted with minor patients about the application of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
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