Faulkner County Library’s morning lineup included two children’s story times Jan. 15, both conflicting in nature, yet only a few feet from each other.
In one room was Angila Dubois, an Arkansas drag queen and performer. Opposite them was “Pastor Story Hour” with Owen Strachan, a member of Conway’s Grace Bible Theological Seminary.
Dubois shared books that touched on gender identity and sexuality, namely the book “If You’re a Drag Queen and You Know It,” which encouraged playfulness in relation to the world of drag.
Strachan opted for books like “God’s Design,” which told children that God made only two genders and that women were created to serve men.
Strachan said, “We love that design that we were just talking about, kids. You are not evolved animals. You are not like a monkey that grew up. God made you a boy or a girl for his glory.”
At the end of story time, Strachan encouraged the room to stop by the inclusive story hour if they wished and reminded them to “engage them kindly and warmly.”
While his church didn’t sponsor the event, Strachan said the story hour was meant to bring biblical lessons to children outside of church walls.
“It’s no secret that drag queen story hour was a big thing, and it still is,” Strachan said. “We wanted to, not try and compete, but just have our own event where we would say God made boys and girls.”
For Strachan, any gender outside male or female is a worldview he doesn’t believe in and wouldn’t want to introduce children to.
“There’s no alternate sex. There’s no such thing as transgender. There’s chromosomally boys and girls,” Strachan said.
Across the hall, Hypatia Meraviglia was assisting the inclusive story time and said overall, the attendance and support for the event was something to be proud of with roughly 12 children attending.
Meraviglia is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. They are a member of the Faulkner County Coalition for Social Justice and a UCA senior.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to hold more of these in the future. We’re still working on the plans for that,” Meraviglia said. “The goal was to provide another option for families in the area.”
Though they weren’t present for the Christian story hour, Meraviglia said that the impression they got from others was that it was a rather exclusive space.
“The sense that I got was there was a certain message that was being communicated and not everyone is safe in that space,” Meraviglia said. “We wanted to provide a space where people are respected and everybody’s welcome. I think we succeeded.”
Growing up in southwestern Arkansas and identifying as transgender was difficult for Meraviglia, namely because they didn’t have a word for their gender identity until high school.
“It wasn’t even communicated as an option. So I always had the sense that there was something wrong with me, that I wasn’t able to fit the expectations of the adults in my life,” Meraviglia said. “That really wears on a kid. That’ll really mess you up. So I think that it’s so important to have these spaces where kids are able to see this is normal. This is beautiful; this is delightful.”
Meraviglia said that many people think of queer people and Christians as being mutually exclusive, but that’s not always the case.
“We have a lot of Christian queer people who are in [FCCSJ] and Christian trans people too,” they said. “The problem comes in when those religious ideas are put into policies or written into laws.”
Senate Bill 43, filed Jan. 9 and sponsored by Arkansas Sen. Gary Stubblefield and Rep. Mary Bentley, is a bill that targets drag performers and would qualify drag performance as an adult-oriented business, in line with strip clubs and adult stores.
The bill would also add additional restrictions, calling for drag performances to be kept off of public property and out of the eyes of minors.
Jason Bailey, a supporter and participant of inclusive story hour, said he feels this bill may negatively affect transgender individuals and not just the drag community.
“These are locations, these are places, these are events. These are actions that you don’t have to participate in,” Bailey said. “They use [drag queen story hour] as a reason for why kids shouldn’t be sexually indoctrinated. But with the example that they’re using, you shouldn’t be taking boys as young as five, six, seven, eight to places like Hooters.”
Bailey said that restrictions are placed on things like drag, yet not placed on things like wrestling, which often hypersexualizes women.
“It’s absurd,” Bailey said. “It’s ‘rules for thee, but not for me.’”
Arkansas has already faced nationwide backlash, including a federal lawsuit, for its ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth in 2021.
On Jan. 17, 2023, Rep. Mary Bentley filed House Bill 1156 which would limit students’ access to multiple occupancy bathrooms and changing rooms based on their birth-assigned sex.
On a local level, Conway Public High School and its officials made headlines in late 2022 after policies regarding transgender students, classroom curriculum and a ban on two LGBTQ books were passed.
The books were “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out” and “Felix Ever After” — both of which had transgender themes.
Meraviglia said, “We’ve seen a rise in Christian nationalism in Conway and in a lot of places. That’s what it is, right?”
“What the school board is doing is making the school not a safe place for trans students. Even trans students who are Christians,” Meraviglia said. “They’re shooting themselves in the foot and the more that we see the imposition of religious beliefs into public policy, the more it pushes out anyone who doesn’t subscribe to those beliefs — and even people who do.”
A child prays next to Strachan. While Strachan's church didn't sponsor "Pastor Story Hour," he said he designed the event to bring biblical lessons to children.