Posted on 03/23/2024 11:15:47 AM PDT by lightman
A Drag Queen Story Hour event at Lancaster Public Library that sparked both protests and an outpouring of support has been canceled after a suspicious package was discovered nearby.
"We regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances, the Lancaster Pride event: Drag Story Hour with Miss Amie in collaboration with the Lancaster Public Library has been canceled," the LGBTQ+ group stated on social media. "The safety and well-being of our community are of utmost importance to us. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding."
Lancaster Pride Director Tiffany Shirley said around 9 a.m. Lancaster City Police conducted a security check of Lancaster Public Library. Around 9:45, police found “a suspicious package and evacuated everybody immediately.”
Lissa Holland, the library's executive director, said the package was delivered to the building on Friday. This morning, around 9 a.m., a Lancaster city police K-9 dog alerted to the package during a security sweep. Police then evacuated the building.
Shirley and about 11 public library staff evacuated to Binns Park across the street, she said. They eventually found shelter at a nearby place of business.
“We just gathered everybody together. Made sure everybody was safe. Made sure Miss Amie was safe.”
Miss Amie is the performance name for Christopher Paolini, the drag artist scheduled to perform Saturday.
Shirley said the library made the decision to cancel the event to make sure nobody was at risk.
“It just breaks my heart that we were trying to make a safe, fun event for our children, and because people disagree and don’t think we should exist, had to ruin it for everybody,” Shirley said. Live updates: Police evacuating areas of Lancaster city following bomb threats Local News Live updates: Police evacuating areas of Lancaster city following bomb threats
Holland said she felt “really sad, very disappointed and angry, that leaders of this county turned this into saving the children from the library and we are having to cancel this event because of safety threats.”
Though the library did not make the decision to cancel Saturday's event, Holland said it was the right call during a brief interview under the overhang outside the Starbucks at 101 N. Queen St. to escape the rain.
“Absolutely. It's safety first, for everybody involved, For our storyteller, for the staff — and most important for the children that were going to be here and the families. I am saddened to the core” that the event had to be canceled, Holland said.
Joshua Schwartz, president of Lancaster Public Library’s board of trustees, standing at Holland's side, said he had mixed emotions.
“I'm proud to be part of an organization that strives to be open to all parts of the community and especially marginalized parts of the community, and serve everyone in Lancaster,” Schwartz said. “I'm incredibly sad that we're unable to fulfill our mission today because of people who decided to politicize this storytime event, and obviously some people got into such an emotional frenzy that we can no longer hold something that is safe and welcoming and inclusive.”
Written by Mark James, who along with Wayne Carson, Mac Davis and a few others, were the fathers of the musical genre now known as Hot Country.
Lancaster City is on the old PRR Main Line aka Amtrak...bedroom community for Philly and NYC.
“...Lancaster Public Library...”
Time to get some real Americans on the Board of Directors, and get rid of the leftist faggot sympathizer(s) who allow this filth to go on.
I hope it’s not just confirmation bias, but I really do think the tide is going out on the whole trans nonsense. First a recognition of the atrocity of transing the kids, then these pervert goofballs re-marginalized. Lord let it be so
>> suspicious package
lol
Yeah. Sometimes they go into ladies room sporting “suspicious packages”
If they were really concerned about the safety of the community, they wouldn’t be promoting drag queen pervert shows for children.
Great song. Now it’s in my head today.
“It just breaks my heart that we were trying to make a safe, fun event for our children...,” Shirley said.
^^^^
Should say
“It just breaks my heart that we were trying to make an easy way to groom more innocent children...”
No kidding. What adult would want to see those freaks? And what insane parent would take their kids to that freak show?
There used to be a club in San Francisco called "Finochio's" that started off as a speakeasy but turned into a "female impersonator" club. It was often on the list of things out of town businessmen wanted to do when they were in town. It was a place where people could go to get their tranny freak show fix. It went out of business in 1999 when you could see the freaks on the streets. As drag became more commonplace it no longer had shock value that drew some of the patrons.
Now you can see them vamping for your two year old at the local library. WHY? Put the freaks back into clubs like Finochio's.
Seriously, why the hell would anyone support a drag queen story hour.
