By AlaskaWatchman.com

Homer resident and aspiring author, Maddy Veldstra, is feeling the ire of cancel culture after she dared to object to the Homer Library’s practice of planting controversial books that promote drag queens and transgenderism in the children’s section of the community library.

Maddy Veldstra

A mother of three young children, Veldstra launched an online petition asking the library to either pull the objectionable books or moved them to a separate section of the library where children can’t inadvertently stumble across them without parental consent.

Earlier this month, Veldstra took her campaign to the next level and raised concerns during the Homer Library Advisory Board meeting. The event was widely covered by local media, and it spurred an LGBTQ activist to contact the company which has published Veldstra’s new children’s book, “A Christmas Parade.”

Published in 2021, the book is about a young Homer girl who was inspired to put on a Christmas parade for her hometown. The illustrated story shows images of Homer residents gathered along the roadside as the main character puts on a one-girl parade dressed in various Christmas costumes – snowman, reindeer, Mrs. Clause, and finally Mary holding Baby Jesus.

Veldstra said she wrote the book after hearing a true story from a co-worker at a local bakery. As a child, the co-worker asked her mom if she could put on a parade for the town. Her mom agreed and they did a one-girl parade for St. Patrick’s Day. Veldstra adapted aspects of the story for her Christmas book.

“The Left thinks they can just bully us into submission, and I want to send a message that you can’t. Even though I’m a very small fish, you can’t just silence me because you don’t like my opinions.

After Veldstra spoke out against the controversial library books, however, an LGBTQ activist emailed Veldstra’s publishing company, urging them to “reconsider” their relationship with Veldstra, whom they claimed had “extremist homophobic and transphobic views.”

“I thought you might be interested to know the type of person you are working with and ask that you seriously reconsider your relationship with this author,” the email to the publishers stated.

While Veldstra was informed by her publisher of the objection, she has no intention of withdrawing her request that the library move its LGBTQ children’s books to another section.

“Obviously, I’m not going to do that,” she told the Watchman. “The Left thinks they can just bully us into submission, and I want to send a message that you can’t. Even though I’m a very small fish, you can’t just silence me because you don’t like my opinions. This is a common tactic for bullying parents into silence.”

So far, Veldstra’s Christmas book has sold less than 100 copies, but it is available for purchase through Amazon or via Olympia Publishers. For those who choose to buy the book, Veldstra requests that they contact her publisher to let them know that they actually support her efforts to change the Homer Library’s policy regarding LGBTQ children’s books.

The library advisory board is expected to make a final decision on its policy in January.

Veldstra said she’d be satisfied with a compromise which would inform parents about which books promote LGBTQ themes.

“At least parents would know that this is an LGBTQ book,” she said. “Some of them are obvious, but not all of them. I’ve been to plenty of libraries that have cross stickers on books. I don’t see why we can’t have rainbow stickers.”

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Homer author won’t be bullied by LGBTQ activist who wants her Christmas book cancelled

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


41 Comments

  • Neil DeWitt says:

    You go lady. I support your way of thinking. This whole woke thing has gotten out of hand. I have nothing against the LGBTQ+ people but QUIT JAMMING IT DOWN MY THROAT. I’m a normal man that likes real women and think you can be whatever you want to be. Just don’t be pushing your agenda on me.

  • Arctic Blast says:

    I am totally with you Neil DeWitt. I am not a homophobe, but I am sick of the promotion of their lifestyle and agenda. Just leave me alone and I will in turn respect your position and leave you alone. The books and material that are being pushed on children are just disgusting. Let them be curious as young adults, none of this kindergarten grooming that the woke left want to promote.

  • Clark says:

    A homophobe tries to get lgbt books cancelled….then tries to play a victim of ‘cancelling’ when the consequences of her publicly hateful views start happening.

    What her book is about has 0 relevance to the story. Nobody cares that its a Christmas story or about a sweet kid. Shes getting targeted because she is spreading homophobia and transphobia. And it looks REALLY bad because we just had a conservative mass shooter at a Drag show kill a bunch of people. That is the consequence of woman’s beliefs.

    • Ron says:

      Books depicting sexual fetishes do not belong in the hands of children. Calling that point of view homophobic is not only nonsensical, but it distracts from the problem, the problem where adults are forcing sexually explicit material in front of our children, and attacking anyone who opposes their perverse desire. You linking that to a completely unrelated shooting is another, more disgusting way to avoid addressing the actual issue.

      Stop forcing displays of sexual fetishes in front of children. It’s not complicated, and it’s obviously evil.

      • Clark says:

        Except none of these books depict sexual activity. If you are going to seriously suggest that clothing is considered sexual, then are you going to demand women in bikinis at the pool stop flaunting their sexual fetishes in front of your kids? YOU are the one thinking about gay sexual fetishes when you see a guy in leather. Not the guys in the picture, and not your children. The guys in that picture are not having sex. They arent doing anything sexual at all. They are holding hands at a parade!

