The year was 1964 when singer-composer Bob Dylan wrote his hit song “The Times They are A-Changin’ ” and now 59 years later those words have never been more true.

Although everything changes with time, not all change is for the betterment of society, especially when it brings hurt, confusion and disorder to innocent children still in their formative years of  life.

The new corrupt change now aimed at our little ones is Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH). This is a well organized group with explicit plans to destroy traditional male and female roles of sexuality. Founded in 2015 as a tax exempt global organization from San Francisco, DQSH has local chapters across the country, including the Tar Heel state.

These events have grown so swiftly that the N.C. Museum of Art scheduled a DQSH in October. Hailed as a family friendly event where “queer role models” were to read books to children as young as two, the event was canceled once the community got wind of it. Oh, by the way, we, the taxpayers of the good old North State were going to partially fund this degenerate event. Sorry, but “Stormie Daie “ didn’t get his reading opportunity that time.

Back in 2017 drag queen Brandon James, aka Princess Onya, was denied permission to hold his shows in Charlotte libraries. James said he wanted to teach children acceptance of grown men who choose to dress up as women. “He wants to reach them as early as possible. And what better way to do that than through a book?” A citizen group Keep NC Safe protested and were able to stop it.

But The Times They are A Changin’. What was once taboo to North Carolinians has now become socially acceptable. Even our community colleges are getting in on this new rage. Forsyth Technical College made national news this week when it hosted a show for kids as young as 14.  Video of a drag queen straddling a young girl as she gave the girl a lap dance should shame all of us.

Think I’m being too extreme. “What’s wrong with a little old fashioned fun? Isn’t helping kids learn to read and grow their imaginations a good thing? Besides, remember the laughs you had when your generation held women-less weddings in churches and fellowship halls?”

These programs however are not a joke where everyone chuckles at the absurdity of seeing grown men prancing around pretending to be females, wearing outlandish wigs, sparkling jewelry, gaudy costumes complete with high heels and way too much makeup. Although presented under the guise of helping children increase their love of literature, the end result they hope to achieve is much more sinister.

A quick look at their own website, dragstoryhour.org, states their intentions. They believe “Drag is an artistic way of art rooted in the LGBTQ community.” They desire people of all ages to freely express themselves however they want, without constraints of prescribed gender roles. There is no such thing as “girl clothes” and “boy clothes,” or “girl toys” and “boy toys.”

Diving deeper, we learn that acceptance, tolerance and approval are merely surface goals.  Journalist Christopher F. Rufo reveals the real vision is an article for City Magazine, Autumn, 2022. Found in the manifesto of this movement, “Drag Pedagogy: The Playful Practice of Queer Imagination in Early Childhood,” authors Harris Kornstein and Harper Keenan state that DQSH is actually “an intellectual and political project that requires drag queens and activists to work toward undermining traditional notions of sexuality, replacing the biological family with the ideological family, and arousing transgressive sexual desires in young children.” Drag pedagogy is “a way of stimulating the ‘queer imagination,’ teaching kids ‘how to live queerly’ and ‘bringing queer ways of knowing and being into the education of young children.’ ”

Interestingly enough Kornstein, is a professor by day at the University of Arizona and drag queen “Lil Miss Hot Mess” at night. His coauthor, Keenan, is a female-to-male transgender queer theorist at the University of British Columbia.

Need I say more?  Read the dirty details  for yourself. I hope it so outrages you that it compels you to act. Call the governor’s office and ask who approved DQSH at the state Museum of Art. Call our Legislators and tell them to take action against this vile practice. It’s past time for the adults among us to say, “No. This is not healthy, or helpful. It’s not going to happen on our watch.” The times of protecting children should never change.

Renee Scheidt lives in Salisbury.