~~~~~
Predators gather where the prey is.....
The library staff and everyone associated with these atrocities should be sent to a reeducation camp.
~~~~~~~
I vote for charging each one with sexual abuse of a child. That would include their perverted parents.
So true.
“Lancaster, Pennsylvania...deep red Trump country.”
I live in the next county over (Lebanon). The city of Lancaster (pop approx 60,000) is blue, Lancaster county is red. This story has been in the local Lancaster newspaper all week. Is there any difference in black face comedy and dudes dressing up as women? The dragsters bring out the worst sterotypes in women.
I suspect that there were a lot of suspicious packages in the room.
That’s right.
And the parents involved in this madness should lose custody of their children and all visitation rights.
Update at 3:37:
Parts of downtown Lancaster were evacuated Saturday afternoon amid bomb threats referencing a canceled Drag Queen Story Hour event at Lancaster Public Library.
The threats also specifically mentioned the home addresses of the library’s executive director, the president of Lancaster Pride, which was supposed to host the event, and an LNP | LancasterOnline reporter.
The email was sent at 12:07 p.m. and said the bombs were to go off at 1:30 p.m. As of 3 p.m., no explosives had gone off.
The email read, in part: “Bring the fire department, we placed pipe bombs as well as fuel bombs will likely cause a fire spreading to other buildings. evacuate so no innocents die. You are (expletive) degenerates, pedophiles, child abusers or (expletive) cowards who rather let our children get preyed upon than be called a bigot. (expletive)you degenerates, we will kill you all and purify our land.”
Earlier Saturday, Lancaster Pride canceled the reading hour after a suspicious package was found inside the library.
Amber Strazzo, a city spokeswoman, said a dog “alerted” on the package, meaning that something raised its suspicion.
“There are a number of reasons why the dogs could have alerted on it, but we cannot speculate as we do not have confirmation,” Strazzo said. “We can however confirm that the contents of the package were benign. Subsequently, we received additional written threats via email.”
The event cancellation, bomb threats and evacuations caused havoc downtown and at the pop-culture convention Zenkaikon, which had drawn thousands of people downtown to the Lancaster County Convention Center.
Official reaction
The threats came two weeks after Lancaster County’s two Republican commissioners, Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino, first made critical remarks on social media about Drag Queen Story Hour. Their criticism touched off a cultural firestorm, with people across the county and beyond weighing in for and against the event.
D’Agostino and Parsons posted their reactions to the threats on Facebook.
“The threats that led to the cancellation of the event at the Lancaster Public Library this afternoon are deeply distressing and have no place in our community. Whoever is responsible and regardless of their motive for the terroristic threats, must be identified, apprehended, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” D’Agostino wrote.
In his post, Parsons wrote: “It is my hope and expectation that the perpetrators will be quickly caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This is true regardless of whether they actually oppose the Drag Queen Story Hour or they support it and are seeking to create outrage against those who oppose it. The consequences should be the same and extremely serious. Threats of violence have no place in our debates.”
Alice Yoder, the minority Democrat commissioner, said in a text Saturday that while she was disappointed the event was canceled, “I am even more disappointed in the threat of violence that caused the cancellation and the rhetoric that fed those threats. The words feeding the flame of that violence are just as dangerous as the threats themselves. We are talking about our neighbors here.”
She continued, “Lancaster is home to a lot of love and support for our LGBTQ+ community and I know that will always win. I look forward to continuing to support the library, the community, and to many future events to come.”
Lancaster police lift evacuation orders following bomb threats [update]
Bomb threats
Tiffany Shirley, president of Lancaster Pride, was downtown when she learned that her home had been mentioned by its address. Police were searching it in the early afternoon, but she was not home, but instead was somewhere safe.
“I’m disheartened that someone truly wanted to cause harm. It’s disgusting. It’s disgusting,” Shirley said.
Lissa Holland, the library’s executive director, did not immediately provide a comment.
I suspect a false flag (false fag?) until proven otherwise.
When I first read the headline I thought, “Great. They are cancelling drag queen with kids day because they finally figured out it was a horrible, perverted idea.” But no. They cancelled because of possible terrorism.
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