Values, risks, and power influencing librarians' decisions to host drag queen storytime

Abstract

This paper reports preliminary qualitative findings from a survey of public library staff who work at libraries that have and have not hosted drag queen storytimes (DQS), a popular but contested children's program. Three constructs—values, risks, and power—are developed to describe how individual, library, and institutional forces combine to determine whether DQS occur. Findings contribute to limited scholarly work on DQS by including locations that have not hosted DQS and by engaging critically with how institutional forces shape library staffs' decision‐making around DQS. It is critical to understand factors contributing to this decision‐making to inform contextually appropriate strategies for encouraging dialogue about DQS as well as LGBTQ+ visibility and justice in children's programming. Moreover, DQS constitute a salient context through which to critically explore broader issues of power and inclusion in public libraries.

“What is a wave but 1000 drops working together?”: The role of public libraries in addressing LGBTQIA+ health information disparities

“…Public libraries serve as contested sites for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) [1] individuals due to larger sociopolitical forces that limit their ability to provide affirming resources and services. Examples include political figures attempting to ban and criminalize drag story times (Floegel et al , 2020; Rojas et al , 2023; Wexelbaum, 2016), backlash by conservative organizations against libraries engaging in explicitly pro-LGBTQIA+ events (Jaeger et al , 2022; Ellis, 2022) and book bans that pathologize LGBTQIA+-themed books and materials as obscene (Pavenick and Martinez, 2022). Unfortunately, these forces can lead to exclusionary practices that create barriers to community engagement within library walls.…”

Drag Queen Storytimes: Public Library Staff Perceptions and Experiences

“…7 Understanding library staff motivations for and perceptions of hosting DQS also provides insight into larger conversations about the field's values, power, and decision-making, such as whether libraries can or should be neutral. 8…”