        Wearing leather -can- be a sexual fetish. But so can literally anything else. Everything can be a fetish for somebody. Wearing leather is something a lot of people just enjoy doing because it makes them feel good, or they like the texture, or they ride motorcycles and its a good layer of protection. I dare you to walk up to a big biker in leather chaps and a vest and tell him to stop grooming your child for sex. Guess what. That biker could be gay or straight or bi or trans. The reason its homophobic is because you don’t appear to care about all the sexualization that straight people actually are doing all the time. but you are gung ho about non-sexual things gay people do that REMIND you of gay sex. gay sex disgusts you even though it’s no different than straight sex.

    • ceak says:

      How do you know the shooter was conservative? I haven’t seen anything about his political affiliation. It was an absolute tragedy for sure. Pure evil. But that has nothing to do with this story.

      The woman in the article isn’t trying to get the books cancelled, she just wants them in a separate section from the kids or clearly marked so parents know what content it contains. It’s not homophobic to want a warning that a book contains LGBTQ topics in the children’s section.

    • Ron says:

      In reply to your comment below:
      You are trying to make an argument that bondage gear (which is what the book shows) is not sexual to defend men who demand to involve children in their sex fetish. This isn’t a matter of differing political opinions on a complicated issue. What you are advocating for is pure evil.

    • Larry Wood says:

      What is being advocated by the transgender insanity and the homosexual activists with the ‘reading’ and sexually explicit books about perversion is the sexual grooming of children. Stay out of the schools and stay away from the kids. Good on Maddy Veldstra. There should be a lot more parents and concerned citizens running this kind of garbage out of our libraries and schools.

    • Colorado Conservative says:

      Conservative mass shooter? How so? The Colorado Springs mentally ill person who killed people in the homosexual night club uses “they,them” pronouns and is non-binary. (see: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/colorado-springs-suspect-identifies-nonbinary-uses-pronounces-defense-rcna58499).

  • Terry Stires says:

    “Maddy Veldstra, is feeling the ire of cancel culture ” yet she is the one who wants EXACTLY THAT cuz of some books at the library.

    “The Left thinks they can just bully us into submission”, yet SHE is the one to bully other authors.

    Hypocrisy, dishonesty and hypocrisy.

    • Suzyanna Mapachi says:

      Exactly..she’s bullying other parents who also homeschool at the library like myself and my child, who WANT a diversity of families and experiences represented. Bigots never win so at least most of us are on the right side of history considering the showing of who was present at the library council.

      • Larry Wood says:

        I do believe the article stated that she asked the books be placed in a separate area. That is hardly bigotry. What you stated is. Right side of history? Only if you all write it. The Soviet Union is dead for a reason. Think about it. Putin gave an interesting speech in June at Helsinki. He rejected the West’s attempt to globalize gov’t and perversion. He stated one of the reasons the USSR fell was the infestation of perversion within the gov’t. As to your assertion that ‘diversity’ is somehow a good thing, well, read what you wrote. You are advocating the sexualization of children and the indoctrination of children to normalize pedophilia and perverse lifestyles that promote promiscuity, sexual abuse that have as a goal the destruction of the traditional family. BLM made it very clear before they changed their website, they openly advocated destroying the ‘nuclear’ family. Same with ANTIFA.

  • Elizabeth Henry says:

    All she is asking for is to put books of controversial topic into a separate area. She is not asking the books to be banned. So classic how the left twists truth. I am ordering a couple Christmas Parade books.

    • V says:

      We will be ordering one for every child in our extended family.

    • Clark says:

      Drag performers and LGBT people, or the fact that lgbt people exist AREN’T controversial topics. Thats the point. A kid doesn’t care about gay people existing or what gay even means. You shouldn’t either. Its parents that want to indoctrinate their children to hate lgbt people like they do that are the problem. The fact is if you have children they might be lgbt, and nothing you do or teach then will change that. You probably won’t even know because they will see the hate and they will hide their true self from you. The same might be true about your brothers and sisters, or one of your own parents could be lgbt! You can’t change that.

      • Ron says:

        Adults engaging children in their sexual fetishes is unrelated to sexual orientation, and you know that. You’re just hiding behind the LGBT victim shield because you know there is no defense for what these perverse groomers are doing. The children’s section is not a place for sexual material of any orientation. Children should not be reading about sex, because they are children. Do whatever you want in your bedroom and keep it there, nobody cares about your sex life, just stop forcing sexually explicit material in front of children.

