Atlanta Mayor Welcomes Drag Queen Story Hour to City Hall After Library Pulls Support

by Dr. Susan Berry

Keisha Lance Bottoms, mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, tweeted an invitation Friday to allow a drag queen story hour at city hall after the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System removed one of the story hours from its calendar.

“Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker and all of our LGBTQ friends are always welcome at Atlanta City Hall,” posted Bottoms. “How about we host your next story hour? @City of Atlanta – let’s make it happen!”

Bottoms invited the drag queen to read to young children at city hall after support for the event to be held at an Alpharetta library branch was pulled.

Steven Igarashi-Ball, a 40-year-old Buford native who performs in drag as Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he feels the Fulton library system discriminated against him. The system is reportedly allowing only an unsanctioned version of the “Drag Queen Story Hour” on April 27 in the Alpharetta branch, though the event no longer appears on its calendar.

Igarashi-Ball said his past success at a drag queen story hour in another library branch led to an invitation to read to the children at the Alpharetta branch.

“The community has made it clear that they want the event and the county canceled the event,” he said.

Igarashi-Ball explained to Project Q Atlanta that he received an email from a public relations spokesperson for the library system in early March about the change in the program.

“I was told that the event was being cancelled by the county and not by the library and they said that it was above the library’s decision,” the drag queen said. “I was told that all of the libraries support the event and wanted it to continue, but that the county had say over them and that the county was cancelling it.”

full story at https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/04/08/atlanta-mayor-welcomes-drag-queen-story-hour-city-hall-library-pulls-support/

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