As the mother of three young children, Maddy Veldstra is a regular patron of the Homer Public Library. Lately, however, she’s been concerned about controversial LGBTQ titles that library staff have deliberately planted in the traditional children’s section.
This summer, Veldstra launched an online petition urging the library to remove the books. So far, the petition has garnered 217 signatures.
“We, the undersigned residents and parents of Homer and surrounding areas, do hereby petition that the Homer Public Library remove all books promoting transgender ideology, drag queens, homosexuality, and all other books which are intended to indoctrinate children in LGBTQ+ ideologies from the children’s and juvenile sections of the library,” the petition states. “If the library must have them, we petition that a section outside of the children’s area be designated for such books so that parents who do not wish for their children to stumble across these confusing ideas may allow their children to browse freely.”
Veldstra has compiled a list of books that promote LGBTQ ideology to children. These include “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish,” a knock off of the “Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round.” The book is commonly used for drag queen story hour events at libraries across the nation.
A separate book, “This Day in June,” promotes LGBTQ Pride Month, and depicts a pride parade with men in bondage gear.
Another title Veldstra discovered in the children’s section is “Julian is a Mermaid,” which encourages a little boy to cross-dress in a mermaid costume.
“But the mermaids he’s emulating are obviously made to look like drag queens and then they go to this parade – basically a pride parade,” Velstra said.
Late last month she met with the library director to request that the books be removed.
“I was showing him the books, and told him that one in four pedophiles chooses their victims based on dress, so why do we have books that are exposing kids to sexual performers and bondage gear?” she recalled. “He didn’t really answer my question.”
“The really frustrating thing is that they are mixed in,” Veldstra added. “It’s not like we have an organized section in our library for these books. If you’re looking for a book in the rhyming section and all of the sudden you see ‘The Hips on the ‘Drag Queen,’ and it’s not even a very good book. It doesn’t have original writing. It’s clearly only there because it’s about drag queens.”
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
While the library director has thus far declined to remove the objectionable books, he did suggest that Velstra address the issue at the next Homer Library Advisory Board meeting, which is on Nov. 15, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall chamber room.
The Advisory Board consists of seven members who work closely with library staff and the City of Homer to establish policies and programs to best serve the community.
Veldstra said she hopes there is a good turnout at the meeting and that her efforts will at least shed some light on what’s happening at the library.
“I’m hoping that it will make people talk about it and have the conversation,” she said. “Just expose what’s going on. I thought maybe I’d be able to make some sort of headway because our town is small enough that you’d think maybe you could have some sort of impact.”
During the meeting, attendees can testify for up to three minutes on any agenda item.
TAKING ACTION
— Click here to read the agenda for the Nov. 15 Homer Library Advisory Board meeting.
— Click here for options to testify by phone or to watch the meeting online.
— Click here to submit written testimony to the Homer Library Advisory Board.
— Click here to contact the members of the Homer Library Advisory Board.
— Click here to sign the petition.
20 Comments
Good on you Maddy Velstra. This part of the leftist agenda will continue to poison our communities until good people, such as yourself stand up to it.
Our family attempted to do this same thing at the Eagle River library and the response received was lackluster at best. We Wish her the best of luck- though Homer is filled with more maskers and liberals than anything else. Her fight was over before it even began.
I recommend hou check these books out to keep them off the shelves for Nyone to wncounter. Coordinate with other parents to remove them from the shelves yourselves. When returning, coordinate a handoff to another of your crew.
Best of luck, our children need it and YOU.
I had to look the book up since I hadnt heard of it. The pic at the top of the article appears to be a doctored photo of two separate books. I just watched a video of a flip through of the book and didnt see any pride parades or ‘bondage’.
Also fyi…the guys in that illustration aren’t in bondage gear. They are in LEATHER gear. People can be into both, but they are different things. Also leather gear isnt expressly sexual…its an somewhat exaggerated expression of masculinity, which some gay men find attractive or feel attractive when they emulate. Bondage gear is typically seen in more of a sexual connotation, but actual bdsm scenes often aren’t sexual encounters at all. Also, most kink happens between straight people. Kinky stuff is common across all sexualities and races and professions. BDSM specifically is often about the exchange of power, Letting go of rigid expectations, and people finding balance with themselves.
Ew! Ew! Listen to yourself! It obvious you don’t know how to communicate with normal people. No one cares if it’s leather or bondage or what gay dudes do to each other. Nasty!!