  • Elizabeth Henry says:

    I also emailed her publisher ☺️.
    A copy of my email in case anyone wants an example. See below —-
    Hello –
    I recently learned of efforts by author Maddy Veldstra, the author of A Christmas Parade, a children’s book you have published. Ms. Veldstra is a mother of three young children and wants parents to determine the boundaries of what their young children read. She is asking her local library to move controversial books that touch on sexual identity issues to be moved to a separate area so that children do not inadvertently stumble upon them, allowing parents to chose whether to allow their child to read the books. I am supportive of Ms Veldstra’s efforts and by no means do they have anything to do with any ‘phobia’. Parents should be the ones determining what their young children read.

    Sent from my iPhone

  • Elizabeth Henry says:

    The book is authored get Madeline Hawthorne – is this Veldstra’s pen name? Need to clarify as I just emailed the author using her legal name.

  • Steve P Peterson says:

    I bought the book just to help her out, and I suggest you do as well. I noticed that the rainbow police have already posted a negative review on Amazon.

  • Jennifer says:

    Bought the kindle edition (it was on sale!), read it, and posted a review.
    A very nice story, and one I can see my own daughter seizing on to make her own Christmas parade.

  • Barb Melland says:

    I just ordered the book fm Amazon.
    Thank you Joel Davidson for informing us of this issue. I fully support Maddy Veldstra.

  • Jill says:

    I just ordered a copy of A Christmas Parade from her publisher. Standing with Mandy on this issue. Parents rights to direct the health and education of their children should have a dominant voice in the Public Square.

  • Steve says:

    I just hit the “Buy Now” button on Amazon. It stated that there is “one left”. Love it!
    This will be a special gift to the little kids in our gang.
    Good job Joel!
    How do you contact the publisher?

  • Steve says:

    I found the publisher’s contact info provided in your excellent article.
    info@olympiapublishersusa.com
    Thanks again Joel!

  • Akdale says:

    Homer has quite an active gay community. the fact that anyone, gay or straight approves of fostering gender dysphoria in children is troubling. To take a stance that people can not be critical is just ridiculous and frankly indicates to me, there’s more behind the curtain. you want to play dress up as an adult go for it. You want to play with my kids, your going to have to go through me, and that’s going to be more than a difficult task.

  • Terry Stires says:

    Homophobic parents should employ the parenting technique of discretion and avoidance. Christian-based cancel culture has no place in a public space.

    • Colorado Conservative says:

      Actually Terry, homosexual grooming and the sexualization of children has no place in a public space.

  • A Parent who Parents says:

    Terry Stires, do you think that calling concerned citizens names such as “homophobic” will scare them into submission? Well, it won’t. It’s a classic Marxist tactic, and we’re not having it. Christians have just as much right to engage in all public spaces as the LGBTQxyz crowd that demands our adoration for the entire month of June and beyond. These grooming books should not be in the children’s section, because we practice discretion and avoidance.

  • Uponthehorizon says:

    in Dearborn Michigan Muslim Americans stood up to the school board for having graphic and explicit homoerotic pornography in the school kids library.
    on Rumble
    see: Megan fox investigates
    title: Muslims V Groomers Dearborn Michigan
    people of all faiths need to unite to protect young children these pedophile groomers in public schools.

  • Sherman A Stebbins says:

    This story sounds legit. After all the bashing from the left and shoving their agenda down our throats I am pretty tired. Tired of the force…Tired of watching babies at grotesque strip shows. Just tired of it all….I bought 6 of her books by the way. Wonderful and CLEAN book for children that I know for Christmas. Keep up the good work Maddy !

    • Terry Stires says:

      Stebbins. If you are “Tired of watching babies at grotesque strip shows”, maybe you should quit attending them.

  • George says:

    In case nobody ever told you, homosexuality is a sin, and immoral. It always was and always will be.

    • Terry Stires says:

      Ack. Really? A sin? Is there any evidence that homosexuality is a sin? I’d like to know. And also, if you chose to answer my request, would you mind helping me understand what sin is? I’m an atheist and its never been clear to me.

      • Larry Wood says:

        Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Mark 10: 6-9; Romans 1:26-27; 1st Corinthians 6: 9-11, 13, 18 to name a few. Of course you are an atheist.

  • Shelley Hughes says:

    Thank you, Maddy, for not backing down. We cannot be intimidated when it comes to protecting our children. The extreme left is trying to gaslight us – that we’re the crazy ones. Don’t fall for it. Stand strong. Be bold. I just purchased the book for my granddaughter and hope this article spurs people to support your literary efforts.

  • Colorado Conservative says:

    Thank you Joel for this report. I was happy to contact the publisher by email to let them know we support this author 100%, both in her published book and in her private activities in her hometown. We despise the Alphabet Mafia’s grooming, sexualization, and promotion of pedophilia as normal when it comes to children. We are grateful to ALL people willing to speak stand up and speak the TRUTH.

  • Colorado Conservative says:

    Just went to the Amazon link to order the Christmas Parade by this author. Amazon has it offered as buy 2 get one free!

  • Bob says:

    book purchased.