Denton transgender storytime received backlash. It wasn’t the first time in North Texas
A group of protesters stood outside a Denton bookstore on Saturday in opposition to a transgender storytime event held on the last day of Transgender Awareness Week.
The group consisted of right-wing media group BlazeTV who stood outside Patchouli Joe’s Books & Indulgences blocked by armed people holding LGBTQ Pride flags and wearing Pride badges.
The incident took place less than 24 hours before the Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub shooting at Club Q, which is being investigated to determine motive and whether the incident was a hate crime.
Not a lone incident
The Denton storytime incident is one of several LGBTQ-related events in North Texas that have been targets for backlash in the last year.
Exactly a year and a day from Saturday, the Denton Public Library announced that its Rainbow Storytime event was canceled because of “safety concerns for staff and patrons.” The storytime event was set to take place on the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
In September, a Pride Event held in Plano was met with protesters from right-wing group Protect Texas Kids who waved flags and wore Infowars shirts.
Free speech organization PEN America reports Texas has the most book bans in the country, with books consisting of LGBTQ themes or characters the most banned nationwide.
On Nov. 14, the Keller school board banned “gender fluidity” among topics that are off-limits in library books and instructional materials.
Cause for concern
Since January 2013, the Human Rights Campaign has recorded at least 302 transgender and gender non-conforming people who were shot or violently killed. According to the Human Rights Campaign, there may be more victims whose deaths were not reported.
There have been 32 deaths reported in 2022 across 17 states. Michigan and Florida have the most deaths, with 4 victims reported in each state. Pennsylvania and Texas follow closely behind with 3 deaths each, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
This year, seven in 10 recorded deaths involved a firearm.
A study by National Library of Medicine concluded that state policies on gay and lesbian rights have consequences for the well-being of LGBTQ people.
“These results build on existing arguments that anti-gay and lesbian violence is an extreme manifestation of social stigmatization and cultural norms that are fostered by social institutions,” the National Library of Medicine reported.
This story was originally published November 21, 2022 at 2:18 PM.