Thats why you need to be educated. Your reply is basically just naked homophobia. My entire post was about how its NOT sexual just because it involves gay people. This article characterized a couple of guys wearing leather gear as ‘sexual performers’ AND in the context that she was insinuating kids books are somehow connected with pedophiles. A common fear-mongering stereotype with no basis in fact.
I watched the flip-through of the book. There is NOTHING sexual about it. Its about a community of different types of people enjoying a pride parade together. Thats not an ‘ideology. Its not ‘indoctrination’. It’s people being kind to each other, and accepting of other people’s differences. If that scares or offends you, then you are the one that is nasty. You’re basically just highlighting the fact that when you see gay people, all you can do is think about gay sex.
None of this is appropriate for children. Children ought not be subjected to sexualized trauma. If your lifestyle involved the procreation and raising of children you would naturally understand this. But as this is inherently never the outcome you do not.
I don’t care what the meaning of the picture is. It is not a subject matter that should be addressed in children’s section. That is the point. No parent ordered or requested this book. It is trying to push an agenda on our children. It needs to stop.
The library directors aren’t going to listen to you. We need to organize as parents and start suing the library for sexual harassment. I won’t take my family to the library in my town because of the smut they put in the children’s and young adults section. I’m uncomfortable as a woman and as a parent. Fine if they want to carry that but it should be behind the counter or in a special section. So effectively they’ve made libraries a hostile uncomfortable environment for women and children. But we have to go plead with these insane leftist library directors for basic decency.
You wanna sue for a Hostile Book Environment?! Lmao. Thats the best laugh I’ve had all week . You may be confused about how our laws work?
A book can’t harass you. What, is Lady Chatterly’s Lover holding you down and forcing you to read the steamy bits over and over?!
Are you gonna stop going to the grocery store because the romance novel shelf is harassing you? or maybe the shelf with all the straight mens magazines that all have big breasted, scantily clad women on the covers? Books have always scared conservatives because books make people think. they are threatened by critical thinking. They can’t justify their positions in the face of facts, so the only option is to obscure the truth from others so that they won’t know what questions to ask.
“For Whom the Bell Tolls; It Tolls for Thee”
Really, people claim harassment every day on much less.
“ they’ve made libraries a hostile uncomfortable environment for women and children”. Just uncomfortable for you dear.
No, it is not something that should be in the children’s section of the library. Don’t care what you do as an adult but we will protect our children.
Thank-you Maddy Velstra! May your courage light a fire here in Alaska.
Our favorite thing to do is to find a new place for these terrible books. Sometimes the bathroom has the perfect sized trashcan. Just saying.
Let us all protect the children from these type of books. Keep the books out of the children’s section.
Back in 1993 or so, we, my husband and I saw it as an oozing, slow (*progressive) slug to all of Homer. It was deemed ” Calif- shun of Homer. I dubbed it the Birkenstock and Volvo, Berkeley ‘educated fools’. It is the drip, drip, of evil. Folks do not now, or then want to face “Him”. They do not want to face that NAMBLA is 100% real and has been for decades! Best suggestions: 1) Get the ACLJ (* American Center for Law & Justice) *never to be confused with the dissipated ACLU!) for sage legal advice. 2) let every member of all levels of government know who pays their wages. Listen, neighbors: YOU pay for every brick, book, workers salaries, medical, retirement, roof tile, watt of electricity and drop of water they use. Get to know your power and wield it powerfully, wisely, legally. Your souls and sanity depend on it as do your kids, grand and great grandkids. Grandma
Man, for a bunch of old people with one foot out of the door and the other in everyone else’s business, the comments on this article seem real spirited. I can tell you, as someone who is part of the LGTBQ+, that nothing on this planet could ever indoctrinate a child into being anything but the way they already are in terms of their sexuality and gender. And beyond that, if you’re afraid that children are going to suddenly turn gay (or evil, as some of you weirdos put), I think that’s more a sign that you’re afraid you’re not a good enough parent or grandparent to keep the children in your life from being taught how to live by books instead of you. I don’t know how many times this one single point is going to be made, but people were gay before we put queer books on the shelves of libraries, they’re going to be gay even if they get taken down, and the only thing you’re doing by getting in the way of that is being bigoted, homophobic, and hurting the lives of people who honestly probably want nothing to do with you.
Grow up, mind your business, and let kids read whatever they want.
Well said Gwyn.