First Amendment Gives Same Rights to Cameron and Drag Queen Story Hour at Our PUBLIC Libraries
By Dan Murphy
Every Westchester resident should support the First Amendment rights of its citizens to host a Drag Queen Story time, but also the right of a Christian Author to read his children’s book, both at a Public Library.
In both cases, only those interested in hearing either story can attend. And if you don’t like it, or don’t want to participate, you can “turn the channel” and don’t show up.
According to Scarsdale Police, 700 families, and some protestors, showed up at the Scarsdale Library on Dec. 30 to hear actor and author Kirk Cameron read from his Christian children’s book ‘As You Grow’.
The Scott Room at the library holds 170, and Cameron read his book to two groups of families. Everyone who listened to Cameron’s reading understood that his book, “teaches kids biblical wisdom, through the seasons of life and how to grow the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control,” as Cameron explained.
But the response from most of the media, and several protestors has been against Cameron and those who came out to hear about his book and his message. First, based on the attendance, there was strong interest.
Second, according to the SPD, there was no incidents of criminal behavior, and the event went off without a hitch. Cameron wanted to pay for extra time to read to more families who were lined up inside and outside but wasn’t able to make it happen.
Westchester resident Robin Stettnisch covered Cameron’s event for our newspaper, and like us, was surprised at the negativity in the coverage by some in the local media, notably, Scarsdale 10583. The title of 10583 coverage of Cameron was “Library Overtaken by 700 Visitors to Kirk Cameron’s Story Hour,” but most librarians would be overjoyed if 700 people attended one of their programs.
The story continues with “Cameron and his book publisher, Brave Books, exploited free speech laws to hold his event at Scarsdale Library.” There is no exploitation in exercising your First Amendment rights as an American. A journalist should respect this right more than others, and Cameron was given the same First Amendment protection to hold his event at the same location as Drag Queen Storytime.
One social media post from the 10583-story included, “As far as “exploit[ing] free speech laws to hold his event at Scarsdale Library,” these laws exist to protect the speech of those the majority find controversial and even objectionable (yes, even Kirk Cameron’s). And it appears they worked as intended here, with “no incidents reported.”
10583 continues with “The library was quickly overwhelmed as only 170 people could fit into the Scott Room.” The author’s use of the term “overwhelmed” indicates a negative connotation that attendees were “invading” the Scarsdale Library. The library, its staff, and the Scarsdale police understood Cameron’s event could result in large attendance. They were prepared, and the crowd was peaceful and respectful.
And perhaps the most disturbing part of the 10583 story was, “Though no one knows where all the people came from, there seemed to be few Scarsdale residents in the crowd.” As Stettnisch points out, “OK how did they make that determination? By how the people looked? What cars they drove? Seems awfully judgmental and condescending to me.”
Stettnisch’s characterization that any Scarsdale resident who opposed Cameron’s program because attendees lived outside Scarsdale are judgmental and condescending is putting it lightly. In fact, ANY resident of Westchester County can attend ANY program at ANY Westchester library. If the residents and taxpayers of Scarsdale wish to restrict “outsiders” from attending programs at their library, they should lose the state funding that comes for libraries.
10583 also reported that SPD “said that there were 2 readings in the allotted timeframe and 170 were in each reading. There were no incidents reported. Six Scarsdale officers were supported by six County officers for traffic and crowd control. The event concluded on schedule.”
Scarsdale 10583 article states, “only one session (storytime) was planned but the library permitted 2 to accommodate more visitors”. Stettnisch clarifies, “that was within the hour that was booked and paid for, so they “permitted” nothing. And no mention of how Cameron offered to pay to stay extra and was refused, despite the room being available and the library not closing for another 2 hours.”
Another odd piece to the 10583 story was “”though billed as a story hour for young children, the visitors included grandparents, parents, teens, and toddlers,” as if to indicate that for family members to join young children in a book reading was strange.
A post below the story reads, “Also, LOL at “though billed as a story hour for young children, the visitors included grandparents, parents, teens and toddlers.” Yes, that’s generally how all children’s events go, as young kids generally cannot drive themselves to a library.”
And from Stettinsch, “So… what’s so horrible about a family story time? They didn’t seem to mind the toddlers that were there with family at the Drag Queen storytime sponsored by and promoted by the library for children as young as 2.”
The 10583 story concludes with a quote from Mark Gompertz, Group Editorial Director at Skyhorse Publishing and a Scarsdale resident. “While I’m not sure how I feel about all the “outsiders” coming into the community, I applaud the village/ library for allowing it just as I would a story hour about a drag Queen even if alt right groups didn’t feel it was appropriate. Crazy world.”
But isn’t diversity and inclusion supposed to be all about “outsiders”?
“I would note that the Scarsdale Library’s most recent drag Queen storytime was this past June 2022 (not several years ago as reported by Scarsdale 10583). But families showing up to hear a story about love, patience, kindness, oh no!” said Stettinsch, who reminds us that the drag queen storytime was arranged for, sponsored and promoted by Scarsdale Library for ages 2 + to ““inspire a love of reading while teaching deeper lessons on diversity, self-love, and an appreciation of others,” but they refused to sponsor or promote a storytime dealing with values such as love, patience, kindness etc which should not only be “Christian” but “Universal”.
Cameron said after the event, “Thank you to my brothers and sisters in the Family of Faith and all who showed up in Indy and Scarsdale, NY to celebrate faith, hope and love and protect the hearts and minds of our children…One of the aspects that has always made this country great is the free expression of ideas essential to an informed citizenry.”
In the final analysis, the Scarsdale Library did the right thing by allowing Cameron to read from his book.
Editor’s Note: Stettnisch has her own story to tell about her decades working as a librarian for the Scarsdale Library. More on her story next week.
