Drag story time cancelled in Irricana after alleged threats

IRRICANA:  An alleged threat has led to the cancellation of a drag story time that was scheduled to take place at the Irricana and Rural Municipal Library on June 16. 

Staff from the library then issued a social media post on June 14 to state the library would remain closed on Friday. 

"With a heavy heart, we would like to inform you the library will be closed on Friday June 16, 2023, due to verbal threats and harassment towards our library staff," stated the Irricana and Rural Municipal Library on Facebook. "This is to ensure safety and this kind of behavior will not be tolerated.

"Please note that RCMP is aware of this. Library is always for the community, and we need to work as a team respecting each other’s values and beliefs."

The library did not immediately respond to calls and messages from the Rocky View Weekly. However, Airdrie RCMP confirmed on Thursday afternoon the detachment received a report about a threat regarding the drag story time in Irricana, and is now investigating. 

When reached, a co-organizer of the drag story time (who asked not to be identified in fear of retribution), said the event in question was going to be a reading by Drag Monarch Mattie Moonlight "about self identity and diverse family structures," as part of Pride Month. The reading was scheduled for this Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the local library.

But once it was advertised on an Irricana Facebook page, the event started to draw backlash from some commenters. 

"As LGBTQIA members of the Irricana community, both Mattie and I feel that there is often a misunderstanding and ignorance surrounding our lives," the co-organizer stated. "This leads to a lot of hatred including the kinds of threats we are seeing now. The event is important as normalizing gender non-conformity and reading about diverse experiences is the first step away from hate. We also wanted to make it clear to any member of the LGBTQIA community who feels alone here that they are not alone in this town/community.

"The anger and complaints were expected as there is a lot of people who misunderstand drag and assume that it is inherently inappropriate for children, but the threats cross a line. I hope people learn to understand that making people fear for their lives is not an appropriate or acceptable response to something that upsets them or that they don’t understand."

Irricana resident Marc Heethuis-Dubois, who is not involved with the drag story time event but is a member of the LGBTQ2IA community, said he was disappointed to see some of the the comments that emerged after the event was advertised. 

Having moved to Irricana two years ago with his husband, Heethuis-Dubois said he initially felt welcomed by residents of his new town, but said he feels Irricana may have since taken a step backward in terms of acceptance for non-heterosexual orientations. 

"Over time, we’ve gotten to know a few people and see some of the communications that have occurred – mostly on Facebook – [where] we’ve seen a lot of really hateful comments being made toward the community. Things these people definitely have a right to have an opinion on, but they’ve taken it to quite an extreme," he said.

"I don’t think things have gotten better, I think they’ve gotten worse. The climate in general, not even in Alberta, or Canada, but the entire world. Things have changed for the bad in so many ways in that regard.”