When a left-leaning Mat-Su bookstore hosts a June 10 “all ages” story hour featuring a cross-dressing drag queen, a new faith-based group will host a story hour on the same day, which looks to inspire children to seek truth, goodness, beauty and virtue.
When Chris Gonzales, founder of GoodTube Kids learned about the drag event on June 10 at Black Birch Books in Wasilla, he set out to offer a free alternative to Mat-Su families.
“While there are other events going on that that say they’re family friendly, this one truly is,” Gonzales said via a social media post about the event.
Earlier this year, Gonzales retired from a 20-year law enforcement career to launch GoodTube Kids, an Alaska-based company that provides parents with wholesome online and in-person resources and educational options for their children.
The GoodTube Kids website and social media channels include a wide range of shows, books, movies and other materials and presentations that are rooted in traditional family values and Judeo-Christian morality.
The upcoming virtue-based story hour marks the second such event Gonzales has offered this year. In March, his company held a “Brave Books Story Hour” at the Loussac Library in response to youth drag shows being hosted by an LGBTQ-agenda-driven café in Anchorage.
The GoodTube Kids event in Wasilla occurs June 10, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Wonderland Park (near the blue pavilion). It includes fitness, games, book readings, prizes, free food and other offerings.
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The drag event at Black Birch Books, however, is being advertised with promotionals that show a man in heavy makeup, wearing a hot-pink wig and silky dress.
Drag shows for children are hotly debated, with advocates asserting that they help young children explore gender identity options by being exposed to so-called “gender non-conforming” people. Opponents argue that encouraging young children and toddlers to question their sexuality only sows confusion among impressionable and formative youth.
