Families can enjoy a special story time at the Newmarket Public Library this Saturday with drag queen E'Claire Devereaux.
Devereaux is the matriarch of the Haus of Devereaux, a drag family in the Newmarket area that was established nearly 10 years ago.
She has four full-time drag "daughters" and one apprentice daughter. The queens perform at events all around the area at bars, brunches, private events and many drag story time sessions at local libraries.
"When we started five years ago, we started with just the Bradford library and it's grown and grown ever since," Devereaux said.
This Saturday alone they will be at the Newmarket Public Library for two different sessions, one at 1:30 p.m. and another at 3 p.m. They will also be at the Georgina Public Library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at the Aurora Public Library from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Devereaux said they do these events for families to help children feel more comfortable and help parents approach questions they may not be sure how to answer.
"By using the drag queen story times and having the libraries provide us with 2SLGBTQ+ books, we're able to address questions that maybe parents of transgender children may have, or how do we approach someone, you know, my child is straight, but they have friends at school that may be trans or part of a gay household or have two dads, so it just makes it a little easier on the parents on how to talk to their children about it. And it gives the children a chance to ask questions in a safe environment," she said.
The events run like any other story time. The queens read stories, do crafts with the children, and make sure both the kids and the parents are having fun.
The queens typically dress as princesses or cartoon characters for these kinds of events. Devereaux's costume of choice is Mother Goose.
While some people may have misconceptions that they would dress inappropriately, she said, that's not the case. Each queen tailors her outfit and performance to the audience they are with.
"Even everybody in the real world, as we call it, you go to work in your suit and tie and you come home to relax in your jeans and t-shirt. People have this misunderstanding that we're doing the story times in clothing that we might wear to an evening show or performance at a bar. It just doesn't happen that way," she said.
While there have been protests at similar events throughout North America, the Haus of Devereaux has been able to avoid the worst of it, however, they have still encountered a small number of protests at three of their recent story times.
"The first one, I think 10 to 15 showed up and 30 counter protesters showed up with 'we love drag queens' (signs) and rainbow flag banners and such. So the counter protesters outweigh the protesters," Devereaux said.
At another event, Devereaux and one of her daughters actually had a conversation with one of the protesters.
"I went out and we spoke to them and said, 'Hi, we thought we'd introduce ourselves and this is what you're protesting.' And again, they didn't realize we would come out dressed up as a princess and Mother Goose, they were expecting something else," she said.
"I think a lot of the times the protest is just (people) not understanding. You don't know what's going on. It frightens you or scares you. You're going to protest," Devereaux said. "It just takes these people a few minutes to find out that really, all we're doing is reading storybooks and cutting papers with scissors and having crafts."
She added that she's not worried or scared going into events like this because the libraries and venues they work at have all been making sure they are safe. On top of that, she feels that society is more accepting than what we've seen in some areas of the U.S. lately.
"Canada is just not at the level of violence that the States seems to be having with their story times. I mean down there, some of them have even been banned now in some states. At least up here we still have the freedom to express ourselves in a family setting with other people with like minds," Devereaux said.
For families interested in attending the Newmarket Public Library event, you can register online, but it is not required. The story time starts at 1:30 p.m. in the library's multipurpose room and it is suggested you arrive early. There is no cost to attend.
